Camera shake

Camera shake refers to the fact that the camera movement is fast enough given the actual shutter speed to be visible by creating either streaks on bright spots or some blur on darker objects. This is often seen as a defect, but sometimes it can also be used for creative purposes.

The general rule to avoid camera shake is to take a picture using a speed which is greater (read: time is shorter) than the inverse of the 35mm equivalent length of the lens you’re shooting with.

Here are two examples :

• For example, suppose you’re shooting using a film SLR using a 50mm lens. Then to keep your picture sharp, you should shoot at least using a 1/50s speed, like 1/250s for instance.
• Now you’re shooting with a dSLR with a crop factor of 1.6 (Canon 350D, 20D. Nikon D50, D70...) using a 50mm lens. The equivalent lens length, is 50 x 1.6 = 80mm. You should shoot at least at 1/80s. But this speed usualy doesn’t exists on cameras, so shoot at 1/100s to play the safe side.

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