Shutter speed for handheld shots with a dslr same as non-digital?

[jmoody]

I vaguely remember reading somewhere once or twice that a good rule

of thumb for shooting non-tripod shots is to use the inverse

proportion (probably differently worded) of the focal length (ie:

shoot with a 200mm lens, don't go slower than 1/200).

Is this rule the same with dslr's, or should I pay more attention to

the magnification factor? (I just bought sigma's 18-125mm, but my

camera's 1.6 crop crop factor makes that lens behave like 28-200mm.)

Should I still be keeping shots near the 1/200 area, or am I probably

ok at 1/100th? Just curious.

[jbq]

Take the "magnification factor" into account, i.e. the "rule of thumb" is 1/200s for 125mm.

[jmoody]

good point. Hadn't thought of it that way

[zhi_da_zhong]

The rule of thumb is based on the field of view of a lens, so yes, you need to take the

cropping/magnification factor into account. Similarly, if you know you're going to crop an

image by a certain amount, then take that into account, too. Specifically, if the cropping

factor is X, the handheld shutter speed needs to be increased by a factor X. But this also

depends on how steady you are, so experiment and find your personal minimum shutter

speed.

[andrew robertson]

With the much smaller mirror on my DSLR (10D) compared to a film SLR, I find that the

resultant reduction in vibration allows me to steadily hold the DSLR at slower shutter

speeds than with the film camera. On a good day.

 

Sometimes I'm shakier than usual.

 

Why not run some tests? It won't cost a dime with the DSLR!

[stephen hazelton]

In trying slow shutter speed shots in the past, I found that I might have 2 blurry shots and one reasonably sharp one, with the same shutter speed. Assuming the subject is fairly static, you could go ahead and fire off a half-dozen shots or more, and pick the best one.

[craig_gillette]

It's a rule of thumb, not a law of physics.

 

Regardless of whether the camera is a "real" film 35mm slr, a full-frame dslr, a dslr with a crop factor, or a digicam with a mini-sensor, it probably makes sense to run some tests with your equipment, as you use it.

 

I kind of doubt that you'd find (if you had them) that the same body with a 28-105 is going to handle like one with a 100-500, or that all digicams at some equal "equivalent" would handle the same for everybody. Your own test will flesh out the impacts of grip styles, weight and balance, inertia, etc.