70-200 f4 (my fault?)

So I feel I have pretty steady hands. I recently purchased a 70-200 4f Non IS and better pretty happy "when I get a clean shot" which is not all that often. I know at 200mm its meant to be on a tripod, but is it really that impossible to get a solid shot in your hand? If I get any 70-200 with IS would that have helped this shot? Seems I get alot of these type shots from 135-200mm, somewhat blurry.

-1/100
-200mm
-ISO 200
-f/6.3
-shot AF (guys head)

Open up the aperture, raise the ISO and your shutter speed and that lens will work fine even without the IS.

1/100 at 200mm is asking for camera/lens motion blur

With a 1\100 shutter, and nothing in the pic being that sharp. . .I'm going to say it is you and not the lens. Rule of thumb is to have a shutter speed equal to or greater than the focal length you are shooting. Set the camera to TV and 1\250 or faster and snap away. then take a look at your pics.

The general rule of thumb for handholding is 1/(focal length x crop factor). That means, 200mm would need 1/200 on full frame or film, and 1/320 on crop..give or take a bit, depending on how steady you really are. Yes, the f/4 IS would have handled that shot much better.

mike_d wrote in post #14769827
Open up the aperture, raise the ISO and your shutter speed and that lens will work fine even without the IS.

I agree!!!

I have a hard time getting clean, handheld shots with mine at 200mm unless I'm at 1/250 or higher. IS would help but like mike_d said, if you'd shot it at f/5.6 and bumped your ISO one stop you would have been somewhere around 1/500. When I hit with mine, I still can't get over how sharp it is haha

5280Pics wrote in post #14769844
With a 1\100 shutter, and nothing in the pic being that sharp. . .I'm going to say it is you and not the lens. Rule of thumb is to have a shutter speed equal to or greater than the focal length you are shooting. Set the camera to TV and 1\250 or faster and snap away. then take a look at your pics.

Was in Av mode (which I usually am) outdoors because its usually sunny. It was starting to get late, and the coming darkness got the best of me. Thanks for the good info!

Yup, too slow a shutter speed. Either open up your aperture, or bump up your iso.

Image Stabilization would help with shake coming from YOU, the photographer. So in the case of the photo above, let's say:

1. You drank a lot of coffee.
2. The guy is stark still.
3. You turn IS on.
Result: The guy is still sharp because he hasn't moved.

But, on the other hand:
1. You have a steady hand and braced your elbows against yourself.
2. The guy suddenly turned quickly.
3. IS is on.
Result: Blurry subject because 1/100th is too slow. IS doesn't help in this case.

if the guy was moving even 1/100 with IS might result in him being blurry due to motion...

user higher ISO, and a faster aperture, and you should be fine...but realistically you're going to want to shoot for around 1/250-1/320 for handheld shutter speeds at 200mm...you can get away with slower with practice

I'd look for 1/320 or faster at that focal length. It really doesn't take much to move a subject by a few pixels when you are only looking at a small angle of view.

The others have pretty much covered this but I'll chime in too.

Shutter speed that low is definitely the problem unless the subject is still and you use a tripod. If you just turned the ISO up to 400 it would help a lot and still yield a clean image on any camera.

I've also found this lens is pretty darn sharp at any aperture, so don't be afraid to shoot wide open if your shutter speed is suffering.

In short, sure IS could have helped, but strictly speaking it wasn't mandatory for that shot. There are things that could be done to get a clear image under those conditions.

That's why AV/TV mode isn't ideal if the user behind the camera doesn't fully understand what is happening....

AV/TV mode only really works with Auto ISO....self picking ISO is asking for trouble.

As others have said get the shutter speed up and you will have no issues
I handhold rodeo shots with this lens @100% crop you can see strands of the rope fibers frozen finer than a human hair shot on a horse trying to buck off its rider, its that sharp.