Most people tend to think of image stabilization as being mainly for telephoto lenses. While it's true that their longer focal lengths tend to magnify the effects of camera shake, image stabilization can provde a very useful assist at wider angle focal lengths as well; anyone who's ever tried to blur the image of a waterfall, while keeping the surrounding landsape tack-sharp knows exactly what I'm talking about.
With image stabilization turned off, we see results just like you would expect with the "one-over-focal length" rule of thumb: images should be more or less sharp with this lens at the 1/30s point, and indeed, 80% of them are keepers. With image stabilization turned on, we get around two and a half stops of hand-holding improvement: excellent results at the 1/15s and 1/8s shutter speeds, and even 60% of the time at 1/4s.
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| Mouse over this chart to show results with IS activated. |
IS systems tend to provide more benefit to less-stable shooters than very steady ones, so most users will see the same or greater amounts of shake reduction as we measured here. You can read more about our IS test methodology here: SLRgear IS Test Methodology, v2.
