Lens steadiness question!

SkipD wrote in post #2379671
Andrew, the statement that I highlighted in the quote above is actually quite untrue. A 300mm lens is always a 300mm lens regardless of what camera body it is connected to.

Nothing about the actual charactistics of any particular lens changes when you use on cameras with different formats (film/sensor size). The different film/sensor sizes only change the amount of the image projected by the lens that will be captured.

What you could have said is something like this: A 300mm lens on the XT has the same field of view as a 480mm lens on a 35mm film camera. This is the way to convey the idea to new photographers who don't understand cameras, lenses, and particularly things like "crop factor" values without giving them totally mistaken impressions of the truth. You can also point them to posts on the forum like this one: Crop Factor Explained

Regarding the 1/focal length rule-of-thumb, since the rule-of-thumb was created with the 35mm film camera in mind, one does need to multiply the focal length by the "crop factor" when doing the calculation.

Thanks a TON for posting that explanation of crop factor... it makes perfect sense!

SBCmetroguy wrote in post #2380857
Oh yes, I'm very careful with the ISO settings. I've actually never even touched it for the amount of noise it adds to the shots. What is the ISO good for? I see people actually use it, so what is its use?

ISO is the sensitivity of the sensor to light. More sensitive - more light captured in x seconds. Higher ISO will allow you to use a faster shutter speed because the sensor will "record" light faster.
Like an example:
ISO 100 , 1/10s shutter speed, f2.8 - at this speed (1/10) the chances your foto will be "moved" are very high. To prevent that, you set ISO at 400 and set your shutter speed at 1/50, increasing this way chances for a sharp picture.
It's true, higher ISO mean higher noise. But i think you'll prefer a sharp picture with some noise (you can get rid of it with some software like NoiseNinja) to a blurry picture with less noise

SBCmetroguy wrote in post #2380857
Oh yes, I'm very careful with the ISO settings. I've actually never even touched it for the amount of noise it adds to the shots. What is the ISO good for? I see people actually use it, so what is its use?

If the choice is between noise and a blurred shot from camera movement, most of us would choose to keep the noise. The newer cameras are pretty good about controlling noise in any case.

I would avoid shooting your lens wide open if I wanted best performance. I would set my camera in Av mode and set the aperture at f/8. Then I would adjust ISO until I got to the shutter speed I wanted to use.

A tripod is much steadier than a monopod and a monopod is steadier than hand holding. Using a bean bag and resting your camera on a steady object approaches tripod stability. I try to choose the most steady method that is practical for the situation.

Practice your shutter release. Moving the camera while pressing the shutter causes more blurred shots than any other factor. Get someone to watch you from the side when you take a picture. If the camera moves at all you are stabbing the shutter rather than gently squeezing it. If shooting from a tripod try to use a cable release.

Thanks, guys. I got a shutter release switch a few months ago and love it. I never use my tripod without it because I've gotten so used to it!!

I not understand the ISO importance, and agree that I'd rather try to edit out a little extra noise than to have a blurry photo.

Thanks again, folks, there's a lot of knowledge on these boards!

SB, If you have the time and would like to run a somewhat controlled test on your lens, you can do as I did. Go to http://ourmnacres.us/s​harpness.html

Arvid

oldradioman wrote in post #2381484
SB, If you have the time and would like to run a somewhat controlled test on your lens, you can do as I did. Go to http://ourmnacres.us/s​harpness.html

Arvid

Thanks, Arvid, I'll try that!

SkipD wrote in post #2379671
Andrew, the statement that I highlighted in the quote above is actually quite untrue.

In writing my post rather hastily, I had neglected to proof read it. None the less, I still got the message across that the shutter should be no less than 1/500th.

avoid the misconception that ISO1600 is evil, for it isn't at all. in fact, i bet iso1600 on an xt is better than 90% of iso 1600 films out there...