General questions
Author
Discussion

UKBob

Original Poster:

16,277 posts

295 months

Wednesday 26th April 2006
quotequote all
Anyone have any idea how long the new canon's battery life last in standby mode? Always forget to turn it off, but the battery never seems to go flat.

will changing from evaluative metering to spot metering affect the sharpness of the focus when shooting toothpicks standing upright? I had some not very successful experiments focusing on tiny plants and toothpicks, the photos came out a little soft. Im hoping the problem lies with me, and not my new 24-70(!) (which arrived today )

And does know what the slowest shutter speed one can *comfortably* shoot hand held at 70mm? (or 112mm with the 1.6 crop?)

marctwo

3,666 posts

290 months

Wednesday 26th April 2006
quotequote all
UKBob said:
Anyone have any idea how long the new canon's battery life last in standby mode? Always forget to turn it off, but the battery never seems to go flat.


Camera goes into standby so uses almost no power. I usually leave it like this all day so a single shutter press will wake it and you're ready to shoot.

UKBob said:
will changing from evaluative metering to spot metering affect the sharpness of the focus when shooting toothpicks standing upright? I had some not very successful experiments focusing on tiny plants and toothpicks, the photos came out a little soft. Im hoping the problem lies with me, and not my new 24-70(!) (which arrived today )


It should not affect the focussing but will affect the exposure. Many lenses are softer at their widest aperture (f2.8 in your case). Try a little unsharp mask in Photoshop and you should be sorted.

UKBob said:
And does know what the slowest shutter speed one can *comfortably* shoot hand held at 70mm? (or 112mm with the 1.6 crop?)


Usually 1 / focual length. E.g. in your example 1/112 th of a second.

V6GTO

11,579 posts

272 months

Wednesday 26th April 2006
quotequote all
Point 1) Marctwo is correct.

Point 2) To find out if it's you or the lens/camera take the same shots but this time use a tripod ans cable release.

Point3) Everyone is different, and while Marctwo is right in what he says this is only a general guideline. Some people have the shakes, others are rock solid, you'll need to experiment to find your own personal limits.

HTH.

Martin.