Please Help - VR not working on D80

I have the AF-S 70-300 IF ED VR lens, but cannot see ANY difference between VR on and off. The lens is new.

Are there any particular settings that my D80 should have to make things work.

When VR is on, I can hear a whirling in the lens - so assume it is working, though I do not get any blur in the viewfinder immediately after I shoot and nor do i see a vibrating image settle down before shooting as the lens booklet suggests.

Can anyone with this setup with some technical knowledge help.

I did phone the Nikon technical help line today but found it frustrating, I'm not even sure thatthe person on the other end of the phone even understood my problem - I don't think you get to speak to an actual technical engineer, more a sort of call centre with maybe some technicians on hand to assist their staff.

thanks in advance.

I have VR on a couple of my lenses, you obviously need the VR turned on and you'll hear it engage. You should see the image stabilse through the view finder when you press the shutter release half way down. There is nothing on the camera that you need to set to make it work.

Try taking a photo of something like a notice on a wall with an without it, you should notice the difference. If you are not seeing a difference through the view finder though, then it's likely it's not working

--
Tony Halford

See what you think of my images from a D80, comments always welcome... http://www.tonyhalford.co.uk

I have the 70-200 VR, so YMMV.
I don't expect you will "see" anything noticable in the viewfinder.

The best test would be to select a moderately slow shutter speed, like 1/2 of the focal length Using "S", select 1/45 at the 70mm setting. Take a picture of a static, yet detailed scene. Repeat the procedure with VR-On and VR-Off. Upload the pictures to your PC and do a little pixel-peeping at the details.

Of course if you have overly shaking hands, or a poor shooting style, VR is not gonna work for you, except that say a 1/100 image (70mm) with VR will be sharper than no VR
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Warm regards,
DOF

I am very shaky and I see very little indication in the viewfinder.....if I turn the VR off and look thru the viewfinder and then turn the VR on I can notice the shaking slow down and I imagine someone steadier than me could see the object stop.

But the easy way to see if it works is set the lens at 300mm and the shutterspeed at 1/100 th sec. (or less) and take a photo with the VR on and then off.... there should be a noticable difference or there would be with me.
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------------------------------------------------------------
Gene
From Western PA.

Panasonic FZ 20 and FZ30
D50 and lenses.

http://imageevent.com/grc6



Just trying to learn and it's slow going!

I have 18-200 VR: If you have a steady hand you'll not see any difference unless-

1. You right at the end of your zoom- small objects blur less.
2. You or your subject are physically moving at a moderate or fast speed.

The lense is so good I leave the VR off 99.99% of the time. And yes, the lense should be quiet as a mouse in carpet slippers. Leaving VR off extends battery life, so there is a point to it.

--

every time they invent a new fool-proof system, someone gives birth to a better fool

I have the 70-300VR also, and fairly shaky hands. It is my first VR lens. I noticed VR in 2 ways:

1) sound, you can hear it come on, buzz while on, and "clunk" when it turns off.

2) Especially at 300mm, I will look through the viewfinder and see the image shaking a bit, then I press the shutter button half way and the vr sound comes on and everything is magicaly still, or ALOT less shaky.

I can take razor sharp pictures at 1/50 shutter speed at 300mm. I really cannot ask for more than that!

Hope this helps a bit, evne though it is partially a regurgitation of previous posts.

Mark

Does VR require a significant of power? I wouldn't have thought so, but then I don't know!

Yes, it doesn tend to drain the camera's battery faster if you take a lot of time composing with the shutter half pressed.

I find the VR stabilization quite noticeable at 200mm just looking in the viewfinder. If the original poster is not noticing something at 300mm, there's probably something wrong. Perhaps try the lens on someone else's Nikon or at a camera store and see if it works then. There is nothing you need to set on the camera to enable it. Just turn on the VR switch on the lens.

Thank you all for responding, it has helped.

It is now eveneing time at home, so I am unable to do any real testing as i go from 1/2 exposures at one extreme to flash assisted at the other, so will do what you suggest tomorrow.

However, i am feeling a bit better about things because. I can hear the VR hum when switched on. Also there is what you may call a clunk, though a very quiet clunk when i go to half press. Most importantly, I put the lense onto active mode and bounced my hands around (as though in a vehicle on the move - which this mode is meant tocounter-act), I was amazed to see that the image locked into a fairly static position - so I am assuming things must be working and hopefully the tests tomorrow will confirm this.

Also, i have made my judgements based on the rear LCD rather than downloading and pixel peeping !!!

However, since my images this afternoon looked the same (Poor light - snowing), regardless of whether VR was on/off, this tends to show just how good the lens is even without VR - perhaps stability is itslef assited by the weight of the D80 / 70-300 combo.

If you do 6 presses of the zoom button on the D80's review display, you get to 100% view and can do pixel-peeping on the camera.

wow, yes I see what you mean, even in the house, holding the camera to my eye AND THEN switching on the VR while still looking, I can see the image stabilising before me - hopefully my real world photo's tomorrow will confirm - thankyou for putting my mind at rest.

norm

I can hear the VR in my 70-300VR lens, and I can see that the image is a little steadier when the VR kicks in, there is also a dull clunk or click when that happens, again a second or so after the shot is taken, when the VR resets. I think the vibration the manual is referring to, is not a real vibration per se but more just the image moving around in the viewfinder due to camera shake. This movement tends to be more exaggerated the higher the focal length, so it should be most noticeable at 300mm and the least noticeable at 70mm. Once the VR kicks in the image movements should appear to slow down. Remember only movements caused by the camera moving are affected by VR; VR HAS NO EFFECT ON ANY MOVEMENT OF THE SUBJECT ITSELF.

As other have suggested try taking a picture of a static object, preferably above 70mm, with the VR turned off. You want the shutter speed rather slow, something down around 1/60, so open up the aperture and raise the ISO if needed. Then take the same picture, same settings except this time with the VR on. The image with the VR on should look sharper.

I don’t have this picture with the VR turned off; I know the image would be very blurry. This image was taken using just ambient sunlight light in the room; the only other light source was the TV. The vertical blinds were pulled closed to darken the room so my wife could see our rear-projection TV, but a few of the slates on the end have been broken and the blinds do not close all the way.

Handheld, Nikon D50, 80mm, Aperture Priority, 1/10 sec - F/4.8, VR 70-300mm F/4.5-5.6 G, ISO 400. Yes there is some softness but nothing like I would exspect at a tenth of a second handheld.



How about a picture at 1/8 sec?
Handheld, Nikon D50, 80mm, 1/8 sec - F/4.8, VR 70-300mm F/4.5-5.6 G, ISO 400



--
Brooks

http://www.bmiddleton.smugmug.com

I daresay one profits more by the mistakes one makes off one's own bat than by doing the right thing on somebody's else advice.
— W. Somerset Maugham