Slow shutter speed & blurry images

**Dr. T** · 01-08-2020, 09:03 PM

I just got a D810 and two Nikkor lenses, 16-35 wide angle and 28-300 zoom, both for fx format. It seems that with either lens, regardless of light, and despite having the camera set to auto for both f-stop and shutter speed, the shutter sounds too slow in taking the pic and too many images are blurry. The firmware is up to date. Has anyone else experienced this? Any suggestions? I don’t want to manually set everything every time. Thanks.

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**mikew** · 01-08-2020, 09:11 PM

Welcome to the forum, can you let us know the shutter speed F stop and ISO and subject, better still would be one of the images including exif.

**480sparky** · 01-08-2020, 09:11 PM

Do you have a maximum ISO set? If so, it may be low (like, 400) and there's not enough light at those low ISOs to get a faster shutter speed.

**BackdoorArts** · 01-08-2020, 09:26 PM

Yeah, I think Sparky has the root of your problem. If you're shooting with a fixed ISO then you need to make sure it's set to a value that will give you the shutter speed you need, which with a sensor as dense as the D810 will be about 2x the focal length (ie. 1/(focal length x 2) seconds.

Auto ISO is a great way to avoid this if you set the max to a value where noise is minimal.

**Andy W** · 01-08-2020, 09:37 PM

Welcome to the forum! Let us know how it does after checking the ISO settings.

**hark** · 01-08-2020, 11:29 PM

I also agree with Sparky and Jake.

As Jake mentioned, the sensor of the D810 is 36 mp. Because of this, your technique needs to be spot on or every slight amount of shake when taking photos will be even more visible than on an older body with a 12 mp sensor.

So if you are shooting at a focal length of 300mm, you want your shutter speed to be 2x the focal length...so in this case a shutter speed of at least 1/600" would work best (or whatever the next highest shutter speed value is above that number).

And to accomplish that, your ISO has to be high enough to compensate for a higher shutter speed. Clear as mud I'm sure.

**Bikerbrent** · 01-09-2020, 01:41 AM

Welcome aboard. Enjoy the ride.
We look forward to seeing more posts and samples of your work.

We await your reply to some of the above questions. And while you may not want to manually set everything every time you will need to get ways from full auto mode to get the best pictures.