April 9, 2011
A Lesson Learned…Again!
I just hate it when I keep learning the same lesson over and over again; or in other words I keep making the same mistake over and over again!
I’m in Tulsa right now, where for the last two days I’ve been creating new Fountainhead images using long exposures. I’ve just now discovered that I’ve had the image stabilizer turned on the entire time which probably means the images are soft and maybe useless. I won’t know until I get home later today.
The image stabilizer is a great feature for short exposures, but a sharpness killer for long exposures. It sees movement in the image (clouds, water) and tries to compensate for it, actually making the image blurry. I know better and should have checked my settings as I began.
Oh well, a lesson learned…again!
Cole
Heh! Welcome to my world! I’m good with remembering that will all my lenses ‘cept for one and guess which one goes on the tripod the most?
Thats great Cole, wee are all living in the sam world. Sometimes i want to undo……all work….
As far as i know the image stabilization don`t see anything.VR only helps reduce camera motion; it can’t do anything to stop subject motion.
IS and VR use motion sensors to detect motion from the lens (or the image sensor)then use various devices to shift the optical image (or move the image sensor) to counteract this motion.
I usually turn off VR on a tripod; it’s not needed. If I leave it on, I’ve never seen a problem either.
Many VR systems are smart enough to figure out if you’re on a sturdy tripod and deactivate themselves; but if you’re in the wind or the tripod is otherwise unstable, VR and IS will help.
Petter
Very interesting Petter! My experience is that having the IS on for long exposures degrades the image significantly and I generally cannot use them. I’ve been going through my images from last week and only a few will be salvageable.
Cole
Sorry,i should have said that it depends on the zoom you shoot at.At 20mm,28mm or 35mm i can not see anything in my pictures but on 100mm it will be a little blurry.But that is because of the vr itself.In many seconds exposure you will see the buzz from the vr itself but not in the range of 1/8-1/30 where it is more likely to be used.You will see that even if the subjekt is moving or not.The vr can not stop a car,moving water or skyes,it only balance out your body/arm (camere-lens movement).I have a Nikon 28-300 vr and a Tamron 28-300 vc,(vr in Tamron terms)and at 100mm the Nikon is less blurry because it has a smoother vr,it is not difficult to see.But at least at longer zooms it is best turned of.So if you shoot at a little longer zooms you are right,it will be blurry but not because it will try to stop the sky or water.But this is just me,i am no expert or anything like that,it is just what i have seen over the years for my self.Sorry for not being specific in the first mail and sorry for a little bad english.
Petter
Your English is very good Petter! And we appreciate your experience and comments!
I did the same thing last week, I went and took some sunrise shots, and left the VR on.
One must laugh, and here i thought i was the only one to do this.
Thank you Cole. lol
Paul
wow! haha, finally found something in common with you other that our love for the art. It takes a good man to admit your short comings and move on 🙂 Can’t wait for the new pics to come out. Take care… Pete
Hey Cole,
I support Petter, am not sure of which lens you were on but its a known fact that VR/IS/OS works best when you are doing hand-held shots and when its on tripod its ought to keep quite. But few of the older generation stabilization continue to work even when on tripod and they induce very minute but considerate amount of vibration who’s effect will be visible in long exposure longer focal length shots. If you are on ultra wide then it shouldnt ideally matter but if you are shooting something like 70-200 or even larger on tripod and its a long exposure its always best to take that extra second to switch off the autofocus and stabilization knobs.
To be honest i too have learnt this lesson the hard way after returning from my trip cos i dont review my images on the day of shoot and eventually when i have left the place and come back miles away i realized i have done a regrettable mistake.
But once you do such mistake you generally don’t tend to do it again. 🙂
Shiv
Thanks Cole, now I don’t feel so dumb! Unfortunately I DO repeat that same mistake time and time again…sigh:) I just returned from the Moab Photography Symposium, and one of your friends (name escapes me) who was there was telling our workshop all about your work, and we reminisced about how nice it was the year you came to Moab. I learned sooo much from you about dodging and burning. Glad you are doing well!