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Gear / Technical Help => Photo / Video Recording => Topic started by: mmadd29 on June 03, 2009, 01:11:06 PM

Title: Shutter speed on a camcorder
Post by: mmadd29 on June 03, 2009, 01:11:06 PM: I just got a camcorder it has auto shutter speed, which goes down to 1/30. It does warn that on auto, moving objects will leave trails. Not good.

I have the following shutter speeds I can set:

1/60, 1/100, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000

I would think 1/500 should be good, but I'm not sure. What speed to some of you use?
Title: Re: Shutter speed on a camcorder
Post by: Liquid Drum on June 03, 2009, 01:38:36 PM: I use 1/50 in my PAL cam, I think the NTSC equivalent for that is 1/60.
Title: Re: Shutter speed on a camcorder
Post by: rastasean on June 03, 2009, 02:26:55 PM: Well what will you be filming and in what lighting condition?

Slower shutter would mean more light allowed in and if you're shooting something in a dark environment with a lot of movement, expect trailing. We have all taken bad pictures in the dark that show the movement, its the same with this situation.
High shutter speed would mean less light but you will be able to freeze the particular subject easier. Not ideal in low light conditions.
Title: Re: Shutter speed on a camcorder
Post by: Jerry Gash on June 03, 2009, 09:19:11 PM: I would experiment with the different settings, if you run at too high of shutter speed for the lighting conditions you can get kind of a weird strobe effect that looks like crap. I usually film in 24p mode therefore I tend to stick to 1/48 and just up or donw a notch or 2 according to light conditions.
Title: Re: Shutter speed on a camcorder
Post by: firmdragon on June 04, 2009, 01:19:08 AM: i'd just stick with 60.
Title: Re: Shutter speed on a camcorder
Post by: Petrus on June 06, 2009, 03:06:54 PM: If you do not want any funny strobing effects just stick with the normal 1/50 for PAL and 1/60 for NTSC. With video the exposure is adjusted with f-stop, ND filters and gain setting, NOT with shutter speed.