I only did this for Waddi to see what a difference a monopod/tripod can make as he was asking about it the other day.

Basically, for the first time since I got it, I bought me monopod upto me flat to get some photos of with and without using it in the dark.

All the photo's were taken at a full telephoto end of 300mm or 10.7x optical zoom. It is very very hard to keep a camera stable at these sorts of legnths.

All photo's are completely un-edited, except for resizing in CS3 and basic sharpening applied to every one, regardless of whether they need it or not. Sharpening tends to make really jerky photos look not so jerkey lol.

And here you can see why a monopod/tripod makes the world of difference when shooting at night:

Right, you think that last shot was clear... well yes it is. But not as clear as it should be I think you will agree.

However, here is one last trick. The sole reason that shot is not 100% clear is because when you depress the button, you do shake the camera lens very very slightly, and when shooting at night, this is picked up extremely easy.

So, if your camera doesnt support remote shooting addons, what do ya do? Simple, just use the self time. A self timer set to two seconds is about enough for you to press the button and the shake to have stopped completely by the time the photo has been taken.

Now here are the shots taken with the self time, monopod and a 4 second shutter:

So there we have it. I hope thats a few tips for anyone who is interested and shows the difference a monopod/tripod does make, and even the self-timer trick!

Good luck folks

Thanks for that Matty, think I'm gonna have to get a monopod then. the self timer trick is a goodin, but I
surely if taking action shots, when you dont know when your going to need to press the shutter until its happening, by that time it would be too late to set a 2second delay, by the time it went off the subject would be long gone. i.e motorsport or wildlife.

Next experiment, can you take 2 photos of the same place, 1 at no zoom and 1 at full optical zoom, just so I can see the zoomage please.

Action shots require a fast shutter speed.

What that is in its most basic form is the shutter will open and
close so fast, that image has been snapped.

Problems: Fast Shutter
You typically need more light (Sunny day)
as there is less light getting in at those speeds.
So you could end up with darker pictures than intended.

At Night : Fast Shutter
They dont mix, unless you have a flash and its close range
but even then you probably wont get the results you want.

Next Experiment
Yes you can, providing you stay still (Tri pod)
But alot of zooming gets done in photo shop nower days,
just get the picture with digital and fix it later

Auto Timers
Waddi what Mattys explaining is that if you have to leave the shutter open for any period of time more than the norm,
you vulnerable to "Camera Shake" be it your own hands or the
pressure on the tripod, any movement no matter how small will
cause blurring. So as matty explaines on those open shutter
pictures which are typically at night, let the camera take
the picture. Then there will be no blurring at all.

Pros used to use the lead also that they could depress
from a distance, so not camera movement occured.

Once you have done it once or twice it will all make sense mate

Hope that helps

Its all to do with the speed of light hitting that shutter
to make an image, remember to old days peeps had to stay
perfectly still for 5min, and he had a cloth over his head.

More Light / Flash = Faster shutter = shaper pics.
Less Light = Slower Shutter = possibility to blur.

Mark pretty much explained that for ye. To be honest, if you were in an area that is quite light, even at night, you "shouldnt" really need a slow shutter speed/self timer, although this is dependent upon the camera's capabilities.

In most night time situations, I find I dont really need the monopod, its only when shooting at the telephoto end to be honest.

During the daylight, you shouldnt need a slow shutter speed at all. The slow shutter speed should only be used at night where you are trying to soak up as much light as possible.

In the daylight, not matter whether I am at the telephoto or wide angle side of the lens, I never get camera shake.

Dont forget the beauty of the slow shutter speed + tripod + self timer + road with cars on at night = really cool motion blur road photos hehe.

Haha ive just found a photo with the motion blur effect I was talking about that I took last night: