Shutter speeds on Inspire Pro - advice needed

Awdbugga61 · Apr 12, 2016

Hi all,
I need to do some filming of a real estate property here in the UK. Believe it or not the forecast is for sun tomorrow here in the UK and the property is painted brilliant white, with the sun on it for most of the day. My understanding is that I'm best to operate with a shutter speed that's twice the frame rate; which is 25 frames per second, so I'm looking at a shutter speed of 1/50th of a second. That leaves me just the ISO and aperture to control the light entering the camera. I have no ND filter yet for the X5 (standard lens).

If I found that I had to increase the shutter speed to say 1/100th of a second or 1/200th to avoid bleaching out, what would be the effect on the video? Bearing in mind that it will be rendered at 25 frames per second, as it's part of a longer video which includes internal video footage. Would the drone footage be jittery, shimmer, or be plain downright cr*p.

Sorry if it sounds a dumb question, but video is all new to me, I've come from still photography.

Thanks in advance.
cheers
John

Simon Mallin · Apr 12, 2016

Awdbugga61 said:
Hi all,
I need to do some filming of a real estate property here in the UK. Believe it or not the forecast is for sun tomorrow here in the UK and the property is painted brilliant white, with the sun on it for most of the day. My understanding is that I'm best to operate with a shutter speed that's twice the frame rate; which is 25 frames per second, so I'm looking at a shutter speed of 1/50th of a second. That leaves me just the ISO and aperture to control the light entering the camera. I have no ND filter yet for the X5 (standard lens).

If I found that I had to increase the shutter speed to say 1/100th of a second or 1/200th to avoid bleaching out, what would be the effect on the video? Bearing in mind that it will be rendered at 25 frames per second, as it's part of a longer video which includes internal video footage. Would the drone footage be jittery, shimmer, or be plain downright cr*p.

Sorry if it sounds a dumb question, but video is all new to me, I've come from still photography.

Thanks in advance.
cheers
John

Hi John,

I'm no expert either but unlike the X3 you have a range of stops on the X5 to close the aperture down which will help, though as you'll be aware you probably don't want to go beyond f11. That's equivalent to 4 stops on an X3 (fixed at f2.8) or an ND16 filter which may be on the edge for what you are shooting.

Shoot in manual with the ISO at 100 and then if need be I think you would be okay to go to 1/100 on the shutter. A fast shutter can make movement look a bit 'jumpy' as opposed to having natural motion blur but I think this is mainly a problem with moving objects like a ball or an athlete running. Have a look at this:

How Shutter Speeds & Frame Rates Can Be Used to Change the Look & Feel of Your Film

I have an X3 and sometimes go to 1/100 instead of landing to change ND filters if the sun brightens up. Can't say I notice any difference on the playback but I guess an expert may spot it. Hopefully one of them will pitch in with more advice - and probably tell you I've got it all wrong !

Hope all goes well,

Simon