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Get the exact shutter speed in seconds for any frame rate and angle — 1/48s at 24fps, 180°. Shows fraction, milliseconds, and decimal seconds.

📘 How to Use

  1. Pick a frame rate from the presets or type one in
  2. Set the shutter angle with the slider or a preset
  3. Read the shutter speed in seconds, milliseconds and 1/N fraction

Shutter Angle to Shutter Speed Calculator

fps
deg
Shutter speed
1/48 s
Exposure time
20.83 ms
Decimal
0.02083 s
info

A 180-degree shutter is the reference for natural, film-like motion blur. Keep this angle and the blur feel stays consistent across frame rates.

Formula: shutter speed (s) = shutter angle / (360 x frame rate)

The fraction is rounded to the nearest conventional 1/N value. Milliseconds and decimal seconds show the computed value.

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Article

Shutter Angle to Shutter Speed Calculator｜Convert the 180° Rule Instantly

Convert a cinema camera's shutter angle into the shutter speed your mirrorless or DSLR uses — seconds, milliseconds and a 1/N fraction. At 180° and 24fps you get 1/48s, or about 20.83ms. No more recalculating by hand every time you change frame rate or angle.

💡 About this tool

When you want natural, film-like motion blur, the reference is a 180-degree shutter angle. It exposes each frame for exactly half its duration, which works out to a shutter speed double the frame rate. At 24fps that is 1/48s on paper.

The friction is that most hybrid cameras are set in shutter speed (1/50, 1/60, and so on), while cine cameras are set in shutter angle (degrees). High-end cinema bodies favor angle precisely because it removes the clunky mental math every time you change frame rate — but if you are bridging both worlds, you still need the conversion.

This tool does exactly that bridge. Enter a frame rate and an angle and it shows three forms at once: a clean 1/N fraction, milliseconds, and decimal seconds. Presets cover 45°, 90°, 172.8° and 180°, plus one-tap frame rates from 23.976 up to 60fps.

🧐 Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between shutter angle and shutter speed? Shutter speed is the exposure time itself, in seconds. Shutter angle expresses that same exposure as a fraction of one frame, in degrees: 360° is the whole frame, 180° is half of it.

Why is 180° the standard? Early movie cameras used a rotating disc shutter whose opaque half formed a semicircle — 180°. Exposing each frame for half its length produced the motion blur our eyes read as natural, and the convention stuck.

What is the formula? Shutter speed (s) = shutter angle / (360 × frame rate). At 180° and 24fps that is 180 / (360 × 24) = 1/48s.

What happens if I widen the angle? A larger angle means a longer exposure and more motion blur. Smaller angles like 90° or 45° shorten the exposure, cutting blur for a sharper, more staccato look.

What is the 172.8° preset for? At 24fps, 172.8° gives an exposure of 1/50s. That is the go-to setting for avoiding flicker from lights and screens in 50Hz mains regions.

It shows 1/48s but my camera only has 1/50s. The tool reports the exact computed value (1/48s). On a real camera you pick the nearest available setting, usually 1/50s. The fraction is rounded to the nearest conventional 1/N value.

📚 Why filmmakers still talk in degrees

Shutter angle survives as a unit because of mechanical film cameras: exposure was literally set by how far a physical disc was cut open, so the unit became degrees. Digital cine cameras keep the angle notation for a practical reason — lock the angle and the blur feel stays constant across frame rates. Set 180° once and whether you roll at 24fps or 60fps, the exposure is automatically half the frame length, so you never recompute the shutter speed mid-shoot.