Shutter speed / lens help.
Discussion
Hello everyone.
Another newbie question from me.
Right, I've got a 350D, with a few lenses. First one is the regular kit lens, I have a canon 28-200 which I am going to sell as it doesnt get as much use as the others, and I have a Canon 75-300 IS too.
When I'm using the 75-300, I find that the shutter speed is always a bit slow. Taking pics by hand always ends up with camera shake unless I set the ISO to 800 or above. Indoors its just a joke, I can never get a crisp image. I have tried setting the aperature to 4.x and it is slightly better, but still not great.
Is it something I'm doing wrong, or is my lens just not suited for regular photos, and only good for daylight outdoors on a tripod?
If this is the case, can anyone reccommend me a half decent 200-300 quid lens which will work well for me? or at least tell me what to look for in a lens and what means what. I'm still very new to photography.
Cheers,
alex.
Another newbie question from me.
Right, I've got a 350D, with a few lenses. First one is the regular kit lens, I have a canon 28-200 which I am going to sell as it doesnt get as much use as the others, and I have a Canon 75-300 IS too.
When I'm using the 75-300, I find that the shutter speed is always a bit slow. Taking pics by hand always ends up with camera shake unless I set the ISO to 800 or above. Indoors its just a joke, I can never get a crisp image. I have tried setting the aperature to 4.x and it is slightly better, but still not great.
Is it something I'm doing wrong, or is my lens just not suited for regular photos, and only good for daylight outdoors on a tripod?
If this is the case, can anyone reccommend me a half decent 200-300 quid lens which will work well for me? or at least tell me what to look for in a lens and what means what. I'm still very new to photography.
Cheers,
alex.
Camera shake is caused by too slow a shutter speed. The traditional rule with shutter speeds is 1/focal length or faster to avoid camera shake. Digital has affected that a bit as the equivalent focal lengtht is longer, but IS helps of course. Using the 75-300 at 300mm with the IS on, you'll be looking for a shutter speed at least 1/60 or faster, or slower with practice. With the IS off more like 1/500. The aperture is irrelevant here - make sure the shutter speed is fast enough and they'll be sharper. But inside is very dark in normal domestic lighting - you'll often be looking at ISO800 upwards, and slow shutter speeds too.
On the lens issue, you are luck to have IS as this is going to help a lot. So fastest shutter speed (biggest aperture-largest f number) and the highest ISO you can bare. If you really can't do anything else try under exposing a stop or so and shot raw (more data to brighten later). If you still don't have enough light zoom out and crop later...
If you are getting slower shutter speed while using the long end of the zoom, then that's normal as you tend to get less available light, and the maximum aperture is f5.6 at that end, so you'll get even slower shutter speed. IS would help in certain situations but not if the blur is caused by the movement of the subject. Best solution is to use higher ISO and slightly under-expose the images, as already mentioned, as you wouldn't be able to get a f2.8 tele zoom for your budget unfortunately.
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