Canon T2i: Shutter Speed/Aperture?

Question by Sean: Canon T2i: Shutter Speed/Aperture?
I am a filmmaker that has begun to use DSLR cameras. I have a Canon T2i.

I have finally began to understood ISO, but I still need to figure out Shutter Speed and Aperture.

Firstly, Aperture. Would I be correct in saying that when I set my lens to f/5.6, it will give me a sharper image than at f/1.8?

Secondly, Shutter Speed. What is better, 1/60 or 1/4000?

I understand ISO and I kind of understand Aperture, but I have no idea how to work with the Shutter Speeds in video mode.

Thanks for the help!

Best answer:

Answer by fhotoace
“Secondly, Shutter Speed. What is better, 1/60 or 1/4000”

Lets talk about that part of the question. Which shutter speed do you think will freeze action?

What shutter speed do you think your camera uses when shooting at 24 fps? 30 fps?

Answer those question and you will be on your way to understanding shutter speeds.

Now to the first question. If your lenses largest aperture is f/1.8, will f/5.6 be sharper. Yes it will, but usually the sharpest aperture is two stops down from wide open, to THE sharpest aperture with that lens would actually be f/4. The least sharp are apertures that are f/22 or f/32. This is due to diffraction as the light goes through an aperture that is almost as small as the aperture leaves are thick

Here is how you balance the cameras ISO, shutter speed and lens aperture.

http://camerasim.com/camera-simulator/

Video “shutter speeds”

Standard cine speed is 24 frames per second (fps):

The standard calculation puts the shutter speed at cine speed to be 1/50th second.

The standard video speed is 30 fps and the shutter speed is just about 1/60th second.

Do you see a pattern here? If you know the frame rate of the motion picture or video, you can double that number and place it under a 1 to get the approximate shutter speed. xx fps = 1/(2 *xx) shutter speed

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!