Hummingbird question

Clovishound

Clovishound

Senior Member
What is the experience of folks here about how fast a shutter speed it requires to stop the blur of hummingbird wings? My new Z5 goes to 1/8000 and I'm wondering if that will do it? I know, the tried and true is flash. I was thinking about putting up a feeder and trying to take some photos. I did this years ago, and set up a pentax on a tripod with TTL flash an a homemade 25' shutter release. The flash and the noise of the motor drive (remember those?) would scatter the hummers for a few minutes, then they would return. With the mirrorless, I can put it in quiet mode and use Snapbridge to see what is in the frame. Without flash, I shouldn't drive the critters off. Just thinking, and wondering what your experiences have been.

Feel free to post any good shots you have.
 
Dangerspouse

Dangerspouse

Senior Member
Wev is a master of all things hummingbird, and you just have to troll through the "Birds" folder here to find hundreds if not thousands of examples of his prowess. Just check his EXIF data to see his shutter speed(s), but you could also ask him directly of course.

FWIW, I decided to try hummingbird photography just recently and posted my own initial shots which can be found here. I found that 1/3200 second froze the wings, and 1/2000th gave just enough blur to indicate motion.

Hope this helped, and good luck! They are beautiful :)
 
wev

wev

Senior Member
Contributor
The tricky part is that hummer's wings don't beat up and down, but in a figure eight, especially when hovering. This is one of a series I put on the BIF thread yesterday, that shows the curving stroke pretty good. If you want a full stop, you have to catch the wing straight ahead or straight back and perpendicular to the camera.

This was shot at 1/3200, far faster than I usually go, but I like some blur and don't use a flash, which is quite bad for their eyes.

Hummer20.jpg
 
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