180 rule. Fact or fantasy? I put it to the test.

[slup]

Could you see a difference in the motion blur of the 4 clips in my video?

In all of your 4 examples the distance were well above those 30m I mentioned in my earlier post, both to ground & objects ... furthermore the relative speed is rather slow & the different clips quite small preventing seeing them properly.

With that said ... I wouldn't expect any difference & I wouldn't consider motion blur in your setup, meaning I wouldn't try to keep any fixed shutter (& create a need of ND filters to get a proper exposure) in relation to any particular chosen frame rate.

 

[SkittleBob]

If you could do the same comparison with, say, a wind turbine I may be more convinced.

FWIW, when people have done this I've seen the benefit in ND filters.

Personally, I'm yet to get them as I don't need motion blur for flights of scenery.

 

[FlyingFilmmaker]

Not to be contrary, but along the lines of what others have said, the motion in your examples is fairly slow. For a more accurate test of whether motion blur/ 180 degree shutter speed makes a difference, try flying a few feet above the ground in sport mode. In that case it makes a very noticeable difference.

 

[SmilingOgre]

The only place where lower shutter angles bug me is on rather close up moderate or fast panning or Yaw. I can see the jitter or chopping. Kinda looks like the old paper flip pads I got as a child in a box of cracker jack.

 

[Donnie Frank]

I expect a lot of controversy over this video. But the proof is in the pudding, if you dont believe my findings, try it for yourself. Once you embrace this, you will be liberated. No more iffy footage trying to live by a century old "rule". No more unnecessary messing around with filters. You can get out, fly, and enjoy yourdelf!

Happy flying and have a good weekend.

Let me know what you think in the comments?

You absolutely nailed it. You WILL get a lot of controversy on this.

Your footage is a horrible example for a two reasons;

1) Essentially under-exposed.
2) It's the wrong kind of footage. The motion blur becomes apparent only when objects are moving across a screen or the camera is moving laterally. Shooting POI (with an object rotating in the center of a screen) does not motion blur make. Even the background is really moving too slowly to really notice motion blur or the lack thereof.

Motion blur is something you sense. You know when it's there and you know when it's not. Most people simply don't know why some footage looks "strange." They just know it does. I can spot it instantly. For example, I can instantly tell you if your television has "Motion Smoothing" enabled. It was the first thing I turned off when we got our 4K big screen.

All that said....

Shoot the way you want. But if you ever shoot for a production company, they will want you to employ the 180° rule.

D