Handheld shutter speeds

[RichardM]

While 'rules of thumb' are a good starting point, your mileage may vary.

There is a way to check your personal "handhold ability". Find a piece of black cardboard or black construction paper. Poke a bunch of holes at random with a sewing needle in the central area. About 1/2 - 1 inch apart is good. Tape the paper to a window with black side facing you and shoot it a various speeds using different lenses. Write down your results of course.

After processing the film, it will be pretty obvious what your limits are. Fixed points indicate no camera movement. Dancing points don't.

(Probably not good to do the test after drinking an espresso.)

 

[Hlynur]

I got these fine sharp low light shots at 1/8 and 1/15 with my Konica Hexar AF walking through Santa Tereza in Rio de Janeiro with my girlfriend and friends.
The first shot of the hugging lovers is at 1/15@f2 and the one of the couple and my girlfriend walking towards them is at 1/8@f2 (you can see more down the dark street at the slower 1/8 sec exposure).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/atheist/99899626/in/set-72057594064604487/

I'm quite surprised by my steady hands after a few beers just before. My girlfriend (a former Rio resident) and I were not to keen taking a walk at midnight through these streets in a city with shocking robbery/murder rate, but we got a way with it this time and I caught some shots i'm very happy with.

The Konica hexar AF is very good for slow speed handheld shooting, but i usually got blurred shots with my Olympus OM10 SLR w/50mm lens at 1/30 sec.