Anti vibration

Lacrossedad

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I have been doing a lot of wildlife lately. Mostly Eagles and other flying birds. I am shooting with the Nikon 200-500 lens and have turned on the VR. Given the movement of the camera/lens, should I be turning this off? I guess the same question would apply to sports photography as well.
 
Hand-held, have it on, mounted to a tripod, turn it off.
 
Depends a bit.

1) Anti-shake works to counter your body motions and whilst some can detect that they are on a static surface (eg tripod) its best to have it off if its not needed.

2) Anti-shake takes time to take effect ,the elements have to move and pick up on the nature of the shake before they actually start having a positive effect. If you're the kind to point, focus, fire very quickly chances are the anti-shake might not have spun up and could be introducing more shake than its countering.

3) It becomes more and more important on longer, heavier lenses - depending on the fitness of the user and the conditions/standing pose etc... The 1/focal length for a sharp shot tends to only work perfectly in the middle-ranges. AT longer focal lengths you oft find you need faster shutter speeds; similarly at very short focal lengths you can get away with much slower shutter speeds adn still get a sharp shot.

4) If you are already using 1/1000sec or 1/2000sec etc... - ergo very fast speeds well above the handholding theory (as noted above); then chances are anti shake isn't helping all that much with the sharpness of shots. However it can be a great benefit in providing a smoother viewfinder image which can make it a lot easier to track and keep the AF spot on the area you want.

So whilst at faster shutter speeds its benefit might be negligible, its bonus to a steady clear shot can be where you gain.



Also don't forget if you're using a long focal length lens things like heat haze can become a serious issue and might make a shot appear fuzzy/blurry even if settings/camera are perfectly setup for a sharp shot.
 

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