Need a FAST shutter speed, any suggestions??

[ThreeMusketeers]

Right now I have a fairly new Kodak P850, but I am looking for something with a fast shutter speed. Any suggestions? Thinking of maybe the Cannon Rebel??

 

[jann1033]

the rebel xt goes up to 1/4000 sec however it also depends on the lens (and iso you set) and i think the fastest i recall ever been able to get is around 1/2000 with any of my lenses ( f1.8, f3.5, are the largest apertures i have). i don't usually go above 400 iso unless i absolutely have to

do you mean shutter lag by any chance?( the time it takes to get the camera to take the picture ie between shots?)

 

[ThreeMusketeers]

the rebel xt goes up to 1/4000 sec however it also depends on the lens (and iso you set) and i think the fastest i recall ever been able to get is around 1/2000 with any of my lenses ( f1.8, f3.5, are the largest apertures i have). i don't usually go above 400 iso unless i absolutely have to

do you mean shutter lag by any chance?( the time it takes to get the camera to take the picture ie between shots?)

Yes, Yes, Yes, I mean shutter lag. I do have one now that I can set..could you help me somehow? You sound like you know what your talking about!

 

[jann1033]

hmm my typing must make my mental faculties sound better than they are
i'll help if i can although i really don't know anything about your camera..what are you trying to set?

 

[ThreeMusketeers]

lol, I know right. Here, stranger from Ohio, set my camera here in NY. =)

I am trying to figure out what all the aperatures mean??? And what difference they make to the photograph.

 

[jann1033]

lol, I know right. Here, stranger from Ohio, set my camera here in NY. =)

I am trying to figure out what all the aperatures mean??? And what difference they make to the photograph.

basically the aperture is the size of the hole, the smaller the number the larger the hole( they are actually fractions but not written that way) so f1.8 is a bigger hole than f8 and so lets more light in...therefore you can have a faster shutter speed( shutter allow more light in in ashorter time and so can close faster) with a larger aperture..the higher the iso the faster speed you can set also however the higher the iso the more noise you are going to have..i looked at your camera on steve's digicams reviews...it said your shutter goes up to 1/1000 and i think the largest aperture was f2.8...the problem with that being the largest aperture will be with the widest angle of your lens( the less zoom in other words) so that might limit your shutter speed also if you want to zoom far away plus have a fast shutter..and your probably wouldn't want to go over 400 iso, try it and see if your pictures look speckly, then that means you have to much noise which affects the quality of your photos.
your shutter lag isn't that bad according to the review..i think it was 2/10 of a sec if you prefocused( hold the shutter button 1/2 way down so it focuses on what you want to take then push the rest of the way when the time comes to take the photo) the rebel is i think 1/10 of a second prefocus, 2/10 not focused
you also have a 5fps burst mode that is about 2/10 of a second( i think it was called first mode, the other one was slower) which is pretty good(mine( rebel xt) is 3 fps) so you could also use that if you want to take photos in rapid secession
forgot part b..other than the amount of light it lets in it also affects the sharpness/depth of field..so the larger the aperture( smaller number), in general it will be blurrier in the background( although that also depends on what zoom you are using and how far away you are standing...not sure if you can actually turn your zoom to a certain mm ie 80 or it just automatically does that when you focus on something. if you can do it manually in general if you want a more blurry background you do not want a wide angle ( ie like 28mm ) plus the larger your aperture and the farther away your subject is from the background the blurrier your back ground will be. i was trying to take some wrought iron fences and used a wide angle so the whole background behind the fence was really sharp, just what i didn't want usually around f8-11 is the sharpest area of a lens, not sure how that applies with yours..you can take some photos of the same thing and change the aperture and see where it is sharpest. i think the review said the lens on your camera is good even at the ends of the aperture( ie f2.8-5.6 or where ever it goes to at the largest zoom)...usually at the ends like that it is not as sharp and when it lists an f range for a zoom lens the left number is the largest aperture you can set at the wide angle the right number is the largest aperture you can set zoomed all the way out( ie my 28-135 mm f 3.5-5.6 lens is f3.5 at 28mm, f5.6 at 135 mm)

so did i confuse you enough???

 

[ThreeMusketeers]

OMG! I am so confused! LOL Thank you for looking that up and explainging everything. How do you know so much, just experience?? Do you reccomend any good reading on the subject of what all this stuff means? I was thinking of buying a wide angle lense. But I am worried now that all of these settings are going to be confusing me to craziness. I love photography. But i never realized there was so much more to it. Just got my first nice camera this year, and now I am not sure what I got in to!!lol

 

[handicap18]

ISO = film speed (ie; 200, 400, 800, 1600) will a film camera you had to actually change the roll of film to get a different ISO, with digital there is an option with the camera that makes this adjustment within the computer chip of the camera to acheive the same thing.

Shutter Speed = mechanism to allow light into the camera for a specific length of time (2 seconds, 1 sec, 1/4th sec, 1/15th, 1/30th, 1/60th, 1/100th, 1/500th, 1/1000th, etc...)

Aperture (aka: f/stop) = the pupil of the lens. Works just like the pupil of your eye. Numbers are in fraction form therefor the smaller the number the bigger the hole. f/1.8 is a bigger hole than f/5.6 which is bigger than f/16, etc... This is where you can control the depth of field (DOF). If you want the subject in focus and the background out of focus (shallow DOF) then use a big hole (f/1.8-f/4), if you want the subject and the background to be IN focus, then use a smaller hole (f/16-f/22).

The combination of the ISO, Shutter Speed and f/stop gets you the final result. There are many different combinations and it does take some time to get the hang of everything

Shutter lag is how long it takes from you pressing the shutter release button to when the camera actually takes the picture. On the lesser expensive P&S camera's this will typically be a long time, upwards of well over a second or 2 in some cases. With most dSLR's, this will typically be a very short time, as fast as .2 or .4 seconds (almost instantly). There are some dSLR's that take longer than others and some P&S camera's that are much faster (very close to dSLR's) than others.

Almost all camera's (some of the very expensive dSLR's don't fit this description) have the option of point and shoot. Actually its point, focus and shoot. The camera has an AUTO function and will set everything (ISO, shutter & aperture) based on the readingn it gets from the light available where you are pointing the camera. All camera's also allow options where you make some of these choices or all of the choices.

There are many on-line tutorials and books available to help get someone through all the info. Canon has an on-line tutorial that is pretty good, I think there are a few online photography schools that have some free stuff. Some books like Digital Camera's for Dummies (or any of the Dummies books that relate to camera's) and Understanding Exposure are recommended a lot along with a few others (check out amazon or barnes and noble).

 

[jann1033]

OMG! I am so confused! LOL Thank you for looking that up and explainging everything. How do you know so much, just experience?? Do you reccomend any good reading on the subject of what all this stuff means? I was thinking of buying a wide angle lense. But I am worried now that all of these settings are going to be confusing me to craziness. I love photography. But i never realized there was so much more to it. Just got my first nice camera this year, and now I am not sure what I got in to!!lol

i have been involved in photography for a while but basically stopped for a few yrs when my slr film camera broke and only recently bought a dslr...it really threw me for a loop i have to say ( it seemed so different i felt overwhelmed) but i happened to find the dis photo thread and asked an annoying amount of questions which everyone was kind enough to answer , I've had my camera for about 7 months now and am getting comfortable enough to start to try some new things with it and have had my faulty memory refreshed via my dumb questions so i can figure some things out. i do like the luminous landscape website ( bob q posted a series of excellent articles from there recently i thought i had bookmarked but of course didn't.) the canon tutorials are great for basics whether you have a canon or not
and you can google almost anything and find the answer...i haven't found a basic basic book for digital, i have a photography for idiots but it deals with mostly film...it's pretty old so maybe a newer copy would be revised. i have a understanding exposure by bryan peterson that is good and he covers some very basic info...
really though if you stick around and post if you wonder about something you don't understand usually someone can help you with it.
it sounds like your camera is pretty nice so have fun with it and if in doubt read the manual

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/
http://www.photoworkshop.com/canon/index.html

 

[DueyDooDah]

i have been involved in photography for a while but basically stopped for a few yrs when my slr film camera broke and only recently bought a dslr...it really threw me for a loop

OMG, I thought I was the only one. I used to be a pro photographer for the navy, doing various "odd jobs" that never saw the light of day. Once I left that job, I never took another photo (I was pretty sick of it at the time). Twenty years later, when my DW decided to reintroduce me to the art, she gifted me a Canon 30D. I am suprised at how different everything seems. Your choice of words are perfect: "overwhelmed" is how I'd choose to describe me, also. I've had this camera since September and still feel I'm at about 10% of my potential, although it has not stopped me from buying a couple of "goodies".

Now, back to topic. I actually have two digitals, a Canon S80 and the 30D mentioned above. One of the significant differences between the cameras is the shutter lag. With the S80, I have to anticipate the shot much more than with the 30D, as much as a second. This makes for a number of missed shots, especially at WDW where the action is fairly fast and situations are changing quickly. The 30D seems to be instantaneous, although I think there is a bit of lag when compared to my F1 35mm film camera, which experiences no lag. The difference does not sound like much, but many times it's the difference is getting the shot and not.

 

[jann1033]

OMG, I thought I was the only one. I used to be a pro photographer for the navy, doing various "odd jobs" that never saw the light of day. Once I left that job, I never took another photo (I was pretty sick of it at the time). Twenty years later, when my DW decided to .

good to know i am not alone .. i assumed i must have some how killed off a bunch of brain cells between "film" and "digital".: