Is image stabilization really necessary in a point and shoot digital camera?

I just bought the Canon SD800IS (IXUS 850IS) last week, which has Optical Image Stabalisation. I've found that the IS is quite useful although it doesnt compleatly eliminate camera shake in the pictures, it does a good job.
The pictures that i've posted in "this thread" were all take with the SD800IS with out a tripod and while still sitting on my bike seat(i had the IS set to "shoot only")...you can see how in the night time pick of the F3 the image is slightly blurry as the wind was blowing me around.
Also the night time picture of the firetruck next to the fire was done with a 1sec long exposure & no flash, without IS it would have been completely blured
 
I have the IXUS 800 and, Yeah it helps...it'll tell you when it going to be shaky... and it does help stop them getting blured...
 
Very helpful, particularly on megazoom cameras. I've freehanded 12x zoom's before. Of course it's not always perfect, but a great feature to have.
 
it really depends on if u shake a lot or not but it isn't that expensive add on...like me my hand shakes so much so yeah i really like it...it also helps if your in a car or on a boat or somethin
 
I agree with TOO. Generally if you have a compact camera with a low optical zoom, it's not necessary. However if you have a camera with an optical zoom which is pretty high, such as 12x, then its a great feature to have.
 
I've found with my Kodak Z730 that although it only has 4x optical, there are some action shots that it would have been nice to have this option, although not terribly too often. Plus, it is a very common feature/upgrade now, so it shouldn't be that much of a stretch anyway. If it's a good quality camera, it should have it already.
 
IS can be somewhat effective in low light, but you still need to have a reasonable shutter speed for it to work. If the shutter speed is too slow, only a tripod will work. You have to take pictures to learn it's effectivness. I would suggest getting it you can afford it, every little bit helps in low light.
One thing to note... IS does NOT help with a moving subject. No matter how steady you hold the camera, if the shutter speed isn't fast enough, you won't freeze the action.
 
Crypto said:
One thing to note... IS does NOT help with a moving subject. No matter how steady you hold the camera, if the shutter speed isn't fast enough, you won't freeze the action.
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Yes & No. True the shutter speed is important, however another big factor is how fast the auto Focus of the camera is, and its ability to track moving objects.

Re the effectiveness of IS for moving objects, this is dependant on your cameras functions.
While nowhere near perfect, the Canon IXUS 850IS has a IS setting/mode called "Panning", which only applies IS to up/down movements of the camera, so that when tracking a moving object to the left or right, the camera will help to stabilize the up/down movement.
 
Scrat said:
Yes & No. True the shutter speed is important, however another big factor is how fast the auto Focus of the camera is, and its ability to track moving objects.

Re the effectiveness of IS for moving objects, this is dependant on your cameras functions.
While nowhere near perfect, the Canon IXUS 850IS has a IS setting/mode called "Panning", which only applies IS to up/down movements of the camera, so that when tracking a moving object to the left or right, the camera will help to stabilize the up/down movement.
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How fast your camera focuses has nothing to do with preventing blurry pictures caused by low light conditions. Even if your camera has AI Servo focusing, to help track an object, you either have a fast enough shutter speed or you don't. It does however, help prevent blurry pictures from being out of focus.
My point about IS and moving objects was that no matter what amount of IS you have for the camera, it will not be effective if the subject is moving. You could use a tripod in low light and it would not help if the subject moves.
re Panning Mode, you're right, there is an IS mode designed to stabilize movement while you actualy move (pann) the camera. I guess it all depends on the image you're trying to capture.
 
Crypto said:
How fast your camera focuses has nothing to do with preventing blurry pictures caused by low light conditions.
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sorry...wrong choice of words. meant focus ability.
Even if your camera has AI Servo focusing, to help track an object, you either have a fast enough shutter speed or you don't. It does however, help prevent blurry pictures from being out of focus.
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Sorry again...my point was that a "Fast" shutter such as 1/1600sec speed is not needed for low-light or night pictures as its the exposure time would be to short to capture anything even if your using a high ISO setting.
 
Kornowski said:
You could allways increase the apature and ISO to capture something moving fast is the lighting wasn't great.
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I think you mean if the lighting was good, because if you have poor lighting conditions and try to use a fast ISO, pictures will be very dark. On the opposite, in dark lighting with no flash, the aperture stays open longer to gather more light, however it makes pictures more blurry if you dont have a tripod or other means of keeping the camera still.
 
No, I meant if the lighting was bad... You increase the film speed, to something like 1600... If the lighting is good you want around 80 ISO...

With a high ISO you can take photographs with a slower shutter speed, which is often an advantage – in bad light

Yeah, You'd want a big apature... Yeah, You would need a tripod :P
 
[-0MEGA-];566780 said:
I think you mean if the lighting was good, because if you have poor lighting conditions and try to use a fast ISO, pictures will be very dark. On the opposite, in dark lighting with no flash, the aperture stays open longer to gather more light, however it makes pictures more blurry if you dont have a tripod or other means of keeping the camera still.
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Actually, I think his comment is accurate. High ISO is more sensitive to light, therefore allowing for higher shutter speeds. The larger the aperture, the more available light allowed in, which would allow for faster shutter speeds.
I think you mean the shutter stays open longer in dark lighting, not the aperture. It's slow shutter speeds that cause the blur. The aperture setting is pre determined (when you press the shutter) based on the light that's metered by the camera.
 
Kornowski said:
With a high ISO you can take photographs with a slower shutter speed, which is often an advantage – in bad light
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Sorry, not being an ass, but I think its important to understand for good images.

High ISO allows for faster shutter speeds due to the sensitivity of light. You can really only take good images with slow shutter speeds using a tripod or with IS and reasonable shutter speeds.
High ISO is a huge advantage in low light, but normally at the cost of lower quality images. This is where high end camera's really shine...Good quality even at ISO 3200.
 
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