RockyGrass Photographs

Posted by: Steven Stone at 10:10 am, July 26th, 2009

In between playing mandolin, jamming, spending time with old friends, and trying to get a bit of sleep I made quite a few photographs. The on-stage photographs were made with a Panasonic G-1 at 800 ASA using its 45-200 zoom lens using its maximum extension of 200 mm (35mm equivalent would be 400mm) wide open at 5.6 with shutter speeds between 60th and 100th of a second. I also used a monopod. Conventional photography (i.e. film) would have required AT LEAST a 400th of a second to insure sharp pictures due to the extreme magnification used. The usual rule is that you must use the lenses’ focal length as the minimum shutter speed for sharp pix without camera shake, but with the G-1’s image stabilization I was able to shave more than two shutter speeds off that and still get sharp pictures.

 
In this situation not only did I save on weight (the G-1 with the 45-200 AND the monopod weighed less than 2 lbs.) but also made photographs that would have been nearly impossible with a film camera.