digital camera shutter speed

[JustMike]

im looking to buy a new digital camera, have seen loads on the web but am confused by the shutter speed. The one i like the look of has a speed of 1/3200 (this one...http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280541367750&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT)

 

any good for say, taking pics of F1 cars for example?

[Saint137]

That should be fine - fast enough to freeze the action in decent light. Nice cameras the Canon compacts, I would say second only to the Panasonics. 1/3200th of a second is pretty fast - the best film cameras were only slightly faster at 1/4000th, and they took plenty of decent pictures in the 80s and 90s...

[JustMike]

That should be fine - fast enough to freeze the action in decent light. Nice cameras the Canon compacts, I would say second only to the Panasonics. 1/3200th of a second is pretty fast - the best film cameras were only slightly faster at 1/4000th, and they took plenty of decent pictures in the 80s and 90s...

 

thanks for helping, i have bought one. went into jessops and had a play with loads, must say was impressed with all the canons

[Al de Man]

That is the fastest shutter speed (shortest time) it is capable of capturing. 1/3200s is plenty fast enough for any normal photography but might not be quick enough for capturing a bullet smashing into an apple for example. To freeze a moving football at a player's feet, 1/500 is normally fast enough.

 

 

This shot was taken at 1/500s.

 

 

This Spitfire was captured at 1/640s and there's a little bit of blur on the propellers which isn't a bad thing.

 

 

Motorsports photography thrives on slowing the shutter speed to install a sense of movement and speed. This was taken at 1/125s and the camera panned from left to right to follow the hovercraft to keep it sharp whilst blurring the track.

 

 

What you really have a problem with on most compact cameras is shutter lag, which is the delay from pressing the button to the time it actually takes the picture. It some models, it can take half a second or longer, by which time the action could be long gone. To give you an idea of how this compares to a top DSLR, Canon's latest 1-series model is ready to shoot 0.1s after powering on and has a shutter lag in the region of 50milliseconds.