....there will never be a scenario where you will be able to use 180,000 of a second shutter speed. even using an ultra fast lens (f/.95, for example), wide open on a sunny day, you'll never have enough light to get anywhere near that, unless maybe you're within 100 meters of a nuclear explosion or you plan to take jeff bezo's rocket to the sun and photograph its surface. there may be scientific applications where 1/180,000 would be used, but i can't think of any....if anyone knows of any common scenario where 180,000 of a second shutter speed would even render an image at a usable ISO, i'd love to know.
for shooting lightning storms, especially at night, people use quite slow shutter speeds and try to get their ISO between 100 and 400. it's very dark outside, so, because in addition to the lightning strike, you want to get the surroundings of the landscape to show up, you need a longer shutter speed....i have read that people use up to 20 second shutter speeds.
for shooting even the fastest moving sports outdoors or indoors, even motor sports, you'll never have enough light to shoot anywhere near 180,000 of a second, nor would you ever need a shutter speed that fast to freeze motion. if you have enough light to use 1/1000 indoors, you'll be lucky and that will be more than sufficient. outdoors, with more sun, you might be able to go faster, but i would use any extra light to instead stop the lens down a bit for a bit more depth of field to make up for a subject moving out of the focal plane or to lower the ISO for better image quality. 1/1000 is even more than enough for motor sports since you'll likely be panning along with the car anyway.
for photos where people completely freeze motion of stuff like a bullet, an exploding balloon or a hummingbird's wings, they use strobes which have a duration of something like 1/20,000 of a second but provide a burst of light strong enough to allow an exposed image even at low ISO.
so, for choosing your camera, don't worry about fastest shutter speed....every camera out there will be fast enough for you. some things to think about, instead, are:
1. low light performance (some high resolution sensors are lacking here)
2. lens selection (does the camera mount have a selection of lenses that includes the focal lengths and speeds that you want or need)
3. frame rate (will you be shooting a lot of fast moving sports or birds in flight where you need enough frames per second to give you a higher "keeper" rate)
4. autofocus speed and accuracy (important for fast moving subjects)
5. build quality (will you need something that can withstand jostling or banging around and will you need a weather proof body because you'll be out in the rain, etc)
6. menu systems and user interface (try out several brands and models to see which ones are easiest for you to use...remember that you'll often be making fast adjustments on the fly and you don't want to miss any shots because of a confusing interface)
7. sensor size (there is a lot to consider here and the internet is full of debates and opinions on the subject....there are advantages and disadvantages to each of the 3 most popular sensor formats: full frame, APS-C and micro 4/3...so a lot of it depends on what you'll be shooting and your preferences/restrictions for size and weight of the gear)
there are other things to consider, as well, such as how much image stabilization you'll need or whether or not you'll also be using the camera for video, etc. fuji makes great cameras, no matter which one you select, i think you'll be happy.....but, in the end, brand doesn't matter....all the brands make entry level gear, hobbyist gear and pro gear and you always get what you pay for.
= new reply since forum marked as read
