Graf Heg von Waxwing.... Revisited

Cyber's old avatar.
Shot handheld (not leaning on tripod, car window and some such) with the EF 300mm f/4.0L IS USM......the stinkin' IS was kept turned OFF.

So, what is your opinion, why would wildlife shooters wanna have a stinkin'
IS on their telephoto lenses with FL=300mm and shorter ?
Now, for FL=400mm and longer, I kinda see it....IS can be of some benefit occasionally.

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Ahh....two more.

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Always enjoy your work PetKal....the inquisitive look in the second shot makes it the winner of the series for me.

sugarzebra wrote in post #2308838
Always enjoy your work PetKal....the inquisitive look in the second shot makes it the winner of the series for me.

Thank you compadre for those synchronized ducks....I've never seen them jump like that ....hysterical ! ( I'll try to convince my stunt ducks to jump this weekend .)

Indeed, why would anyone need IS turned on when using a shutter speed of 1/1000, unless one happens to experiencing withdrawal symptoms?

Come back with some pictures shot at less than 1/300 and show us those.

Here you go laddie, taken during the same shoot as the waxwings today, 1/250 sec, not leaning on anything , i.e., genuine hand-held, IS off.
I'd typically go down to 1/2 of the FL (e.g., 1/160 sec for 300 mm lens and 1.6 FOVCF) , however, because I had very good light today, did not have to go that low.
Also I show a near 100% crop so that you can see that the image did not suffer much from camera shake.

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Well, it's obvious to see that you, sir, have been endowed with very steady hands. Unfortunately, the less fortunate among us, yours truly included, can't say the same about theirs so IS is a welcome tool for them. Hopefully this little physical handicap does not make them less of a photographer in the eyes of the steady-handed photographes like yourself.

PacAce wrote in post #2309060
Well, it's obvious to see that you, sir, have been endowed with very steady hands. Unfortunately, the less fortunate among us, yours truly included, can't say the same about theirs so IS is a welcome tool for them. Hopefully this little physical handicap does not make them less of a photographer in the eyes of the steady-handed photographes like yourself.

Well, that's just about the only endowement I have retained to this age....trust me PacAce, nothing to be envious of.

Pssst, wanna buy some blue pills?

PacAce wrote in post #2309121
Pssst, wanna buy some blue pills?

Ohhh..so it's you and not Dante who had been spamming my old mail box with Viagra-in-volume-discount offers.

No, it was him. He's the marketing guy. I just dye the flours blue and send the lot off to him for packaging and distribution.

OK, now back to the thesis>>>>>the IS not needed for wildlifeshooters for<300mm.

Please take a look at this shot also from today.....300mm @1/80 sec. Now, had I turned the IS on, perhaps the leaves would have been a wee bit sharper. However, what would IS do for the squirrel (i.e., the wildlife) ?
That's right, absolutely NOTHING ! The treeshark would have been as blurred as ever.

Therefore, even if IS would let wildlife shooters go to very low shutter speeds, the subjects of their photography do not. Similarly, the best/sturdiest tripod can not stop a wingbeat of a duck.
However, as most macropractitioners know all too well, tripods do something very important for them that IS does not: stop the axial component of lens movement.

Awlright, I feel better already now that I've got that off my little mind.

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IS can do things for telephoto wildlife shooters. Say you're hiking with your 400 DO IS. Now...this is all assuming we aren't made of stone like you.

Anyway. Say you've got a deer standing in the field. Say that deer starts trotting or even running. With a non-IS lens (granted, it doesn't exist with this model), you'd need to get near 1/400 to even negate handshake. I'm as unsteady as they come. Alright. So you've got your deer sorta playing around, and you know you could probably freeze him just fine with 1/180 or 1/250, but without the IS, you'd get a blurry pic because of shake. Tada! The IS lets you handhold that speed just fine. Plus, what if that deer runs away? You can pan him, sure. Without mode 2 IS, though, a slight downward movement can mean a blurred shot. With the mode 2 IS on, you're good to go!

In shot two, and three to a degree, I like how you managed to preserve the tweets dignity by careful placement of a berry, or berries, in shot. Well done. Congrats and thanks for sharing.