Getting the Shutter speed down

Actually for High ISO you want to bump up the exposure comp. Underexposing and then bumping up rarley produces anything useful....especially at 1600 ISO

I'm a staunch believer in IS! As one who in my 50s have noticeable shakiness I can still get very good results hand-holding my 70-200 IS and 100-400 IS. Combine the IS with good technique and you can get surprising results.

Low-cost IS lenses are available. The newest "kit" lenses are the EF-S 18-55 IS and the EF-S 55-250 IS, and they get surprisingly good reviews.

What about the little string & washer gadget like this?
http://www.broadbandre​ports.com …image-stabalizer~start=20

Or this:
http://www.blackcatpho​toproducts.com/steadis​trap.html

Never tried it, but it seems like it might help with some of the up/down movement of the camera. Plus it's portable, light, and cheap.

Anyone use anything like this with any success?

Buy yourself a monopod .... just do it. It takes care of a million problems for an extremely low price. IS is way overkill for this problem. A tripod will not be mobile enough - and you want to be mobile so all your shots don't look the same shot from the same place. If you are going to do this more often, you next step is fast glass (f2.8)... it will be a far better investment then a slow lens with IS. But that is another discussion for another day.

eigga wrote in post #5672015
Actually for High ISO you want to bump up the exposure comp. Underexposing and then bumping up rarley produces anything useful....especially at 1600 ISO

I take it you've not read the first post, right?

I'd take a sharp, but noisy image over a blurred image with less noise any day!

A monopd is very useful, you will dramatically reduce shake with your camera on a monopod, and they can be used in many situation so are a good investment. If you can get a tripod collar for your zoom, use that with the monopod as well. You can also pan with the monopod for great movement effects.

Working with what you have...

Shoot raw, in three shot burst's, Convert the best of the three in DPP with a low sharpness setting (0,1,2) and noise reduction applied.

And practice teqnique...1/focal is a guidline not an abosulute, It can be bettered.