Your safe hand held speed for a 50mm?

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ulrich.von.lich

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What's your 50mm hand held speed for a non-blurred picture? (excluding the object blur)

Mine is between 1/15s and 1/30s. 1/8s is a bit of gambling. Is it normal? Because I think I can shoot as low as 1/15s with a SLR too.

Is there any trick to improve it? Pushups?

Cheers
 
I can do 1/15 too but that is a lot lower than most can do. The rule of thumb is that most people can handhold the speed closest to the focal length, so 1/60 for a 50mm lens, 1/30 for a 35mm, etc. It took practice for me to get good enough to do 1/15.
 
Bracing the camera and holding breath is probably more important than pullups.

picture.php

1/4s and F1.5 here, Kodacolor 400.
 
One thing is getting a decent image: that changes from time to time, and that's why good handholders make more than one shot at the same speed... I have seen very decent ones between 1/2 and 1/15... And another thing is a speed that allows you to get all your lens can give... That's, at least for me, above 1/60...

Cheers,

Juan
 
depends on the camera body, I can get 1/5th of a second with my Leica M3 and 1/15 if I am shooting with a SLR be it a vertical copal shutter or a horizontal cloth or titanium shutter.
 
What also helps is using a tabletop tripod, supported on your breast (I'm using an old one from Leica, all metal and very heavy, but VERY stable), but I'm not sure that counts in this tread ... This picture was taken that way (Nikon D200, 1/2s, F5, ISO 200; I didn't have a rangefinder in that period) :

Edit: I noticed it was taken with 12mm on a Nikon D200, so that's 18mm in full-frame; a bit too far from the tread subject maybe ..

oslobynight.JPG
 
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ulrich.von.lich said:
What's your 50mm hand held speed for a non-blurred picture? (excluding the object blur)

Mine is between 1/15s and 1/30s. 1/8s is a bit of gambling. Is it normal? Because I think I can shoot as low as 1/15s with a SLR too.

Is there any trick to improve it? Pushups?

Cheers
Click to expand...

That seems to mirror my experience. I hold the camera with it resting in the palm of my left hand and both elbows tucked into my sides. For verticals, the shutter button is to the bottom so I can keep my elbows to the my sides--the "sky-hook" pose looks cool, but not very steady. I find caffeine can give me the shakes.
 
I have two words for you: leaf shutter. With a fifties or sixties camera that has some heft to it, I don't even worry about shake at all, down to 1/15. Below that I'll start to pay attention to my stance and breathing.

Later compact RFs are typically flimsier and also have that looong travel on the release, makes it a tad harder.

With the Leica I have shot 1/10 although with a 35 lens.
 
Leica M6: 1/4 or 1/8: multiple shots, 1/15 two shots, anything above that is safe. With the M3 its 1/5 or 1/10 multiple shots, 1/25 two shots, anything above is safe.

Nikon F: 1/15 and two shots, nothing below. Anything above is safe in general, unless not had enough sleep and a busy day.

Leaf shutter: get a Konica Hexar AF! Had good results at 1/4 with that.
 
With a 50 I can do 1/15s, but you can't control subject motion, so that is a stretch. 1/30s is a comfort zone....1/60s is the rule, and works.
 
If I can find something to brace myself against 1/4 sec is feasible with an M ... particularly my M3 which has the smoothest shutter release of any camera I own!

I've shot my M8 at gallery openings in very low light at 1/4 and obtained usable images.
 
It's funny you ask. I was out shooting a couple months back and thought, "sure no problem I can handhold down to 1/30th or maybe even a little slower." Well, as it it turns out I can. However, the moving subject didn't agree :)
 
I think it also depends on how large you want to print/display the final image. And whether arresting motion is your goal. If the end result is going to be small, you can err a stop slower. Below is an image from a 15mm Heliar I took this afternoon at 1/20.

4572405705_afa8b2b84a_o.jpg


Apologies for the poor color balance, I am migrating machines and the color on the new machine's monitor is pretty untrustworthy.

To answer the OP, I am confident with a 50 down to 1/30. After that, it is touch an go. With a DLSR, I have found that a burst of exposures at a low shutter speed usually yields something usable.
 
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