Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Image Stabilization Advantage...




I took the top photograph yesterday in my backyard. The maple leaves are just starting to emerge so I went out with my macro lens to get a few photos. I like how there is a lot of red color in the leaves at this point in their developement. The fly that landed on this leaf is about 3/8 of an inch long and if you look real close you can tell I used my foil fill to add light to the shadowed side. The reflection of the foil shows up in its right eye. The sun is coming from the right side of the photo and I was using the reflector on the left side.

In yesterdays post I mentioned I use a tripod 95% of the time and when I photographed the fly my camera was on a tripod. I also mentioned the Image Stabilization lens that I purchased last year. The second two photos shows the advantage of using image stabilization, I took them using the Canon 18-55 IS zoom and both were taken hand held just to see if I could tell the difference and if paying extra for an IS lens was worth it. Both photos were taken at 1/15th of a second and there was no retouching or sharpening at all. I cropped in to 100% of the image size. It's quite apparent how much the IS improved the image. If you're looking at images at a small size on your computer it's not always obvious how soft a hand held image is. It's when you start enlarging the image for a print that the softness shows up. When you enlarge an image, you're not only enlarging the picture itself you're also enlarging any flaws in the photo. Hope some of you out there found this little lesson helpful.

8 comments:

kjpweb said...

Great macro, John. The difference with VR is indeed impressive.
Fortunately all major lens manufacturers are starting to delivering their new products with it.
Cheers, Klaus

Eve said...

Hi John,
The pictures are fantastic!
Last night I was looking at the Canon 100-400 L IS at Onecall.com.
I wanted to make sure it was compatable with my 5D. It's going to take time for me to be able to get it but I plan on it. I do have a question...does that lens have macro on it. (that is the one you have right?)
Thanks for being my long distance menotr!!

John Theberge said...

Eve,
No, the Canon 100-400 IS zoom does not have macro. I have a separate macro lens that I use for close ups.

The Birdlady said...

WOW! BTW, the Olympus E3 has VR built into the camera itself - good thing, too. I really need it.

Kathryn and Ari said...

Hi, John-
Thanks so much for indulging me. The difference really is profound, and it's a great excuse to save my pennies. In the meantime, I really love the maple leaf photo--particularly the cyclical nature of a leaf that begins red and then returns to that state in a blaze of glory each October. I don't care how much scientific theory I read about chlorophyll: it'll always seem like magic to me!

Stacey Olson said...

Wow,If you can see that much dif, with a close up, it really will make a difference in the distance also.. thanks John

Sandpiper (Lin) said...

Catching up a few blogs this morning, John. Great post, as are the previous days postings that I missed. I have optical IS built into my Pentax K10D and what a difference it makes. At the time I bought it, the camera was running around 1000 bucks, but you can get the body for around 500-600 dollars now, so it's a heck of deal for somebody just starting out.

Kathie Brown said...

John, great info. I will put it to good use. While we have IS but it's called vibration reduction. However, I have rarely used a tripod. You have made me re-think that one.