What affects image sharpness when hand-holding a Nikon D5100 with a 55-200mm VR lens?
Asked 6/8/2012
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I’m new to DSLR photography and trying to get more consistent sharpness from my images. I use a Nikon D5100 with the 55-200mm VR lens, mostly hand-held, and often shoot around 200mm. Typical settings are 1/250–1/400 sec at 200mm, ISO 100–1600, and usually f/8. Sometimes the same kind of settings give me a very sharp image, and other times they do not. I understand the basics of aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and focal length, but I’d like some practical rules of thumb for getting sharper results more consistently. What should I pay attention to, especially regarding shutter speed, VR, and autofocus?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
14y ago
2 Answers
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I would recommend to not enable VR unless you really need it.
If VR is on, then you must wait to engage. Half-press the shutter and wait a little time. If you press directly the shutter till the end to take the photo, the VR will not have time to set up and you will have a blurred image.
Also you must understand very good how the Phase Detection AF system works and what are its capabilities (ie. low light, AF point expansion etc.) - sometimes it focus where you think it will focus, sometimes not. For ex. a common beginner mistake is to have AF always on AF Servo.
Aside of that, see the clasical answers to the question which @mattdm referenced in his comment to your question.
Originally by user952. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user952
14y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
The biggest causes of inconsistent sharpness here are usually camera shake, autofocus behavior, and VR use.
Rules of thumb:
- For hand-holding, start with at least the reciprocal of the focal length, and on a crop-sensor camera like the D5100, use an even faster speed. At 200mm, 1/250–1/400 may be borderline; try faster speeds such as 1/500 or even 1/1000 to test your limits.
- VR helps only with your hand movement, not subject movement. If your subject is moving, you still need a fast shutter speed.
- If VR is on, half-press the shutter and give it a moment to stabilize before fully taking the shot. If you stab the shutter immediately, VR may not have settled.
- Don’t leave VR on by default if you don’t need it; compare results with VR on and off.
- Make sure autofocus is doing what you expect. A common beginner issue is using continuous/servo AF all the time, or having the camera focus on a different area than intended.
A good test is to shoot the same subject repeatedly at different shutter speeds, with and without VR, to learn what reliably works for your technique and lens.
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AI14y ago
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