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How fast do they flap their wings?

Yuki Shiro

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As described above.
I want to grab pics of them in mid flight in the future, but they are pretty fast!
Would it be possible to get good pictures with 30pictures/second?
 

expressmailtome

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Feathery

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Are you using a phone to take the photos?

The shutter speed is what matters if using a camera and is measured in hundredths of a second when photographing fast moving objects.
 

Yuki Shiro

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Well - no. I mean, now yes, I have a very old mobile and of course it's blurry.

But I ask, because I want to buy a camera in general and I find it always fascinating, when I see pictures of birds
and their wings seem like "frozen".

Ok, the shutter, let me look for the data of the model I'm zooming in at.
...
But so far: If the camera takes 30 pictures a second, the shutter must be faster than 1/30 of a second.
 

Yuki Shiro

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Okay, it says 1/200th of a second.
Might be good? The question is, what is a fast moving object.

I didn't find the speed of a parrotlet, but
I found this about lovebirds now:
"lovebirds can go anywhere from 30 to 35 mph as other birds and parrots around their size have a similar speed"
That would be 15.55 meter/second and ~8 cm in said timeframe.
Hmm. But only at top speed - I guess no parrot would fly top speed inside?
 

Feathery

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Fast moving objects would be something like a race horse or a car. Birds wings are fast moving, even if they're not necessarily traveling at a high speed. Another example would be a ceiling fan, it's fast moving but it's also stationary.

Your post did not specify of you're photographing your pet bird indoors or if you're photographing in flight wild birds.

1/200s will be OK for indoor pet bird photos.
 

Feathery

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Also you'll want to look into how the flash (if used) will impact your bird. You certainly don't want to blind the bird with a flash while it's trying to fly and cause it to miss its landing, startle it, or otherwise cause harm.

Maybe someone else can offer tips photographing birds indoors.
 

Yuki Shiro

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Yes, no flashlight, very good point.

___________________________________________
As for the wings: In comparison, a hummingbird does 12-80 wing beats per second,
Which is a lot faster then most passerine birds (around 2-5/second)
... So maybe the wing moves 1 mm in this time? But it's still a very wild guess.

But I got nearer. It could work.
 

Yuki Shiro

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Fast moving objects would be something like a race horse or a car. Birds wings are fast moving, even if they're not necessarily traveling at a high speed. Another example would be a ceiling fan, it's fast moving but it's also stationary.

Your post did not specify of you're photographing your pet bird indoors or if you're photographing in flight wild birds.

1/200s will be OK for indoor pet bird photos.
Ah, okay, thanks, I totally missed this post somehow.
 

fashionfobie

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I hope your photos go well.

You will likely notice how much parrotlets free fall in flight. Flap flap, fall, flap flap fall, it is amazing!


:fly2:
 
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