What's the longest focal length you can hold on your rig without getting micro shake?

C

chroma

Member
So I'm really missing the IS on Canon's 17-55 (hurry up Birger!).

Using a shoulder mount or your favored alternative, what's the longest focal length you can shoot without micro shake creeping in?

PS My next question is - "how long is a piece of string?"
 
Depends on the shooter. How smooth are you at handholding/shoulder shooting? It comes down to the shooter. I am not the best handheld shooter, and suffer over 35mm handheld on the af100, though I can shoot my 50mm and 85mm hand held if I am relaxed and brace myself and/or can lean against things. My 24mm gives me no issues, and my 11-16mm is stupidly easy to make look smooth. If I have my monopod, which I use for run and gun when I cant have sticks, I can shoot any length well.

On a side note, I specifically bought the cheapo 14-42mm kit lens just for the OIS, to use on handheld shots where I need to move with the camera with out any support for low budget stuff and not have to worry about shake (longer tracking shots with out a dolly). I use it rarely when I need the extra help of OIS and can afford to take the speed it. It is what it is, but it is good for that. Frankly, I perfer to have a steady rig or support, but if that cant work with the shoot, the kit lens will do the job. It is not like I want shallow DOF when I am tracking a person while walking handheld.
 
It really does depend. I have become pretty good at hand held shooting with a handy-cam style camcorder and I have found that this translates well to hand held with a HD-DSLR. I am comfortable shooting with up to a 50mm handheld on an APS-C senor HD-DSLR, for short periods at a time. I prefer to be below 35mm if I am going to be shooting a long take or takes. With that, the length of the shot is very important. I really don't get "Micro-Shake" until fatigue starts to set in during a long shot. As a general rule for handheld the wider the better. I just did a single camera shoot of a band performing in a small bar. I shot the whole set, 9 songs over about 30 minutes with a 20mm manual Nikkor on a T2i and camera shake was not an issue at all.
 
Yeah if I were worried I'd get a monopod, IS lens, tripod, shoulder brace, steadicam, etc. Lots of ways to work it. Handholding *just* the camera body naked is definitely bottom of my list.

Noah
 
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