When should I turn VR off?

[Dave Rosser]

I was looking closely at some pictures I took with my 80-400mm VR on Sunday and felt that the sharpness was not quite there. I had taken the pictures (of birds) from a hide (blind for my American readers ) with the camera resting on a bean bag propped firmly in the corner of the hide window. My question for the experts is should I have switched VR off in that situation as I would if it had been mounted on a tripod? I am going to do some experiments but would like some advice. Thanks.

 

[nfoto]

Probably not. The situation would be beneficial for VR use. However, sometimes the VR needs time to lock to the residual movements of the camera. Your being in a blind might hide this fact to make the VR blind-folded

As a general rule, I suggest VR be switched off when any VR lens is mounted on a tripod, despite any claims from the manufacturer that VR won't interfere with image sharpness. If the tripod happens to be a monopod, VR probably wont' do any harm and in fact occasionally mighr even improve sharpness.

 

[Dave Rosser]

Thanks for your advice - I will experiment