which digi camera shall I get?

darich

Picture stabalization and image stabalization are 2 completely different things. Picture stabalization is almost a play on words and is a bit naughty on the manufacturer's part - Doonhamer is right about the increased ISO and increased grain.
What he hasn't said though is that it also means you can't reduce the shutter speed if you want because the ISO has increased. That may mean you can't use longer exposures if required whereas image stabilization allows you to still have longer exposures.

As for ken rockwell......the less of his website you believe, the better off you will be. He is very opinionated and a lot of the stuff he puts forward as fact is rubbish.
Read it at your peril!!!

wolfman

lynzpower wrote: »

I just spoke to them at fuji again, they say no they dont have image stabilisation. No fujis do at all. However, they said, that this is more useful for the video section, as picture stabilisation is more useful for stills.

Sales talk, ignore it. In fact I don't understand what they mean.

Image stabilisation is great if there are low/poor light conditions, or you're zooming in on something. It basically takes account for the slight shake given when you hold the camera, and increases the chances of you having a sharp image.

It's not essential, especially for a safari when it's likely to be well lit and sunny. But if you're zooming on something more than around 4x zoom then it's beneficial as your shakes will be magnified.

I've got a Nikkor 55-200mm VR lens for my dSLR (which gives around 11x zoom) and at full zoom the majority of shots I take benefit from it. Hence for such situations I'd always recommend image stabilisation.

lynzpower

Ive never used a SLR, so I dont think its a good idea to get one of those just yet !

I was a bit uinsure about the canon, something about the shape of it ( im left handed) im not sure appeals, however, I think i need to get down to jessops have a look and feel of them and see which ones look best - and then come back and buy it with cashback

Thanks again everyone this is probably one of the most major purchases Ive ever made -but dont ask about the cost of the flights :eek:

beefcarrot

I'd never used an SLR before I bought mine recently but I have to say I'm impressed with how easy it is to use on the manual setting. It's nice to be able to look through the view finder and be able to frame the photos correctly.

Doonhamer

You've made a good decision to go to Jessops and play with the cameras. There's no substitute for holding one in your hand, as everybody is different. I have found in the past that most of the staff in Jessops are fairly well trained. Also the manager has quite a bit of power to discount. They have a price promise, so it may be worth trying to barter with them. Especially since it's near the end of a month, they might just want that one extra sale.

ManAtHome

Image stabilisation works well with subject which aren't moving too much (or at all), raising the ISO lets you use a faster shutter speed which tends to work better with moving subjects.

Try the following - get somebody to walk past you, then ask them to do it again while you look straight ahead through a toilet-roll tube. You'll notice that they appear and disappear a lot faster through the tube. The bog-roll gives you a simulation of an extreme telephoto lens - if you use one of these with a low shutter speed, you don't get camera-shake, but you do get motion-blur.

Anyone with an IS camera, try taking a photo with moving trees, flags etc in the frame and check it out. For non-IS, as a general rule, you should get a sharp picture if the shutter speed is the reciprocal of the focal length - eg at 300mm, 1/300 sec or faster. Although IS would possibly give you a more-focussed pic at 1/125, doesn't mean it would be better overall than a 1/300 at a higher ISO.

Haven't used IS (still use manual-focus film SLR now and again as well as non-IS digital) - does it tend to favour keeping the ISO low by a couple of stops, or only start using IS when it's moved up to 200 or 400.?

lynzpower

great thanks again for all this, Ill print this thread off adn take it to jessops with me, along with the trusted review sites too

thanks