Perfect shutter speed for moving trains?

[lm321412]

Hi,

Since I have got a D-SLR (Sony Alpha A390), I have had a slight problem with photographing moving trains, without a slight blur. So, this has led me to think that the shutter speed is wrong.

So, far a perfectly clear image, what is the optimum shutter speed when the train is moving?

 

[Ferret]

Hi,

Since I have got a D-SLR (Sony Alpha A390), I have had a slight problem with photographing moving trains, without a slight blur. So, this has led me to think that the shutter speed is wrong.

So, far a perfectly clear image, what is the optimum shutter speed when the train is moving?

That depends how quickly it's moving! A Pendo at 125mph would see me at a minimum of 1/1000 of a second. A freight doing 60 would probably be 1/500 or 1/640. A pres line train at 25mph would see me using 1/400 or maybe even 1/320.

 

[NSEFAN]

I have been told that a good estimate is 1 / (train speed x 10) , eg a train moving at 25 mph should have at least 1/250, 100mph needs 1/1000. I often get away with far less than this, however.

As for the other settings, I try to keep the ISO as low as possible and the aperture as high as possible. My camera only goes up to an aperture of 8 or so, but an SLR can go much higher usually. Decreasing the aperture lets more light in, so generally an increase in shutter speed necessitates a decrease in aperture in order to get an image bright enough.

 

[rail-britain]

My Fujifilm has a SPorts mode
This manages to work out the minimum shutter speed for me, and for trains at 100mph and above the majority of photos are at 1/250s to 1/400s
However, for this it sets the ISO rather high at 400
For slower trains it seems to set the ISO lower at 100

On my previous SLR camera I would have set the ISO for the film, adjusted the shutter speed relevant to the speed, and the compromise would then be the depth of field
With this current camera all these calculations are removed and I end up with photos with the same depth of field (in SPorts mode)

I rarely take photos now where I want a lower depth of field

 

[Royal Male]

Also, this depends on the angle of which the subject is approaching you.

if its side on and square withn you, you can obtain a better panning movement with a lower shutter speed than if it was approaching you almost head on.

 

[windoze11]

All depends on the weather i usually got for an aperture around f8 and iso 200 sometimes have to do low shutter speed due to weather and hold the camera still it cant be hard sometimes but i think ive had positive results as i usually post my pix on here

 

[c259]

Since I bought my Canon EOS 500D in January, I've been using 1/1000 for all moving train photo's.

Hasn't failed me yet!

Here's some examples. All taken at in shutter speed priority at 1/1000.


55022 (D9000) 'Royal Scots Grey' by chrismid259, on Flickr


70009 by chrismid259, on Flickr


66701 by chrismid259, on Flickr