For that CY shot, I used 1/1,000s @ f/5.6 with my 300mm lens. If possible, I would recommend at least 1/2000s, which is just about sufficient for dragonflies as well. Nowadays, for in-flight shots, I set my lens wide open and select aperture-priority mode on the camera. This ensures maximum possible shutter speed for the conditions. If the light isn't too good, then I increase the ISO setting, to maintain the necessary shutter speed.David M wrote:what kind of shutter speed do you need to get butterflies in flight without blurring?
In practice, I find that maintaining sharp focus is a bigger problem than shutter speed, when a butterfly is moving randomly amongst foliage. The focus, in my CY shot, is actually on the flowers in front of the butterfly, and the softness of the butterfly is very apparent if I enlarge the photo! I took that photo on my, then, newly acquired Nikon D70 but it was inadequate AF performance that eventually led me to buy a D300s. The much more sophisticated AF system, in cameras like the D3/D300/D7000, shows its advantage in these tricky situations, when these cameras have an uncanny ability to lock onto the subject as it moves through distracting objects.
(sorry, Wurzel, if I've hi-jacked your personal diary but I hope you will find this helpful too, when you are on the hunt!)
Mike