DRD Team

Oh, wow. I can usually shoot down to 1/60 without problems, and I can occasionally get away with 1/30. 1/15 and lower, I need a brace. (Assuming 50mm equivalent length. Tighter lenses require more stability, of course.)

1/400? That's a lot. Are you standing and holding it correctly? Get the viewfinder to your eye, none of this 'look at the screen' crap that people do these days. That dramatically increases camera shake. Get your hands underneath and beside it and hold it right to your face. You can also get an extra stop or two if you hold your breath when you press the shutter release.

What I need next is a cable release. Even my more stable tripod has a bit of shake (read: I did not pay $5000 for my tripod) so removing the camera shake inherent in physically pushing on the camera should help that considerably.

Risen wrote:Tighter lenses require more stability, of course.)

Heh, those sniper stability tricks you hear in video games help a lot.

Risen wrote:Get the viewfinder to your eye, none of this 'look at the screen' crap that people do these days.

I far prefer the viewfinder to a screen. In fact, my camera (Rebel XTi) doesn't let you use the screen to shoot.


Most of my problems are my targets moving. Branches swaying, animals moving etc. Adding my natural camera shake makes it worse.

BioHazard wrote:Most of my problems are my targets moving.

That makes considerable difference, as most people should be able to shoot at 1/60. If you're above that, more camera stability isn't really going to help the shot. If subject movement is the problem, your only options are to slow the subject somehow or use a fast shutter speed.

Oh, and yeah, true SLRs such as ours won't have the ability to preview on the screen (or take movies, etc).