Mamiya 7, 80mm lens shutter speed to stop motion

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scottkathe

Scott
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I am familiar with the 1/focal length of a lens for handheld 35mm photography to get 'sharp' images. I consider myself a landscape photographer and almost always use a tripod so I don't have a feel for this at all. I was out in a canoe the other day taking pictures of loons with my Nikon D40 and a VR zoom lens. I did take some landscape shots but I think that 6x7 film would give me much better image quality than the D40 (6 mpix) and probably even better than the D90 (12 mpix). My question is how fast of a shutter speed would I need while floating around in a canoe to get a 'sharp' landscape image? Lets say I was using the 80mm 'normal' lens for the M7.

Scott
 
Dear Scott,

How long is a piece of string?

The 1/focal length rule is indeed vague enough to justify your putting 'sharp' in quotation marks. As a rough guide, the easiest approach is to multiply the focal length by (MF focal length)/43 (= 35mm diagonal). Thus 80mm = roughly half the 35mm guideline of '1/focal length' = 1/30 instead of 1/60 -- or 1/15 instead of 1/30 if you're feeling optimistic (which I wouldn't be in a canoe).

Cheers,

R.
 
Roger,

I hate to say it but you lost me. I know the diagonal of 35mm film is 43mm and I assume (dangerous I know) that is where the 43 comes from in your formula. If I divide 92 (diagonal of 6x7 or do you really mean 80mm=focal length?) I get about 2 (either way I get about 2). Intuitively I would think you would loose a stop of light by going up in film size not gain a stop. Sorry to be a pest on this-I find your books and website to be extremely helpful.

Scott
 
Roger Hicks said:
How long is a piece of string?
R.
Click to expand...

Well put. How steady are you in a canoe? How much are you going to enlarge the neg? How good are you at squeezing off shots? How many frames can you shoot to get one that is tack sharp? There are a number of variables that overwhelm any rule of thumb.

I've gotten really sharp shots handholding my Mamiya 7 at 1/15th. But I frequently see a difference handholding at 1/250th and 1/125th.
 
Bob Michaels said:
Well put. How steady are you in a canoe? How much are you going to enlarge the neg? How good are you at squeezing off shots? How many frames can you shoot to get one that is tack sharp? There are a number of variables that overwhelm any rule of thumb.

I've gotten really sharp shots handholding my Mamiya 7 at 1/15th. But I frequently see a difference handholding at 1/250th and 1/125th.
Click to expand...

I agree totally. It is a very subjective question and different conditions will give different results. I almost always shoot landscapes from a tripod-I can't think of one case where I haven't used a tripod when doing 'serious' work. When I was much younger and not that serious I used my little Oly XA sans support. I used my tripod when I got serious, originally with a 35mm SLR and then a series of TLRs and a 4x5 Crown Graphic, now a Shen Hao. I feel practically naked without a tripod that is why I am asking here since the great thing about RFs is that they can be handheld and achieve sharper results than SLRs.

Scott
 
Scott, the sharper results than SLRs you're referring is at slow shutter speeds because the Mamiya 7 doesn't have a mirror slap, and only has a leaf shutter (even more silent and steady than a Leica). However, physical movement outside of the camera makes it less likely to get a steady shot with EITHER camera system.

The best way would be to test it out for yourself. Try to rent or borrow a Mamiya 7 and test it out. You'll probably need to use a 400 speed film to get decent speeds stopped down, but the larger neg will make the grain less noticeable than on 135.
 
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