Quote:
Originally Posted by LenDog
"While slow lenses with Image Stabilization can often be handheld at slower shutter speeds than would be possible with a faster lens, those slower shutter speeds may not be fast enough to freeze movement".
My questions: Will I be able to work with slower shutter speeds with this lens in handheld mode as I have with the kit lens? Does the in body stabilization of the Sony allow me to do this?
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@LenDog ... you need to understand what the statement means a little more, I suspect.
Basically, if your hands tend to tremble a bit, the camera's in-the-body stabilization should compensate for that ... and that basically allows you to run the shutter-speed slower without having the camera affected. But that is ONLY the camera.
Any relative motion
to the camera will show up more and more as you slow the shutter speed.
Generally speaking:
With a SONY DSLR, a person "sitting still" for your normal portrait exposure can be taken as slow as
1/15 sec (with practice on your part)
handheld. That is if your halt your breathing for a moment, relax and take the image. This is usually the practical limit of image stability of most systems.
Taking an image at this speed can often provide a nice looking image,
without the use of a flash. But, everything has to stop moving. Any movement will result in a blur, be it moving the camera or a fidgeting subject (aka as children and/or nervous Nellies). Smoke from a cigarette will blur. Television images will blur.
Moving up to
1/30 sec, the image stability (Super SteadyShot) has an easier time compensating for your movement and the person still needs to "sit still." Motion will blur, but not nearly as much as at 1/15th. This can be a tricky shutter speed for indoor work. You are getting into the need for flash.
At
1/60 second, you can be relatively confident of a nice image, but will probably be requiring the use of a flash. Camera motion is still important, but a lot less prevalent. The person probably will blink and that will be "look and see at the resulting image" situation. Flash could be required.
At
1/125 sec, you can usually freeze most
subtle movements by your subject. Flash is almost definitely required, unless you are outdoors.
At
1/250 sec, image stability is beginning to be kind of useless for most lenses under 75mm, unless you are really getting beaten up by your environment. Normal motion of a human subject is also less of a consideration. At this speed and higher, a
HSS *high speed synchronization) flash is needed, because normal flashes will not synchronize with the shutter opening and closing this quickly.
At
1/500 sec, the only lenses that might benefit from image stability are 200mm long or longer. The shutter is closing so fast, you can freeze almost any human movement, except batting, tennis whacks, and other high-speed motion. Propellers of airplanes and helicopters are clearly visible.
At
1/1000 sec., you can usually halt cars going 25 mph or slower, as they pass.
At
1/2000 sec, almost any vehicle under 100mph.
At
1/4000 sec, jets stop moving
At
1/8000 sec. TIME STOPS!
Anyway ... any further questions?
BTW: The
TAMRON SP AF 17-50mm f/2.8 XR Di-II LD Aspherical (IF) is a terrific choice for a lens.