Image stabalizer. How important is it?

[Overread36]

Just to add something that often gets overlooked (and that really does not apply to wide angle photography) but IS/VR/OS also helps stabilize the viewfinder image. Whilst your shutter speed might be fast enough to freeze all the motion if you're holding a heavy lens handheld for any length of time, at somepoint you're going to start to weaken - at that (or even before with very long lenses) your viewfinder image will be shifting and shaking. That can make composition harder, whilst with the IS the view is more smoothed out and easier to work with.

 

[gsgary]

*is waiting for pinsharp display shot from a 300mm fsomething with no IS from gary *

Not now because photos seem to look crap on here at the moment

 

[gsgary]

IS is a waste of time and money for sport

disagree full heartedly.

Name a sport that IS would be good for then

 

[Gaerek]

IS is a waste of time and money for sport

disagree full heartedly.

Name a sport that IS would be good for then

Chess!

 

[gsgary]

disagree full heartedly.

Name a sport that IS would be good for then

Chess!

i could shoot that with my 300 i use it for shooting bands in low light

 

[Overread36]

Oi! Your 300mm f2.8 IS L has IS!!!

 

[fokker]

IT's definitely a helpful tool, but on a 10-22mm lens you won't need it as you can shoot at pretty low shutter speeds anyway. On something like a 70-200 I find it very helpful, for instance shooting bands or weddings when the shutter speeds are often down around 1/60s I can still get sharp shots at 200mm with no need for a tripod.

 

[Tiberius47]

Image stabilisation is only vital for long focal lengths.

think of it like this. If you take a shot with a wide lens that has a 100 degree field of vision and you move one degree, it's only 1% of the field of vision.

But if you move that same one degree one a telephoto lens that has a 5 degree field of vision, then all of a sudden you've moved a fifth of a frame sideways.

 

[gsgary]

Oi! Your 300mm f2.8 IS L has IS!!!

No

 

[Overread36]

Oi! Your 300mm f2.8 IS L has IS!!!

No

You mean you sold your monopod!?!?!

 

[gsgary]

Oi! Your 300mm f2.8 IS L has IS!!!

No

You mean you sold your monopod!?!?!

300 on 1Dmk2

 

[dmtx]

My 2cents.

IS is helpful but you need to know when to turn it off. Such as when you shoot in low light with a tripod with a < 100mm lens, eg. less blur without IS.

I find it most helpful when I have to shoot with one hand. I still get some blur, but less with IS than without.

 

[Patrice]

We have been given a lot of different points of view here. A rather predominant opinion is that stabilization is mostly a waste of time with shorter focal lengths or when photographing moving subjects. Many say that proper camera techniques mitigate the usefulness of stabilization. Well here is my point of view, I'd get all of my lenses with stabilization if I could and use it at almost every opportunity. A childhood illness caused some nervous system damage the result of which is I have the shakes. I've been photographing for over 40 years and always with this condition and consistently sharp images have always been a struggle. Tripods and monopods are a godsend for someone like me but they are not always convenient. I have a much higher number of "keepers" when I use my stabilized lenses.

 

[Damadsetta]

IS is a very helpful, but it is in no way a neccesity.