Stabilization TodayBattling camera shake? Camera and lens manufacturers lend a hand. |
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Page 2 of 5 Canon, Nikon, Sigma and most recently Leica offer stabilized lenses (see the Stabilization Lenses chart). Canon’s stabilized lenses carry an “IS” (Image Stabilizer) identifier, Nikon lenses are marked “VR” (Vibration Reduction), Sigma lenses are designated “OS” (Optical Stabilizer) and Leica’s lenses are tagged “MEGA O.I.S.” (Optical Image Stabilization). The Canon lenses can be used only on Canon EOS SLRs, the Nikons on Nikon and Fujifilm SLRs, and the Sigmas are available in mounts for Sigma, Canon and Nikon SLRs. Leica’s current offering is a 14-50mm Four Thirds System lens that can be used on all Four Thirds System D-SLRs (currently, these are produced by Leica, Olympus and Panasonic). In the compact digital camera world, Canon, Kodak, Leica, Nikon, Panasonic and Sony use lens-shift stabilization in certain models (see the Compact Digital Cameras chart). Stabilization is even more important for compact digital cameras, especially those with no optical viewfinder. Holding a tiny camera at arm’s length while shooting isn’t the steadiest method, so you can use all the help you can get. Sensor-Shift Stabilization Sensor-shift stabilization shifts the image sensor instead of lens elements to keep the image steady on the image sensor during handheld shooting. The big advantage of this system is that it works with all system lenses, not just specific stabilizer lenses. The drawback is that only the recorded image is stabilized; the image you see in the viewfinder is not. With most sensor-shift cameras, there’s a viewfinder LED that indicates when, and to what degree, the stabilizer is working. While the pioneering Konica Minolta Maxxum 7D and 5D are no longer in production, the Sony DSLR-A100, Pentax K100D and K10D, and Samsung GX-10 all offer sensor-shift stabilization. Among compact digital cameras, the Nikon Coolpix S10, Olympus Stylus 750 and Pentax Optio A10, A20 and S7 also use sensor-shift technology.   |
