How shaky are your hands?

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Vertigo1

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How steady can you hold a lens? I used to think I was fairly normal but I'm now wondering whether I'm not.

Recently got a 70-200 F4 IS. The IS works superbly, seriously reducing camera movement but doesn't remove it completely by any means. I'd not expect it to remove all movement but I have heard people say "wait until the image becomes still" when discussing IS and it's made me wonder whether I'm not holding the camera as steady as most others are. Of course everything's relative but my father suffers from a slight loss of fine motor control, causing his hands to shake visibly under some conditions. Whilst I haven't noticed this in myself yet, it does bear thinking about.
 
being human beings were not perfect and we all shake (some more than others) is using said lens the first time youve used a lens of that length ?

i know the first time i used a lens at 500 mm i felt like a nervous wreck :D.

to answer the question i can use a shutter speed that matches the focal length and not much lower.
 
My hands are not steady either, I find it cheaper to use a monopod or tripod than have all my lenses IS mind you :)
 
Ive always had a pretty steady hand.. and can take most macro shots without a tripod.

A 100 lens at 1/30 is ok for me.
 
i like to think my hands are rock steady (except when i want them not to :p )
took a 4 second hand held long exposure earlier that aint half bad.. well i think so anyway.. :D

that however was a small lens, a 300mm + however may be a different story
 
Tis the first time I've had a 200mm lens, yes. Just wondering how much the image "should" move about, with and without IS, to judge if my "skills" are normal in this regard :)

If I am more shaky than normal then even better that I got the IS version! :)
 
I find it easiest to use the old Japanese technique of stopping one's heart for a couple of seconds best, as below 1/4 sec without doing so I'm struggling with the 300mm lens. Once stopped though, even 1 sec gets a pretty good image at 300mm,, and fab at anything less than 50mm

I bet there's loads here using that technique though?
 
Presume you mean stopping your breathing rather than your heart!?
 
I quite regularily shoot down to 1/15th at 300m, done it a few times at 600mm using the teleconveter too. Done 1/2 sec at 100mm before too and got that sharp but i had to prop my hands on my knees while sitting for that one.
 
i could confirm that, but then i'll have to kill you, from 5miles away of course :D
 
How the hell do you stop your own heart!?
 
With a sharp knife. :D
 
I use the technique used by sharpshooters in the Olympics. That is, I exhale very slowly as I hit the shutter. Holding your breath, even just for a few seconds, will cause you to shake.

You probably already know that the rule of thumb for what you can reasonably expect to handhold is the reciprocal of the lens length. So, a 200mm lens can usually be successfully handheld at 1/200th (round to 1/250th.) Of course, some people are much steadier, and some people are much shakier.

I work a lot in very low light conditions, so I've trained myself to handhold better than i used to. Keeping in mind that Bronica lenses (medium format) do not have image stabilization, I can generally handhold my standard 75mm 2.8 at 1/4 or so.

If you need a small bit of extra steadiness but don't want to use a monopod, many people find it helpful to tie a loop in a long piece of twine that can be slipped over the lens and extended to the floor. Step on the end of the twine with the camera in position so that the twine is taut. It's a primative yet helpful and highly mobile monopod.

- CJ
 
I never thought of that string idea but it sounds like it would work quite well. I do a similar technique to you CJ although I never knew it was a sharpshooter technique I just found it naturally steadied me.
 
There's one more thing to help being steady and that's relaxing your body, so that your grip if firm but not as if you were trying to strangle the camera or the lens. If you breath slowly (if possible), it's better than holding your breath in most cases, because when you hold your breath, your heart rate might increase a little in a few seconds, whereas when breathing slowly, it helps you being relaxed and gripping your gear with proper strength and effort.
I have found out when I was having trouble with shake and slightly blurry photos (they were never really quite sharp when viewed at 100%), which is now fixed if I keep to the 1/{focal length of the lens used} or a little above (depends on other things as well).
I've heard of the technique cjnicolai mentioned, but as I tend to change position rather quickly and I forget myself easily, it would be hazardous for me. There's an alternative with using a strap which is fixed to your body, but it's almost certainly less effective (haven't tried it yet, it's too restrictive in some ways too).

Stopping your heart was, apparently, just a silly joke.
 
Slapo said:
Stopping your heart was, apparently, just a silly joke.
Click to expand...

???? Silly????

There's a little known variation on CJ's string-pulled-tight idea used by Brazilian rain-forest pygmies. Said pygmies are unusually well endowed in certain parts, and through piercing their foreskins can create a 'd-ring' that can be fastened around small trees or branches. This allows them to lean well back without falling over and, by creating a 'tripod' as such, they can better await monkeys coming overhead for a shot with their bow & arrow
 
I'll second the breathing out method, works well for shooting, both with cameras and rifles.
 
Vertigo1 said:
How steady can you hold a lens? I used to think I was fairly normal but I'm now wondering whether I'm not.
Click to expand...

Once I've got the first few vodkas down my neck in the morning I find I hardly need the IS switched on :D
 
Nothing worse than shake if in a high stress situation. Breathing out Def works. Also "Bach's Rescue Remedy" is the business. Available in health food shops. Few drops on the tongue and it settles you down. May sound airy fairy. But I swear by it. Recently did driving test and a wedding. Both hell but it really really helped!
 
I do shake quite badly...and no it's not the booze :D I find I really need a support of some kind, when using anything heavier than a nifty fifty lens, otherwise no matter how careful I am, I have a lot of useless pics!! Trouble is, as soon as you show up with a DSLR, everyone expects perfection. I was at a gig the other night with absolutely awful lighting (village hall, overhead strip lights to start, then all off and nothing but a tiny spot light on the music stand).

I ended up with ISO 1600, f2.8 and still couldn't get anything fast enough to stop my wobble. Images rubbish!! However, my friend with her little point and shoot got some great shots.............:(
 
DiddyDave said:
Nope - at slow shutter speeds it's the blood pumping through your veins that makes your hands shake most - to be really still you have to stop your heart

Any snipers here (???) would tell you they have the same problem/solution
Click to expand...

Spot on, I used to do rifle shooting for a few years and I learnt to slow my heart rate down very low.

Naturally this has carried through to my photography where I am comfortable doing 1/15th or so with anything up to 200mm but that's pretty much my limit handheld
 
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