VR lenses

J

jamesmallonuk

Well-known member
I did a quick search on this forum and found nothing. I was wondering what experience people have had with VR lenses, if they are noisy, any samples,what do people think are the best ones etc... I dont' have a Nikon yet but waiting out for the mythical d400.


I wonder if image stabalisation will be developed more as DSLR's are used more for video as well....just a thought.
 
I have a 70-200 2.8 VR lens. It is an awesome lens.

I would like to have the 18-200VR. So I can have a "walking around" lens. The VR is good.
 
does the VR help in any way to reduce the jello (not the skew) but the shaky hand stuff that really makes for a terrible shot. I have noticed the wider the better, but I have all manual lens with no VR.
 
In my experience one will get slightly better results with VR off, if you use a tripod. I tested it out once with the 18-105 kit lens. But if you work handheld certainly it´s advisable to switch it on...
 
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I don't know yet since I haven't got the D90 yet. But when I get it or the D400 I will be using the VR lens. Yes you should shut off the VR if you are using a tripod.
 
There have been times when the VR on my 24-120 has not worked so well with the D90 in video mode: the image jerked during horizontal pans. The VR has been much better on my 70-200, however the D90 mic will pick up the sound of the VR: Click. Click. Whir. Clickclickclick.

I posted a similar question about VR in this forum a couple months back: I was wondering if the jerkiness of the 24-120 VR could be corrected in a firmware update. I theorized that VR was biased towards shooting still images, not necessarily video.

I've never shot video with my D90 + 70-200 off a tripod, and doubt I ever would. On a good tripod the jello effect is minimal.
 
dustwaterwindfire said:
does the VR help in any way to reduce the jello (not the skew) but the shaky hand stuff that really makes for a terrible shot. I have noticed the wider the better, but I have all manual lens with no VR.
Click to expand...

Jello is Skew.

Skew is Jello.

They are the same thing, the same spatial-temporal lag in different degrees - there are not two independent spatial distortion artefacts happening depending on how quickly/slowly you shake/move the camera.
 
It's been my experience that any type of image stabilization should be turned off when using a tripod. It can have unpredictable results during a smooth pan.

It seems the Nikon VR is made for stills. It doesn't work nearly as well as a basic camcorder. Better than nothing but not nearly as good as a tripod or most any type of camera support.

-a-
 
Thanks for the info. I'm guessing that like the new GH1 lenses nikon etc will start making lenses less noisy and suitible for video.

So if the mic picks up the VR would an external mic on top of the camera or maybe attached off to one side. If I was making short films then definetely I would only use a tripod with this camera, but I am trying to shot a documenatry so I can't get away from some handheld. With that comes my need for half decent sound as i shoot.
 
VR doesn't typically make any noise. The on camera audio sometimes captures the sound of me turning the focus wheel or my hands shifting on the camera, but besides that the lens itself (and other VR lenses i've used) make no noise whatsoever.
 
Actually, you are misinformed.

VR begins working as soon as Liveview is activated and constantly compensates for shifts in vertical and horizontal axis. If you don't agree, you can contact Nikon directly for verification.

It is easy to tell there is a difference, strap on a 50mm 1.8 and walk around a little, then strap on a mid range VR zoom and compare the two. The stabilization is obvious.
 
yeah why argue specs and theory when it's super easy to see it yourself? if you shoot into the sun and get a flare you can even see one of the elements move to compensate. i used it on a car mount shot and it's working hard for sure. ;-)

/matt
 
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