HSway
Senior Member
For anyone interested I have done some testing with the 200-500 at 500mm coupled with d600 for what effect the shutter induced vibrations have on resolution. It’s going to be a little technical and narrow-focused so the reading can appear rather pointless to many. I used my trusty carbon-fiber/basalt composite Velbon GEO E 540 L folded down legs & Arca Z1 SP head (no difference when the legs were extended and this is about comparisons anyway). MLU and the usual.
On d600 I can see the effect peaking at 1/25s whereas 1/50s is less affected. The effect isn’t dramatic, I’d say it is of the same intensity as with the 70-200/4 VR. The massive body of the lens compared to 70-200/4 VR must be helping with this considering the longer FL. The blurring outside this s. speed is very minimal. It dies out faster towards the higher s. speeds. We can consider 1/2s free of the effect and 1/160s for the other end. For more practical relevance it’s these 1/25 and 1/50 speeds that show more noticeable blurring if you look for small detail for relevant application. I will be interested to see the effect with d750 as this is the camera we plan for 200-500 VR.
That gives some frame for answer what VR ON does when the lens is on tripod and to derive some useful information for any camera body. The short answer is nothing remotely that bad what we can see with 70-200 VR. It actually is eliminating the blur caused by the shutter vibration at 1/15, 1/25, 1/50 and 1/100s. So the Tripod VR mode makes sense and is meaningful. For longer exposures than 1/15s VR OFF is better than VR Normal and VR OFF is only very slightly better than VR Sport. One does best avoiding Normal VR at speeds below 1/15 or using Sport VR which is only very slightly worse than VR OFF at these speeds.
To complicate it a little the VR Normal at 1/100 is better than VR Sport (and VR Normal is still very slightly better than VR OFF).
For speeds above 1/100 the VR OFF is very slightly crispier than any VR. Simply put VR on tripod not only doesn’t pose problems like 70-200/4 VR but it cuts down blur caused by shutter vibrations (almost certainly by the mirror as well; I shoot hand-held when mirror is a factor so it isn’t my concern).
Simple use of this feature then is using VR Sport for any s. speed longer than 1/50 and switching it OFF for higher s. speeds. And if one is extremely particular about avoiding any blurring - use VR Sport below 1/50s up to 1/15 (incl.) and for longer than 1/15s switch the VR OFF. VR Normal is best for 1/50 and 1/100s. Faster than this and the VR OFF is best.
It seems that the Tripod mode VR works very well, removes some 85% of the shake caused by the shutter that alone is more noticeable only at 1/25-1/50s. It’s not EFC, though, and gives us some 15% (compared to the shake caused by vibrations) of imperfection that comes along with the nature of this mechanical device and some will want to switch it OFF for faster than 1/100 and slower than 1/15s. As said the absolute answer for this is EFC and VR OFF which leaves any s. speed unaffected so on tripod for static subjects one gets the theoretical 100%. Details can vary with various bodies.
Otherwise the lens seems impressive so far. Very nicely built, not much different from 24-70/14-24, everything tight and smooth. The hood clips and stays firmly on with this UK bought lens. I want to have a closer look at couple of things, including shooting into bright light (normally not my main concern but we seem to have noticed that the lens may be losing contrast easier – again I need to check this out when there actually is any bright natural light in UK) when I get a bit of time but so far extremely interesting lens. My lens’ peak sharpness is at f6.3 not at f8 or even f11 I saw in some instance. Wide open is very close to f6.3, though.
Some examples below, all ISO 100. First is at 1/1.6s when VR Sport (top) is slightly better than VR Normal below. Best VR OFF on the bottom. This is Standard picture mode at 150%, small text in a brochure, no way one could actually see any hint of the print dots by just looking at the text even if one could see things from as close as me without glasses. So these are quite small changes. Hopefully this will display OK I can't recall my experience with posting images.
The same thing at 1/1.3s:
1/25s – top VR Sport, VR Normal and VR OFF bottom (feeling the greatest effect of shutter shake). You ca see that VR ON doesn’t do any harm but is actually eating bit of the blur you can see in the VR OFF sample:
1/25 vs 1/160 both VR OFF. Faster than 1/160 the image doesn’t gain noticeable crispness. The subject I chose is useful to me to get an idea what impact the shake has at this type of detail particularly. But you get some straight lines too:
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Hynek
On d600 I can see the effect peaking at 1/25s whereas 1/50s is less affected. The effect isn’t dramatic, I’d say it is of the same intensity as with the 70-200/4 VR. The massive body of the lens compared to 70-200/4 VR must be helping with this considering the longer FL. The blurring outside this s. speed is very minimal. It dies out faster towards the higher s. speeds. We can consider 1/2s free of the effect and 1/160s for the other end. For more practical relevance it’s these 1/25 and 1/50 speeds that show more noticeable blurring if you look for small detail for relevant application. I will be interested to see the effect with d750 as this is the camera we plan for 200-500 VR.
That gives some frame for answer what VR ON does when the lens is on tripod and to derive some useful information for any camera body. The short answer is nothing remotely that bad what we can see with 70-200 VR. It actually is eliminating the blur caused by the shutter vibration at 1/15, 1/25, 1/50 and 1/100s. So the Tripod VR mode makes sense and is meaningful. For longer exposures than 1/15s VR OFF is better than VR Normal and VR OFF is only very slightly better than VR Sport. One does best avoiding Normal VR at speeds below 1/15 or using Sport VR which is only very slightly worse than VR OFF at these speeds.
To complicate it a little the VR Normal at 1/100 is better than VR Sport (and VR Normal is still very slightly better than VR OFF).
For speeds above 1/100 the VR OFF is very slightly crispier than any VR. Simply put VR on tripod not only doesn’t pose problems like 70-200/4 VR but it cuts down blur caused by shutter vibrations (almost certainly by the mirror as well; I shoot hand-held when mirror is a factor so it isn’t my concern).
Simple use of this feature then is using VR Sport for any s. speed longer than 1/50 and switching it OFF for higher s. speeds. And if one is extremely particular about avoiding any blurring - use VR Sport below 1/50s up to 1/15 (incl.) and for longer than 1/15s switch the VR OFF. VR Normal is best for 1/50 and 1/100s. Faster than this and the VR OFF is best.
It seems that the Tripod mode VR works very well, removes some 85% of the shake caused by the shutter that alone is more noticeable only at 1/25-1/50s. It’s not EFC, though, and gives us some 15% (compared to the shake caused by vibrations) of imperfection that comes along with the nature of this mechanical device and some will want to switch it OFF for faster than 1/100 and slower than 1/15s. As said the absolute answer for this is EFC and VR OFF which leaves any s. speed unaffected so on tripod for static subjects one gets the theoretical 100%. Details can vary with various bodies.
Otherwise the lens seems impressive so far. Very nicely built, not much different from 24-70/14-24, everything tight and smooth. The hood clips and stays firmly on with this UK bought lens. I want to have a closer look at couple of things, including shooting into bright light (normally not my main concern but we seem to have noticed that the lens may be losing contrast easier – again I need to check this out when there actually is any bright natural light in UK) when I get a bit of time but so far extremely interesting lens. My lens’ peak sharpness is at f6.3 not at f8 or even f11 I saw in some instance. Wide open is very close to f6.3, though.
Some examples below, all ISO 100. First is at 1/1.6s when VR Sport (top) is slightly better than VR Normal below. Best VR OFF on the bottom. This is Standard picture mode at 150%, small text in a brochure, no way one could actually see any hint of the print dots by just looking at the text even if one could see things from as close as me without glasses. So these are quite small changes. Hopefully this will display OK I can't recall my experience with posting images.
The same thing at 1/1.3s:
1/25s – top VR Sport, VR Normal and VR OFF bottom (feeling the greatest effect of shutter shake). You ca see that VR ON doesn’t do any harm but is actually eating bit of the blur you can see in the VR OFF sample:
1/25 vs 1/160 both VR OFF. Faster than 1/160 the image doesn’t gain noticeable crispness. The subject I chose is useful to me to get an idea what impact the shake has at this type of detail particularly. But you get some straight lines too:
--
Hynek
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