VR lenses

[David Martin]

I had the chance to play with a D300 and a few lenses at Dixons in terminal 5. I tried the 70-300 VR - cool. sharp ics at 1/80 on 300mm. And total crap when turning VR off.

I'm sold..

..d

[clarion]

VR?

[JT]

Vibration reduction.

[Wowbagger]

It's a clever thingummy that Nikon have invented and it means that you can take decent pictures without a tripod even with a reasonably heavy zoom lens fitted.

[clarion]

Ah.  Magic gubbins.  ty.  I shall retreat to my techno-iggerant hole in the ground and leave the discussion to people who know about clever stuffs.

[Jaded]

I've got the 18-200VR and it is rather special.

However I wonder if it is a bit like seatbelts and I could end up taking risks that I know I shouldn't!

[JT]

I've got the Nikon 70-200 VR lens and it's pretty nifty.

I'll soon be getting Sigma's 18-200 OS HSM lens - I hope that's as good.

[Biggsy]

I prefer shake reduction to be built in to the camera body (like Pentax does) so it will work with any lens.

Consistenly getting sharp pics at 300mm at 1/80 sounds very good, though.

[Zipperhead]

I've got the 80-400 VR and it works beautifully. Although I think that having a nice heavy lens is an aid to VR to start with!

[David Martin]

Lots of nice lenses to lust after there.. Must start saving my pennies.

How well do the VR lenses work with action shots?

..d

[Zipperhead]

Wot, like this



or this






I haven't yet encountered a situation where the VR has problems. I have occasionally switched on the focus limit to help it, then forgotten to switch it off again and wondered why it won't focus any closer than about 50 feet.

[mike]

Lots of nice lenses to lust after there.. Must start saving my pennies.

How well do the VR lenses work with action shots?

..d

I couldnt get on with canons version in their 24-105, it was very good at low shutter speed with static objects, like a building or a big landscape, but anything moving needed the same shutter speed regardless of the VR being on or not.  A 1/12th second pic of a friend would have the background perfectly sharp but the person would have motion blur.

I sold it and got a 2.8 lens with similar range (tamron 28-75) and use the extra light to give me a faster shutter speed.

what shutter speed was that top one of yours, ZH? 

[Jaded]

The Nikon VR has an active setting, for when taking pics from a moving vehicle, apparently!

I've not fathomed out what it actually does yet.

[Rob S]

Most VR/IS lenses have a panning mode which turns off the left/right sensitivity so you can track moving things.

I've just got my first compact with IS and need to remember to turn it off when using a tripod....apparently it actively creates blur otherwise.....I've yet to test that though.

[JT]

I got the Sigma 18-200 OS/VR lens yesterday for my D40. I haven't used it yet so I can't comment on the VR capabilities or it's general performance.

It's intended to be my main walkabout lens and in particular for use on holiday when I don't want to lug multiple lenses around, however, this lens is big and heavy and one of the reasons I chose the D40 is that's quite small and light (but well built).

I hope I get used to it.

[rae]

I couldnt get on with canons version in their 24-105, 

The 100 - 400 is brilliant.   The viewfinder seems slightly "sticky" as you are getting the position right - you move the camera a bit and nothing changes, then it goes "OK, I give up, you can move it" and the image jumps.  As Rob S says, the need to select panning mode when taking pictures of moving objects - otherwise it tries to counteract your panning which is very disconcerting.