> The guy at
> the camera store advised me to shoot at a shutter speed of one over the
> focal length of the lens, in this case one four-hundredth of a second.
> Will this suffice, or should I go higher?
This rule of thumb works, but is by no mean 100% secure. Higher is
better, if you can afford it. But don't forget that the larger the
aperture, the smaller the DOF. And focusing with a slow lens on very
active subjects can be quite challenging.
I recommend using a monopod. This should be ok for your subject, and you
could keep 1/500s, with a reasonable aperture (about f/11 if it is sunny
and you are using 400 ISO film).
Hope this helps,
Nicolas.
