What Shutter Speed do You use?
 

I've always used 30P and a shutter speed of 1/30sec with my XL2 and kit lens (if the lens even makes a difference) but, I'm beginning to think that's not always right. So what speed do you use for:
1.Filming something that's not moving or hardly moving with the camcorder locked-off?,
2.Filming a small bird that flies off a perch wile the camcorder is locked-off?,
3.Panning something the speed of a walking dog?,
4.Panning something the speed of a running dog?,
5.Panning birds in flight?

Thanks for your help,

Caleb

Hi Caleb,
The shutter speed depends on what you want to do with the footage. For panning anything to watch as video, 1/60 sec is good. Up to 1/250 or so is a little sharper. If you plan to make a bunch of stills out of your frames, use a faster shutter, 1/500 even 1/1000 if you are in really bright light. Do you really shoot at 1/30th (or was that a misprint, and you meant 1/300th?) 1/30th second in video will always give you motion artifacts, like an old-time movie.

Good luck,

Steve Siegel
Seiurus Video. Bird Stock footage and bird-related DVDs

Hi Caleb,
The advice I got in here and in other forums when asked the same question was to set it to 1/50 when shooting 25p, 1/60 for 30p. Basically it should be 1/double the frame rate.
Cheers,
Ofer

Correct Ofer, any slower and you get too much blur, any faster and you start to get strobing.
We're sort of trying to replicate a 180 (or 172) degree shutter on a film camera.
Steve

I set my XL2's shutter speed to 30 which is 1/30th of a second right?
Ofer, should I always use 1/60 no matter what the circumstances?

Caleb,


I would not shoot at 1/30 unless you had to or wanted blurred motion effect.

1/60th to 1/100 is usually all one needs to get proper video.

birds flying: if you are not going to slo mo the footage then 1/60 progressive will give what is closest to what our minds perceive. If you are going to slow the motion up by time stretching, interpolation and frame rate change then I would recomend shooting a little faster, I woud not go over 1/200. I am prone to shoot at 1/100.

the advice of double the frame rate is solid for simple straight shooting.

with a faster shutter speed and nd filters you can shorten up depth of field dramaticly.


I would just run some tests and select what you like.

Thank you everyone for helping me with shutter speeds!

I shoot mainly sports, which I realize isn't wildlife, but when you break it down it's pretty close. A football flying through the air is pretty close to a bird in flight. I use an HPX-500, and overcrank it to 60FPS to go slow motion. I try to go with as much shutter as the light will allow. Usually 1/500 or if it's a day game I'll go with 1/1000. If you're doing anything in slow motion, its important to reduce the motion blur, otherwise it will really show up, and won't look near as crisp. At 1/1000 you can see the laces on the ball and pull a pretty crisp still from it.

If you're shooting standard speed stuff, then the 1/60-1/100 should be fine for you. We see motion blur all around us, so our brains react to it naturally. It's just really noticeable when slowing any footage down.

I shoot 24p. If I'm shooting at dawn or dusk, I always drop it to 1/24th shutter if it is slow movement of a wading bird or something. That way I'm getting all the light I can.

Using shutter at sports certainly is a matter of taste. Shutter at 1/500 gives a stobe effect that would not be accepted for broadcast in Denmark - unless it is used as an effect. I often choose a shutter at 1/60 wich gives a good mixture of sharpness in slowmotion and a good flow in the video stream ( in 50i enviroment)

I also agree that when shooting in the progressive mode there is no need to get stucken with 1/50 or /160 when shooting 25 or 30 fps, respectively. For instance, when shooting flying birds 25 fps and 1/60s or combination 50fps and 1/120s seems to give a more appealing result for the motion of wings. The same when panning, the combination 25 or 30fps and 1/50 or 1/60 may appear bit akward if the camera does not move slowly.

I quite don't understand why this is the case, but suspect it has something to do with "regularity". The eye is very good in catching regularities and perhaps it recognizes that there is "one half" and the "other half" is missing?

I shoot mostly 1080p 30p and have had excellent results from 1/60 to 1/1000. It depends on your subject. If you have a subject moving at 100 kts and you are still the question is. Do you want blur? Do you want to freeze frame? Do you want to pull a still? Do you want slow motion? There are a number of questions that need to be answered prior to choosing your shutter speed.

But if most of your shooting is slow moving objects then twice the frame rate is where you should start.