# Image Stabilization



## buccaneer (Mar 3, 2005)

Hi everyone, I am going to annoy everyone with yet another basic question. One of my lenses has VR, and it has a switch to enable and disable the VR, I was wondering why the switch is there? I mean, if the lens has VR, why should I turn it off? Or am I meant to turn it off before detaching/attaching the lens? (I dont remember seeing anything about it in the little leaflet that came with the lens, sorry). Actually, the VR is on the 18-55mm lens, my 55-200 doesnt have it. I should have bought them the other way round right? The longer lens probably needs VR more? :banghead:


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## MartyF81 (Jan 23, 2013)

*Re: Some inept attempts at shooting in low light. *

Image Stabilization (IS on Canon, VR on Nikon) is designed to help reduce blurring from camera shake. It does this by shifting lenses inside the camera to "compensate" for if you hands are shaking etc....

The problem this presents is that it can try and compensate for *intentional* sudden movements you make, such as panning as an Airplane flys by.... so it would be resisting your panning motion. Canon has a mode you can switch for IS that turns off Horizontal Compensation, but still compensates for Vertical movement, not sure if Nikon does.

Additionally, many people say that because Image Stabilization is constantly trying to compensate, the lenses are moving and it can reduce image quality (IQ). Especially if you are using a tripod, their should be no "hand shake" etc...

It also is a battery drain to have it running all the time, although think it is negligible. So a lot of people say if you don't need it for your shot, turn it off. I have gone back and forth over the years. I don't think there is a right or wrong answer to this question. Each situation is different.

As a side note. You may want to consider opening a "New Topic" for your different questions. That way if someone else comes here looking for answers they may have better luck finding the solution. Just food for thought.

Marty


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## yustr (Sep 27, 2004)

buccaneer said:


> . Actually, the VR is on the 18-55mm lens, my 55-200 doesnt have it. I should have bought them the other way round right? The longer lens probably needs VR more? :banghead:


Not to brag...but I have IS on all of my lens. Yes, even the 50 year old ones. How? Funny you should ask. Pentax puts the IS in the camera body so any lens mounted gains some degree of IS. Just part of the design philosophy that's carried through in all Pentax DSLR's.


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## buccaneer (Mar 3, 2005)

@MartyF81 : Oh so that's why there is a VR on/off switch. I havent tried shooting any moving subjects, as I have yet to learn to focus correctly in manual focus, and I know if I try focusing on moving objects, I'd fail miserably. Moving objects must require quick, nimble and precise manual focusing I guess, I'll try it after I get lots and lots of practice focusing on immobile subjects hehe. Hmmm I didnt know Canon cameras could turn horizontal IS off. Maybe the costlier Nikons have it, mine certainly doesnt. And sorry sir, about posting all my questions in one post, I didnt want the Mods to rebuke me for flooding the forum with my posts:hide: but I'll start making new threads for new topics from now on. Someone has considerately moved my question to a new thread which is nice.

@ yustr: You said that to make me jealous sir!  (And I am, I am!!). It must be so nice to have the VR on the camera itself. (Umm sir, you've been into photography for 50 years? wow!!!)


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## zuluclayman (Dec 16, 2005)

I have and use,IS on most of my lenses for a couple of reasons:

for stills -as I get older and partly from some left over symptoms from an earlier brain injury I sway when standing so I use the IS to help compensate a bit for that if I am doing handheld - even on a tripod, with the weight of some L series lenses the camera can still have some slight movement
for video - same as above but particularly for anything hand held IS is almost a given for video unless you really want that shaky hand-held look


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## buccaneer (Mar 3, 2005)

Thank you for posting, sir. 
Oh so the big lenses actually contribute to camera shake! Thank you for telling me that, I didnt know. My own hands shake too much so VR would be nice for me hehe. I am sorry to hear about your injury but you do take such lovely pics anyway sir.


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## nerv11 (Sep 2, 2009)

*Re: Some inept attempts at shooting in low light. *



MartyF81 said:


> Image Stabilization (IS on Canon, VR on Nikon) is designed to help reduce blurring from camera shake. It does this by shifting lenses inside the camera to "compensate" for if you hands are shaking etc....
> 
> The problem this presents is that it can try and compensate for *intentional* sudden movements you make, such as panning as an Airplane flys by.... so it would be resisting your panning motion. Canon has a mode you can switch for IS that turns off Horizontal Compensation, but still compensates for Vertical movement, not sure if Nikon does.
> 
> ...


Interesting!


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