Vibration issue, help?

I've been shooting indoors, on a tripod with a weight on it, at 1/40 and around F18 with no problems it seems. Out of nowhere now I can't even shoot 1/125 F11 without noticing some blurriness. I've been using mirror lock-up and a remote and still, it won't work. If I put a bag of rice or something heavy on it, it helps a lot but still not perfect.

Anyone have experience with this? Camera seems to shake more or maybe it's just my imagination and I'm missing something simple. This is driving me nuts because now my jewelry pics aren't nearly like I can have them be. I'm just sticking to smaller things (diamonds) to make up for the aperture setting. I'd appreciate some ideas. Thanks!

Are you certain it's motion blurring and not focus issues?

Post up some examples with EXIF intact.

I need to have pics more organized...I just took some new ones under similar conditions as previous and now it seems like 1/50 is barely any more blurry than 1/320. Only thing that I can think of that's unlikely is that the a/c must've been on the other time. I'm upstairs and the a/c's pretty old, heh.

I'm going to have to do a rigorous test downstairs to see if the vibrations from being upstairs is affecting this (remember, old house that's cheap, so it's plausible). If so, all the more excuse to my family to get a nice studio in the garage =D

Thanks for your response!

PS--I'll see if I can find what I'm talking about.

What type of tripod and head? How are you activating the shutter?

It's a CX 690 that has weights on it and not sure about the head, I'm thinking it came with it as a whole? I'm not a pro at the head stuff but it does seem too cheap for the 105mm. I'm usually using the remote but shoot w/camera button if it's 1/320 or above.

Are you using an IS lens that you've forgotten to turn off, by any chance?

No. It's a AF-S Micro Nikkor 105mm 1:2.8G ED. That's right, I said it--Nikkor! =P

VR as well.

VR is IS. Turn it off.

Haha.Wow. I never paid attention to what IS is.

Well, that's embarrassing! It definitely is better without VR. I dunno how I forgot this little option. Thanks. I dunno if I accidentally turned it off and then on before but this improves it, even at 1/250. Nice. If the problem comes up again, I'll let you know.

Image stabilisation will cause motion due to the lens trying to compensate for motion (even though there is none).

On a tripod =IS (VR) OFF
off the tripod= IS(VR) ON

You know, it's odd. I did all this searching for lenses, cameras and know a fairly good amount I'd say but never really looked into VR much. Mostly skimmed through that. Such an obvious thing lol.

I decided to finally see what makes the whirring noise when AF is off and noticed it was the VR. Makes sense that it'd be bad to have on at macro levels or even on a tripod. Funny how the obvious is what can get ya.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Yep,,things bite you on the arse when you least expect it