One of the greatest innovations by modern camera and lens manufacturers is image stabilization, which helps to compensate for our natural tendency to slightly shake when holding an object. Like any such feature, though, it is not free, and lenses and cameras with stabilization tend to cost more. So, do you actually need it? If you are new to photography and wondering, check out this great video that will teach you what you need to know.
Coming to you from David Bergman with Adorama TV, this excellent video will show you the ins and outs of image stabilization. Whether built into a lens or a camera body, the purpose of image stabilization is to compensate for camera shake, allowing you to get sharp handheld images at longer shutter speeds (typically 3-6 stops) than without it. Where people often go wrong is mistaking camera shake for subject motion. The shutter speed needed to freeze a subject's motion is not affected by the presence or lack of image stabilization. If you have a fast subject, you'll still need just as fast a shutter speed. Where image stabilization generally helps the most is for when you want a longer shutter speed to let in more light or to use a lower ISO for less noise, such as shooting a cityscape at night. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Bergman.
It's always great seeing Dave explain this stuff. He is such a nice guy, a good friend, and an amazing photographer.
I've always just gone for the lens with IS/VR knowing that it will come in handy in some situation but I wonder if everyone thinks like me or if people buy the cheaper non stabilized lens?
None of my lenses are stabilized. And, yes, they are cheap. :) I typically shoot a minimum 1/250 s. I'll go down to 1/125 s if need be and subject(s) are pretty still.
Image stabilization is a godsend for the photography that I do. A lot of the photos that I take are portraits (not action shots) of wild animals in low light situations. I credit modern 4 or 5 stop image stabilization for over 50% of my keepers when shooting in low light. Even when I have the camera mounted to a very stable tripod, stabilization helps a lot because there is still some minor camera movement that the stabilization offsets. At focal lengths of 400 to 800mm, stabilization is the difference between a keeper or all throwaways when shooting slower than 1/100th of a second.
"the purpose of image stabilization is to compensate for camera shake"
The image-sensor magicians do a lot more than that with IBIS! Multi-shot high-res depends on precision sensor movements, as do many other computational photography features, such as in-camera image stacking.