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Does it make sense to use vibration-resistant lenses for ultra-sharp landscapes? I mean when the F is 16, we'll have to lower the shutter speed to a great deal. So, if I use a VR lens, will I still require a tripod or will the VR lens handle the hand shaking on its own to a great deal? |
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The rule of thumb is you can hand hold a 50mm lens at 1/50th second, or a 100mm at 1/100th second and have reasonable lack of camera shake. VR extends that a few stops. So it depends on the amount of light. In bright sunlight, at f/16 and a 35mm lens, you wouldn't need a tripod or VR. In low light, VR won't be enough, you'll need a tripod In between there will be a few instances where you could make use of VR, where hand- holding would not really be possible, but there is enough light that with VR you can get a decent image. But as the light fades you'll have to increase to f/8 and f/5.6 because VR won't be enough when the shutter speed drops to 1/8th second. You can steady the camera against a tree or rock or car window if you don't have a tripod, but as a general rule I'd say a tripod is more useful to landscape photography than VR. |
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In addition to MikeW's answer, I would suggest a few other benefits that tripods provide for landscape photography. Often with landscape photography there is the desire to compose an image exactly and then wait for the light to be "right". With a tripod it's possible to set up in advance, and then wait for the sun to rise or set or for that shaft of light to pop out from behind that cloud! Many landscape shots rely on a longer exposure as they are often taken at twilight or early morning light, or want to generate the smooth water effect with a river / waterfall / seascape. If you are planning on using HDR techniques it's much simpler to achieve good results if you start with a tripod-mounted camera. |
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Personally I was always taught that if you attach your camera to a tripod, then you should turn OFF vibration reduction/image stabilisation. VR / IS is looking for the minute movements of a handheld camera. If there are none, the moving elements can actually 'cause' some level of blur. Therefore, any tripod work (in which, inherently you won't get camera shake), you should turn the VR mode OFF. If you are hand-holding, then turn the VR ON, and if it's not enough, try to increase your shutter speed by boosting your ISO. However for good landscape shots, I would recommend the tripod route, VR OFF, ISO 100 (again, doesn't matter as you're using a tripod so you can afford to have a longer exposure), shoot in aperture priority at anywhere between f/8 to f/16. No higher. |
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