Camera Labs

Im buying my first DSLR and im still choosing my weapon. I think it is coming down to the Sony A100 purley because of the image stabalisation (and better zoom kit lense)

How good is it and when is it generally needed or used? Im perticularly intrested in this feature with the alpha 100.

If you generally have a steady hand, does it make that much difference or do you really have to be wobbly for this feature to actually be needed?

What situations would you need image stabalisation?

For thoes of you with a Sony A100, Do you find you always have it on or just leave it off?

I must first say I don't own an Alpha yet, but I'll be buying an A700 soon.

You can see what difference the SSS makes here:
75-300 review
A100 review

In these examples you can see the advantage of SSS is quite significant. It's especially nice to have for images taken at long focal lengths (see 75-300 review). It also allows longer shutter times for evening portraits. There's an A100 brochure in which you can find a good example of that. The main advantage of the SSS-feature is that it works with all the Alpha-mount lenses, so you don't have to buy a pricy stabilised lens.

As I said, I don't own an Alpha yet, but I'm sure I always have the SSS on. Just to compensate for some shake. Even if you have a steady hand, it may be useful. So I recommend buying the A100, or even better, the A700. Depends on your budget of course. Sony says the A700's SSS is better than the A100.

- Bjorn -

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On my A100 I'd say generally it's safe to say you'll get about 2 stops benefit with SSS, maybe a bit more. On my A700 it's probably more like 3 stops. Of course it won't prevent motion blur, that's what high ISO is for. The A100 is very good to ISO 400 but degrades quite a bit at ISO 800 and IMO 1600 is pretty much unusable unless you're in good light or desperate. Both Alphas are great devices though and extremely intuitive and easy to use. That's my favorite aspect probably.

You should use SSS all the time and only turn it off if you're using a tripod. It even works very well on longer zooms like the 70-300 I have, despite what Canon and Nikon will tell you compared to their in lens IS.

Also look on ebay for old Minolta glass like the 50mm F1.7 which you can get for under $100 and the legendary 70-210 F4 "Beercan" lens. I just got a beercan after a long wait and it was well worth it. Now I have a great 20+ year old lens that's stabilized because of the SSS. You will really get spoiled having it on all your lenses. No worries about if you should spend the extra $$$ for IS on other systems and/or wishing you did have it. It's just there. Good luck.

On a trip to the Cairngorms in Scotland this summer i forgot my tripod quick release plate so had to do everything handheld. It was a very windy day half way up Cairngorm that i tried some wide shots looking over the valley below. I was very pleased with what came out and it was SSS that saved the photos. I did crouch down which also helped. It does make a difference, in fact i rarely use a tripod now.

You have use fore sss almost every time.

I would not by a camera whitout, yes canon got mutch more new lenses and many have Is built in but what would i hav to pay for it tell me that ?

I want a normal zoom to my canon 40d typ 17-50/2,8 as tamron.
Then i want a simpel 70-300 lens whit is and i also want a macro lens typ tamron 90mm 2,8
I almost forgot i want a 50mm/1,4 fast no zoom lens whit is.

Tell me folks what do that cost from Canon ??

I say if you take a picture whit the sony alpha 100 in iso 400, the canon you have to go upp to iso 1600 to get a sharp picture.