SHUTTER SPEED. Cameras have a shutter that opens-and-closes rapidly when you take the picture. The shutter speed-range on cheaper cameras is often around 1 sec to 1/700 sec; on more expensive cameras the range extends up to very short ("fast") speeds of 1/4000 sec and higher.
Some cheap cameras - both film and digital - don't provide you the option of manually selecting shutter speed, they select the speed according to lighting conditions etc.. I suggest you avoid these cameras unless you're happy to let the camera do its own thing (and in fairness, many "do their own thing" very well indeed).
Mechanically controlled shutters usually have speeds of 1 sec, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125 etc.. Electronically controlled shutters are often completely variable, capable of "in-between" speeds such as 1/87, 1/760, 1/800 and so on.
The shutter speeds you can use (or which are automatically selected by a camera in "Auto Exposure" mode) are limited by the sensitivity ("speed") of the film or digital sensor, the brightness of light and the aperture of the lens (more about that in a moment).
It's therefore quite possible that you (or your auto camera) may have to use a shutter speed of 1/125 sec in many circumstances, perhaps even slower such as 1/60 sec or 1/30 sec.. This raises the question, "At how slow a shutter speed may I hand-hold a camera before the picture becomes unsharp due to camera shake?".
There are a lot of "rules of thumb" answers to this, none of which may apply to you! My best suggestion is not to use a shutter speed longer than 1/60 sec if you can avoid it.
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