1/30s Shutter?

Due to the 180 degree shutter used in film cameras, the optimum shutter speed on a digital SLR should usually be around 1/2n where n = frame rate. For PAL 25fps therefore, the shutter should be 1/50s. If you shoot with a higher shutter than this, you can get very "staccato" looking images, especially during fast motion shots. However, what about shooting at the camera's minimum of 1/30s? The image might become too soft and there might be too much motion blur, however it's something I am going to try soon. The benefit of this is that for low light shooting, you can get away with a lower ISO or smaller aperture.....

Posted a demonstration video showing different shutter speeds at my Vimeo pages: www.vimeo.com/digitalvideoslr

DSLR CAMFRAME

Just bought a DSLR Camframe from B-Hague in Nottingham as shown here (without the camera which was taking the picture!). It provides side and top handles together with two additional hot shoe mounts (which I have used to mount my 126 LED light to one side, and HDMI field monitor / Zoom H4N to the other side).

Canon XLH1s vs. Canon 550D

Decided that in a few weeks time I am going to make a demonstration video comparing the differences / similarities of the Canon 550D SLR and the Canon XLH1s camcorder. I want to compare the DoF available with the same aperture on both. The Canon XLH1s, like many camcorders is around a x7 crop factor so I would have thought that with say an f1.8 aperture, the DoF is still going to be extremely deep. The plan is to film a tape measure from an angle so that the DoF can be measured and compared. The camcorder lens is a 5.5mm to 108mm "L" lens (equivalent to approx. 38mm to 778mm in 35mm format) and has a maximum f number of 1.6. Should be an interesting comparison.