Super Steady Shot

[deathvalleydave]

If you're hand-holding a landscape shot in bright light, say using F11 with the Sigma 12-24 on the A900, and at ISO 320 the camera's choosing a shutter speed of anywhere from 1/250 to 1/640 of a second, is it better to keep the SSS on or off? In terms of getting tack-sharpness...

When mounting the camera on a tripod, you would normally turn the SSS off, so I was just wondering if anyone had a recommendation for if or when you would turn SSS off on hand-held landscape shots in bright light.

Thanks,
Dave

[Greg Beetham]

I don't have an A900, but it's an interesting question just the same, I think the A700 is very similar too the A900 in terms of model era and technology so what works or not on it is probably going to be similar on the A900 as well.
Actually I don't think I've noticed all that much difference, if any, whether the AS/SSS is on or off on any of my cameras mounted on a tripod.
I think what might make a difference is if the system tries to accomodate for something moving in the image, grass being moved by the wind for example...that might cause a problem.
A hand held wide angle lens at high shutter speeds like 1/250sec through to 1/640sec, I don't think you would notice any difference whether SSS is on or off there. In any case there is an internal lens list for the camera to refer too for things like ADI flash exposure, and the way the SSS system responds to various focal lengths, focus distance and shutter speed etc. I have my doubts that it would be working very hard at that focal length with those shutter speeds.
But you are in a position to do a couple of photos with and without tripod and SSS etc. and then check them at 100%, I'd be interested in the results myself just to satisfy my own curiosity.
Greg

[Simmondsphotography]

I use both the A700 and A900 for natural history subjects, both with long lenses and hand held. The SSS is always switched ON at ISO 320 or even 640 on occasion. Shutter speeds can often be much higher than 1/800. All I know is that SSS works!! In fact on the rare occasion that I use a tripod, I have accidentally left the SSS switched on whilst using the remote release, realised my mistake turned SSS off and afterwards when viewing the images on a 27" screen, I can't see the difference!

[Greg Beetham]

Thinking about it for a sec, if I was going too shoot landscapes with an A900 and a good wide angle lens (I would use natural perspective 50mm and do a pano instead, but thats another story) I would use a tripod and angage mirror lockup with a remote release and try with SSS turned off and on; even with a heavy tripod there's always a chance of wind vibrations, heavy road transport etc. interfering with the exposure.
Greg

[David Kilpatrick]

SSS is effective even at the highest shutter speeds. Minolta engineers confirmed this at the very start - I asked them whether if you set, say, 1/4000th the AS of the 7D would turn off. They said not, and that it is active, and can actually improve shots even at such high speeds.

If you doubt this, get hold of any camera with live view, use 14X magnification, fit a 300mm lens and see what the image looks like on the screen as you hand hold. You'll quickly see that at 1/500th, 1/1000th or whatever it's still worth leaving SSS active.

Of course this applies less to a 24mm or 16mm lens but it does no harm, and may do good.

David

[Greg Beetham]

What about wide angle on a tripod David, any hard info on that?
Greg

[David Kilpatrick]

Turn it off on any steady tripod. Leave SSS on if the wind is vibrating the pod, or you are having to steady it - etc. If the camera is rock solid, SSS will harm sharpness and can do so at any shutter speed.

David

[alphaomega]

I obey a simple rule. If I do not use a tripod - and I rarely do - I leave SSS on regardless of lens, ISO or shutter speed. If I switched off, I would forget to switch on again when it really mattered. In addition, using particularly my A550, I tend to move up the ISO setting a notch compared with A350 to gain extra shutter speed. Can't get too much shutter speed, except if you wish to show "blurred water" at a waterfall or similar.

[Lobo]

What about when using a macro lens at 1:1? SSS on or off?

A while back taking photo's of fungi in the woods with my A700 tripod mounted (benbo) I tried with sss on and off; also using remote release (infa red), 10 sec selftimer and 2 sec. In all cases I was using very slow shutter speeds at f8 ~ f16 and I have to say that I was disappointed with the sharpness. With my old Dynax I always got sharp results; somehow I don't find the Alpha so consistant. Has anyone else found this? Maybe it's me!

[Heidfirst]

same as per alphaomega - on tripod SSS off, handheld SSS on even with a 1:1 macro (in my case a Tamron 180mm).
If by your old Dynax you mean a 5D/7D then your reolution has increased noticeably if you view at 100% on a monitor.
Also, imo the CCD gives a nicerr image at low ISO than the CMOS in the A700.

[Jasper_D]

Same goes for me, ´Off´ when tripod mounted, ´On´ otherwise. I´m not sure how to act with a Wimberley gimball head though, need some more testing. I would have thought ´On´ when used for tracking birds for instance, but for the moment, I stick to the rule, merely because of lack of other indicators.

[Lobo]

By Dynax I mean the 700Si 35mm film camera.

[Heidfirst]

are you comparing output like for like (i.e. same size prints from both)?
are you post-processing at all?

[Lobo]

Post processing from Raw to Jpeg, yes. Comparison is with slides.

[RandGraph47]

Turn it off on any steady tripod. Leave SSS on if the wind is vibrating the pod, or you are having to steady it - etc. If the camera is rock solid, SSS will harm sharpness and can do so at any shutter speed.

David

David,

One of my few peeves with the A900 is the inability to have the SSS turned off as part of any of the Memory Preset modes. As a result, I've accidentally left it on, tripod mounted, any number of times! Arrgghh....

I've resorted to making nice stick-on labels for my wireless remote transmitter and receiver, my Acratech ball-head clamp, my tripod leg base, and even the ball head cover - that say, "SSS OFF!". All in hopes that one of them will register in my pea-sized brain as I go to mount my A900 on the tripod!



Do you think it possible, via firmware, to include haivng the SSS turn off as one of the parameters in the 1-3 memory modes? If so, it would be a huge boon to my "landscape shooting mode!" Thinking about this more.... why shouldn't the MLU mode, when selected, automatically turn off the SSS?

Regards,
Rand