The basics of lenses-IS

IS stands for Image Stabilizer

IS is just what canon calls it, other lens manufacturers have different names for it I will list what they are called below 

Tamron- VC- Which stands for Vibration Compensation

Sigma- OS- Which stands for Optical Image Stabilizer

There are other brands but Purchase at your own risk! I have never used anything other then Canon Tamron and Sigma

What is Image Stabilizer

Have you ever zoomed in with your phone? Well if you saw my last post you better not anymore! Have you noticed how hard it is to take a picture? Everything is moving all over the place. To get a clear picture you have to hold soooooo still.

Image stabilizer helps with this. In canon lenses it works by having an Element (lens) inside your lens Float...  It is more complicated then that but all you need to know is it makes your view thru the camera more steady.

Now remember, back to your phone when your camera is not zoomed the motion of your hand is still there it just isn't as noticeable. When you zoom in it is just far more noticeable.  A small movement on that zoom becomes a very large movement.

 In the above picture we have blue, my son's stuffed animal elephant. I took this picture at some distance while trying to hold a struggling baby. You can see from the picture that there is some shake. 

Another thing to keep in mind is low light, this will force you to shoot at lower Shutter Speeds that will make the shake even more noticeable. We will get into shutter speed more at a later date. This is a big deal in sports especially in bad lighting like under lights.

Things to keep in mind

• The more your lens zooms the more sensitive to movement your lens is 
• If you are buying in the 18-70mm lens range and you have steady hands you probably don't need IS

Now if you plan on shooting a lot at higher MM like 70-200 there is a few ways you can get away without IS

• Use a mono pod
• Steady yourself on a wall
• Use a Tripod

My favorite and cheapest lens I ever purchased was a Tamron 70-210mm non-IS lens (when you look things up online and they don't have IS they are usually put down as non-is so that when you look up IS lenses they pop up 👿). I used it for an entire season of HS football, and let me tell you HS football is freakishly dark and I got away with just using a mono pod.
    But for some situations it would be just awkward to use a mono pod, like basketball or maybe some other indoor sports.