Avoiding camera shake

Ben D Bus

I take a lot of pictures indoors in natural daylight with the following setup

Nikon D70s with 50mm f1.8D @ 1/80th sec f2.8 ISO400

I don't think I should be seeing a huge amount of camera shake at 1/80th sec? But I do! I mean up to 50% of images have some degree of blur. It's mostly people I photograph but they are posing for the camera and I don't think it's them doing the moving!

I don't want to go to ISO800 as the D70s gets a bit noisy at that level.

1/80th sec should be manageable should it not?

I guess my question is how to avoid camera shake without resorting to a tripod. But I'm posting here rather than just googling in case anyone sees any other potential causes of blurry pictures with my setup.

DaireQuinlan

Ben D Bus wrote: »

I take a lot of pictures indoors in natural daylight with the following setup

Nikon D70s with 50mm f1.8D @ 1/80th sec f2.8 ISO400

I don't think I should be seeing a huge amount of camera shake at 1/80th sec? But I do! I mean up to 50% of images have some degree of blur. It's mostly people I photograph but they are posing for the camera and I don't think it's them doing the moving!

I don't want to go to ISO800 as the D70s gets a bit noisy at that level.

1/80th sec should be manageable should it not?

I guess my question is how to avoid camera shake without resorting to a tripod. But I'm posting here rather than just googling in case anyone sees any other potential causes of blurry pictures with my setup.

Could be out of focus ? In general, yes you should be able to handhold at 1/80 at 50mm, but maybe you're on the shakier end of the spectrum ? How do you hold the camera ? do you brace yourself properly ? Try a couple of shots of something stationary handheld and then on a tripod and see if there's a difference. Or open up a bit more (assuming that it's not just OOF) so you can shoot at 1/160 @ f/2 and see if that makes a difference.

magicbastarder

may be a persistent minor error in focus? though you can usually tell the difference between motion blur and focus blur.

draw a (narrow) black cross on a piece of paper and photograph it at the same exposure conditions if possible. if it's focus blur, the blur should be uniform. motion blur should differ between the arms of the cross.

pete4130

a 50mm on a D70 is 75mm equivelant, ideally you need to shoot at 2x your focal length, so that would be 1/160th. You could do this and pull back detail in post processing.

You could get a tripod but can be a pain in the ass.

If your shooting at 1.8 then yoru depth of field is narrow on that lens/camera set up and being indoors its probably close focusing. I'd say its a combo of narrow depth of field, close focusing and your slight front to back movement. Shooting indoors means there is less avialable light generally and the D70/s is pretty poor at focusing outside of the centre focus zone and will struggle in lower light (your ISO/aperture/shutter speed suggest poor lighting too).

Corkbah

up the ISO and shutter speed - grain in modern cameras is hardly noticeable at 640, 800 or even 1000.

5uspect

Corkbah wrote: »

up the ISO and shutter speed - grain in modern cameras is hardly noticeable at 640, 800 or even 1000.

He's using a D70s. A great camera but a bit behind in high ISO performance.

Ben D Bus

Have I found an excuse to upgrade my camera to something newer that will let me shoot clean images at ISO800 and higher?

5uspect

Ben D Bus wrote: »

Have I found an excuse to upgrade my camera to something newer that will let me shoot clean images at ISO800 and higher?

You mean a Canon?

Ben D Bus

Think I'll try opening up to f2 and see how that works. DOF could be too shallow though. But I'd love to squeeze another year out of the D70s. Or maybe I'll just buy a load of studio lights. Or go outside!

Sorry 5uspect but even after my first DSLR and my nifty fifty as my only additional lens, I'm a Nikon man now

pixbyjohn

Ben D Bus wrote: »

Have I found an excuse to upgrade my camera to something newer that will let me shoot clean images at ISO800 and higher?

Buy yourself a D700, new or secondhand :rolleyes:

ScumLord

I don't think you should be experience any kind of motion blur at that shutter speed.

I assume your keeping your lenses clean? Maybe try some experimentation taking the same picture handheld and using a tripod and seeing how they differ. I wouldn't notice any kind of motion problems until I get down to /25.