VX/PD O.I.S.: Your real-life experience?
 

I have these cams but I haven't used the
image stabilization feature.
I've heard some say that the OIS in these
cams is sub-par as far as OIS goes.
Has anyone compared
with OIS "off" versus having it "on" who could
say that it really does (or doesn't) make any noticeable
difference when going handheld.
Another thing is, I notice in the owners manual
that it says using a wide angle lens
will make the OIS less effective. Anyone
have any experience as to whether this
is really true? I mean, you'd think they
wouldn't put it in the manual if there
wasn't some truth to it.

Used properly, the OIS is great. What it doesn't do and isn't supposed to do is work on a Tripod or in other situations where the camera stops moving and the image is expected to stop moving too. I'm talking about moderate to fast movement, not slow pans, etc.

WA certainly reduces it's effectiveness but then WA also reduces the need because it shows less camera shake, etc.

So if it is used intelligently, it is a great OIS IMO.

I've long been fascinated by the idea of image stabilisation and feel that in some ways it's the unsung hero of our camcorder age. Of all the tricks my camcorder can perform the stabilisation is the smoothest, the most discreet, the most useful and without doubt the most magical.

I can't believe you haven't used it Dave. It's so transparent a technology that you're only given v'finder warnings when you've got it switched off. I can show that it completely removes my heartbeat pulse from handheld telephoto shots.

What tricks are in competition with it? Well there's the near useless digital zoom, the scene mix that freezes the last frame of scene A, the sepia, flash, lumi, trail, stretch, solarize. Then there's the wonderful Demo mode where the camera - parrot fashion - painstakingly wades through all its capabilities, finishing up with a rousing series of chimes for the inbuilt and very useful title: "Our Lovely Baby".

The side of my camera has the logo "48x digital zoom" in letters 11mm high, black on the silver body. What does Super Steady Shot get? Lower case lettering just 1mm high with a white font on silver backdrop. Shows the relative sales appeal on the showroom counter, doesn't it?

The FX1 has three OIS positions - one specially for wide-angle converter work, so Sony have realised that it needed improving.

tom.