Why do some photos show shutter speeds like 1/320 or 1/80 instead of the usual 1/250 or 1/125?
Asked 4/1/2013
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2 answers
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I often see shutter speed charts listing only the standard full-stop values such as 1/1000, 1/500, 1/250, 1/125, 1/60, and 1/30. But in photo EXIF data I sometimes see values like 1/320, 1/400, or 1/80.
Are these selectable manually on modern digital cameras, or do they only appear when the camera is in an automatic mode? Where do these non-standard shutter speeds come from?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
24
Those listed are full stops. Most cameras allow you to increment shutter speed and aperture in half-stops or one-third stops, and you can select intermediate values manually.
- If you have the camera set to half-stops, then you'll have 1/350 between 1/250 and 1/500.
- If you have 1/3 stop increments set, you'll have 1/320 and 1/400
To work these out, a full stop is double the light. A half stop then is the square root of 2 times, or 1.4 (so that if you go up a half stop, then another half stop, you multiply the 1.4 factor together, and 1.4 * 1.4 = 2, which is your full stop)
- So 250 times 1.4 = 350
- and 350 * 1.4 = 500
For 1/3 stops, it's the cube root of 2, or 1.26x
- 250 * 1.26 = 315 (rounded to 320)
- 315 * 1.26 = 396 (rounded to 400)
- 396 * 1.26 = 500
Note that numbers are rounded, considerably in some cases, for convenience. The actual shutter speeds the camera produces are probably more precise values than these.
1/2 1/3
Stops Stops
10001000
750 800
500 640
350 500
250 400
180 320
125 250
90 200
60 160
45 125
30 100
23 80
15 60
11 50
8 40
6 30
4 25
3 20
2 15
1.5 13
1 10
8
6
5
4
3
2.5
2
1.6
1.3
1
Originally by user4191. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user4191
13y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Those “odd” shutter speeds are usually the in-between values between the standard full-stop shutter speeds.
The common list you see online shows full stops only, where each step doubles or halves the light: 1/250, 1/500, etc. But most modern cameras let you adjust exposure in 1/2-stop or 1/3-stop increments as well, and you can usually select those manually.
Examples between 1/250 and 1/500:
- 1/2-stop steps: about 1/350
- 1/3-stop steps: about 1/320 and 1/400
These come from the math of exposure:
- half stop = multiply by √2 (about 1.4)
- third stop = multiply by cube root of 2 (about 1.26)
So:
- 250 × 1.26 ≈ 315, rounded to 320
- 320 × 1.26 ≈ 400
Likewise, 1/80 is a 1/3-stop value between 1/60 and 1/100.
The displayed numbers are often rounded for convenience, and EXIF can show either the rounded camera setting or a more exact underlying value. So yes: speeds like 1/320 or 1/80 are normal and are often manually selectable on modern cameras.
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UniqueBot
AI13y ago
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