Image Stabilisation

stokecity_m

stokecity_m

Messages
1,349
Name
Chris
Edit My Images
Yes
Is it worth it for 55mm-300mm lenses?

Weather its called IS or OS is it worth the extra money?
 
Do you think you can keep the camera rock steady and hand held at 300mm?
What other lenses do you have, do they have a stablising system and do you use?
IS is a great function and it can make a massive difference to your photos when shooting hand held.
 
stokecity_m said:
Is it worth it for 55mm-300mm lenses?

Weather its called IS or OS is it worth the extra money?
Click to expand...

Yes. Why would it not be?

The argument goes that it is less necessary for shorter lenses because camera shake is less of a problem with them at the sort of shutter speeds you tend to get in normal light. However, when the light gets low it can be possible to hand-hold at 1/4sec perhaps which would otherwise need a tripod for anything longer than 1/30sec.

Longer lenses need much shorter exposures for shake-free images and the rule of thumb is 1/focal length x crop factor which would be 1/300sec minimum with a 200mm lens on a 1.5x crop camera, preferably faster. With IS worth about three stops you could get away with 1/40sec.

Also bear in mind that camera shake never goes away, it is just reduced to an acceptable level. It is often there, nibbling away at critical sharpness, even when you don't notice it. In these situations IS helps get optimum sharpness at all times.

The only reason not to get IS is cost.
 
cheers guys - IS/OS it is then :)
 
On my Canon 70-300 @300 it really is worth it. Turning it off and on you see a vast difference in the stability.
On the Canon 100-400 @400, it doesn't make as much of a difference, possibly because the lens is around 3 times heavier, movement is reduced anyway.

Either way, it does make a difference.
 
IMO, IS/VR/OS are worth it over 50mm or so (35mm AoV) since they really do give you 2-3 (possibly more) stops of handholdability. For shorter focal lengths I think faster lenses are more help than stabilisation - anything much slower than 1/60th and subject movement is going to be as much of a problem as camera shake.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top