The inverse focal length rule makes a huge assumption - namely, that the subject remains as far away from the camera no matter what focal length you use.
I shoot a lot of macro work. It would be silly to assume that a 1:1 magnification shot would be OK at 1/60th of a second with a 50mm macro, but would require 1/125th of a second with a 100mm macro. It wouldn't be sharp in either case. The rule might be true for shots taken at infinity focus, but the closer you get to the subject the less sharp the hand held image will be... But then - what's Frank's tag line? - MCC Paul Stenquist wrote: > True enough. It's really a rule for beginners. For critical > sharpness, one frequently needs a much faster shutter speed or, as > you said, a tripod. Yet, for some applications, slower speeds are > possible, even without any image stabilization capability. > Paul > On Nov 28, 2006, at 7:24 PM, Godfrey DiGiorgi wrote: > >> I never really listened to the rule. I have my own: >> >> - I shoot at whatever I have to to obtain a shot with any camera and >> lens. With a digital camera, I can check to see if it is sufficiently >> short an exposure to get what I want. If it isn't, I either give up >> or try again. >> >> - For any real approach to critical sharpness, I use a tripod. >> >> Godfrey >> >> On Nov 28, 2006, at 10:14 AM, Shel Belinkoff wrote: >> >>> It's long been considered that for good results one should only >>> shoot hand >>> held at the reciprocal of the focal length, so for a 200 mm lens the >>> slowest hand held shutter speed would be 1/200 second. Considering >>> the >>> crop/magnification factor of the Pentax DSLR's, a 200mm lens = a >>> 300mm lens >>> (Let's not get into the argument about this, please). So, would one >>> ideally shoot at 1/300 second hand held? >> >> -- >> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >> [email protected] >> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > > -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mark Cassino Photography Kalamazoo www.markcassino.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
