Homeward | High Speed Ferry | Why Wide Angles Need VR/IS/VC/OS!

[D-B-J]

I've read in countless landscape articles about wide angle lenses never needing VR. It's a waste, it's unnecessary, blah blah blah. Well, I think they SHOULD have VR/OS/IS/VC. Why? The image below would have been impossible without it. I shot this at 1/8 of a second from the upper deck of the highspeed ferry (we went to Nantucket for the Daffodil festival, so the series will be up in the next few days). I wanted some sort of long-ish exposure/shutter drag image from the boat, but was entirely unable to do that with the sigma 35 Art I had rented (no image stabilization). As we started to pull into the harbor and slow down, we were cruising past the buoys, and it all just came together.

Nikon D800
Nikon 16-35 f4 VRII
1/8th, ISO 100, f11, 16mm

Homeward by f_one_eight, on Flickr


And a heavy crop to show that it is in fact tack sharp




Thoughts? Do you agree or disagree with my assertion? And why?!

Critiques also welcome

Cheers!
Jake

 

[jsecordphoto]

It wouldn't be a selling point for me at all, given that I would rarely need it, but I guess it'd be nice to have.

 

[D-B-J]

It wouldn't be a selling point for me at all, given that I would rarely need it, but I guess it'd be nice to have.

Yeah I guess.... fair enough.

 

[jaomul]

A lot of articles on any subject are very general. Many have uses for things others have no use for

 

[bribrius]

it looks pasty. First thing i noticed. Like maybe it was shot at a high iso and then increased the exposure and shadows or something on top. But you listed it for iso one hundred, so i dont know. Granted you are on a ferry going through the water, not exactly a easy shot in the evening. Still a kinda neat shot. I don't know anything about the lens. Stability is usually a good thing though. With the pixels in a d800 i bet it was hating that shot. lol.

 

[D-B-J]

it looks pasty. First thing i noticed. Like maybe it was shot at a high iso and then increased the exposure and shadows or something on top. But you listed it for iso one hundred, so i dont know. Granted you are on a ferry going through the water, not exactly a easy shot in the evening. Still a kinda neat shot. I don't know anything about the lens. Stability is usually a good thing though. With the pixels in a d800 i bet it was hating that shot. lol.

Not sure I follow what "pasty" means, but thanks for the feedback!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[fjrabon]

great shot, but it's also pretty rare that people want both movement blur, but need to battle camera shake blur. Usually any time you want movement blur with a wide angle, you are also using a tripod and not on a vibrating platform like a boat.

 

[Benjo255]

I'm quite happy with my OIS on the 18-55. My last photo in the general gallery (Candlelight & Baloo) would have been impossible without image stabilizer. It was take at F/3.6, ISO 6400, DR400% at 18mm (24 FF eq.) with a shutter speed of 1/6. Thought the cat was quite still, looking at the candle, there are situation in which you simply can't use a tripod (this one, i.e.) and stabilizer is all you've got.

 

[bribrius]

it looks pasty. First thing i noticed. Like maybe it was shot at a high iso and then increased the exposure and shadows or something on top. But you listed it for iso one hundred, so i dont know. Granted you are on a ferry going through the water, not exactly a easy shot in the evening. Still a kinda neat shot. I don't know anything about the lens. Stability is usually a good thing though. With the pixels in a d800 i bet it was hating that shot. lol.

Not sure I follow what "pasty" means, but thanks for the feedback!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

yeah i don't know how to explain. It, just that i have done it myself. Pasty or "chalky". The colors aren't s deep/rich and if you look at the boat it doesn't look real. I relate to pasty because when i have done it it makes me think of mixing colors with toothpaste and clarity takes drop usually. I have mostly run into it underexposing a scene on a still higher iso (when i should have been using a longer shutter) an then trying to bring up the light and exposure in post to correct it. sometimes it is a look you want, sometimes it isn't. one of those things. I can look through my archives and pull out a example somewhere if you want.

 

[Dave442]

I have been on a bouncing boat where I could hardly see throughout the viewfinder with VR off, so I can see where it could help. In your case the platform of the ferry was a still object in relation to you, just you were both vibrating from the movement across the water.

So I am also thinking if the camera was on a tripod with no VR it seems it should also make a sharp image of any other part of the moving boat (although I can see where you don't want people tripping over a tripod on a boat so it would have to be a clamp on a rail).

As far as the boat not looking real, there is very little of the ferry in the shot so it is hard to know what I'm looking at.

 

[bribrius]

I have been on a bouncing boat where I could hardly see throughout the viewfinder with VR off, so I can see where it could help. In your case the platform of the ferry was a still object in relation to you, just you were both vibrating from the movement across the water.

So I am also thinking if the camera was on a tripod with no VR it seems it should also make a sharp image of any other part of the moving boat (although I can see where you don't want people tripping over a tripod on a boat so it would have to be a clamp on a rail).

As far as the boat not looking real, there is very little of the ferry in the shot so it is hard to know what I'm looking at.

this might depend on the boat, where the camera is and the shutter speed. Some boats vibrate on the deck just running. The railings can vibrate. Getting near the props on the deck they vibrate even more. Needless to say i crossed on a ferry a few times taking pics and didnt even attempt a long shutter, with doubts it would work. The boats themselves, vibrate, hull twists and gives (flexes). Depends on the boat. More recently i was shooting off a floating dock, not half has hard as a boat which adds vibration and hull movements. Even that was difficult as i was trying to time the waves and keep short shutters in between.