sd500 shutter speed

Folks, need some help with the shutter speed. I know there is no shutter priority mode or sports mode on sd500. But, the specification says it is capable of 1/2000 sec. I tried the pets/kids mode but that only clocked 1/60 for me - not good enough. What do you have to do to freeze normal movements that you expect with kids. Thanks for all the help.

1/60th is the default value for when you have the flash on.

-- higher ISO
fredyr

Have you try the 'sport' mode? Rob correctly said that if flash is enabled, the default shutter speed is 1/60. However, if the shot is taken in subdued lighting condition, the e-flash would be your main light source, having a flash duration of 1/1000 (???). That is sufficient to stop kiddy motion.

To answer your question directly, I would use upward of 1/250, depends on the aperture setting, which is a factor of zoom and shooting mode selected. I consider the biggest enemy of sharpness for mini-sensor digicam is camera and subject movement - hence my recommendation of upward of 1/250. For mini-sensor digicam I rather shoot at 1/800 with wide open aperture. I regularly enlarge my images to 13X19 with little loss of sharpness due to burring.

Your question is the reason why I always want a manually controllable camera, such as shutter and/or aperture priority. Or at the minimum, the display of exposure info.
--
Francis

This is something I've also wondered about. When does the camera use 1/2000 sec shutter speed? Seems daft to have it available but no chance of actually using it unlike Casio z750 for example (OK, that has max 1/1600 but at least manual control).

My SD400 has the "Kids and Pets" mode which captures those high movement shots. Doesn't the SD500 have this same mode?
--

I've been longing for victory, ever since the day I escaped from your wretched womb - Stewie

Kids and pets only gives you continuous focusing, not a fast shutter speed unfortunately.

ashar:

Unfortunately, as all reviewers have pointed out, the SD500 does not allow the user direct shutter speed or aperture control. The camera will set the shutter speed to obtain the proper exposure based on your allowed settings of zoom and ISO. Follow the thread on SD500 Aperture where you will see that at a given zoom the camera has only two aperture choices which it sets depending on the amount of light. With that limitation, it's easy to understand why the camera, and not the user, must choose the shutter speed.

--mamallama

ashar said:

Folks, need some help with the shutter speed. I know there is no
shutter priority mode or sports mode on sd500. But, the
specification says it is capable of 1/2000 sec. I tried the
pets/kids mode but that only clocked 1/60 for me - not good enough.
What do you have to do to freeze normal movements that you expect
with kids. Thanks for all the help.

Click to expand...

-- Well, I just went for a walk with it in low light trying different settings and with ISO 400. Couldn't get a clear photo of anyone moving. What settings would others use. Perhaps spot metering instead of evaluative. Dark now so can't go again till tomorrow so I am wondering what I am doing wrong. I see that the shutter speed is too slow so that is probably the reason but don't know what setting to use to speed it up or do I just give up on those type of shots.
fredyr

Well, I have tried shooting with flash, without flash, iso on auto, 50, 100, 200. And I still can't get a decent picture with frozen movement. It is a great camera if the subject is still and you have good enough lighting (outdoors). I don't think I want to raise the iso to more than 100 and don't want to carry a tripod all the time. I think this camera is going back and I'm back looking for one. I will shoot more this week to see how I can achieve a good shutter speed, but don't think I will be able to get even 1/1000 in the conditions I want to shoot in. Please post your experiences.

What are the typical shutter speeds on auto iso or 50, in good enough daylight outside, without flash in cameras with sports mode - s70, coolpix 7900 etc.

I really wanted to like and keep the sd500, but now I think I should go for s70. That leads to the next version of s70 due in a few months. But, I can't wait that long, so am seriously looking at 7900. Would that be a mistake? Any suggestions...?

I've gotten up to 1/800 in a few shots but typical shutter speed is well below that. There have been a few posts on how to increase shutter speed but I don't know how effective they'll be with kids shots. I've taken quite a few shots of my kids and their cousins. This is one area that I haven't been real happy with the camera. On the other hand I really wasn't expecting much though the Kids N Pets hype gave me some hope. As I've found with other cameras it really comes down to taking a lot of shots and having a little luck that one or two will come out good.

When it comes to shutter speeds indoors, the camera generally selects it's widest possible aperture hence you won't be able to use a faster shutter speed to stop motion, unless you can use a bigger flash unit. In most indoor situations, my DSLR freezes motion, not so much because of the shutter speed used, but because of the very short but intense duration of the flash which I have set to provide virtually all the exposure lighting when I'm trying to stop motion. If you want to try and stop motion without a relatively powerful flash, you'll need to find something with a high usable ISO setting, and as bright a lens as possible.

I understand and I'm not comparing with or expecting DSLR like performance or results. I know I'm compromising because of size issue. To that end I am willing to shoot more and expect to get a miniscule percentage of usable pics. That is not too much to ask, so I thought. SD500 works great in most situations when there is good light and the subject is not moving. But I consistently get blurred pics, even shooting outdoors, when the subject isn't still, say a kid on a swing.

A friend of mine has an S70 and I'm told it is a great camera. It won't work in all situations, but will at least give usable pictures, in my scenario, so I'm told. I have yet to try that though. Regardless, I'd want the new version of S70, but can't hold up that long. That is why I wanted to find out the specs on sports mode on other cameras, like CP7900 or any others. Please help and thanks.

The S70 may be able to freeze motion, however, do keep in mind that it is slower to turn on and respond, so you may also miss surprise shots that the SD500 could catch with its super fast Digic II chip. We are all hoping that the successor to the S70 comes out soon with that same chip to make it fast as well.

--Once you have it on kids moving you cannot change anything. Tonight I am going to try and up the ISO and the EV and use spot metering in Manual and see if that is better. So far outdoors and indoors in a shopping mall I haven't had a problem. I do not want to use a flash so I guess trial and error till I get it right. I figure if my pro 1 can take photos at night without a flash so can this camera. However they were shows and lit stages and I used a monopod. What I am trying to do is get movement at night without a flash and haven't yet worked out the settings. Hard to get used to such a little camera too and not move it.
fredyr