Casio Exilim: Is Shutter Speed Enough?

Question

Im buying a new camera...I already ordered it... this is the link to the camera

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8811701

in the description it says that the Casio Exilim has a maximum shutter speed of 1/2000 of a second....my question is....will this be enough to take a clear picture of a hummingbird flying still in the air? the ad for the camera says you can take a picture of a racecar zooming by without blur....my main purpose of the camera isnt for taking pictures of hummingbirds....i was just curious to see if i could do this....also...10.1 megapixels...i heard that's amazing picture quality...would you agree? leave any other comments about the camera if you wish....thanks :D

Answer 1

1/2000 sec. is enough to freeze the wings of a hummingbird in flight as proven by the following examples:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?ss=2&ct=5&...

You'd need atleast something like 1/1000 to do this.

There's another problem to worry about though: will the camera use the shutter speed that's required for the task. Since it's a point & shoot camera that's fully automatic there's really no telling whether the camera will or won't. You could try one of the "sports" or "children" scene modes, if available, but other factors like available lighting will affect the cameras decision.

Another reason why point and shoot cameras are bad for bird photography is the skimpy 3X zoom lens commonly glued onto them. If you intend to capture hummingbirds in the wild you'll have to approach the bird to get a nice picture.

Answer 2

1/2000th's of a second is MUCH faster than what you'd need to stop action in your action shots.

if you use a shutter speed of around 1/250th, you should be able to stop action.

Other than that, this is a really nice camera. That's a nice shutter speed range. However, when you pay more for cameras, the shutter speed goes up, because it would be for more demanding photographers