VC causing vibration

[Giac]

I was down on Newcastle harbour on saturday night taking pictures of the city scape when i noticed on full zoom the image was blurred, i use a D90 with 18-270 and slik 300 tripod, after making sure my kids weren't bumping the tripod i thought to turn off the lens' VC and i got a stable image. Why was the VC causing vibrations instead of reducing it?

[arthurking83]

You shouldn't be using any image stabilisation on the lens whilst using a tripod(now you realise why :p).
There are a few lenses with a dedicated tripod/monopd image stabilisation mode, but from memory most of them are the heavy, longer professional type lenses.

[Tannin]

Arthur is on the right track, but perhaps a little behind the current state of play. In the Canon world (and I imagine in Nikonland as well) pretty much every lens with IS is capable of detecting a tripod and adjusting as appropriate. The only exceptions are the handful of early-model IS lenses that are still in production, most notably, the 100-400. The big white primes, for example (400/2.8, 500/4, and 600/4) were introduced more than ten years ago now, and all are tripod-friendly.

Your 18-270, however, will be a third-party lens. Which ones calls IS "VC"? It's not Sigma (they call it "OS" as I recall) and I don't think Tokina have an 18-270, so it must be Tamron. But that doesn't matter: none of the third-party lens makers have been doing IS for very long. I imagine that they are up to around about where Canon were 10-12 years ago with a lens like the 100-400 (non-tripod friendly). But I also imagine that they won't take all that long to change that: a couple more years maybe.

In the meantime, your practical answer, as you have discovered for yourself, is to switch the IS off when using a tripod.

[Giac]

So when the Tamron lens can't detect any vibrations, it makes it's own vibration? Isn't technology great...

[arthurking83]

So when the Tamron lens can't detect any vibrations, it makes it's own vibration? Isn't technology great...

:p

very few tripods/heads can account for the high frequency vibrations caused by mirror slap.
That's why there's a tripod mode(on Nikon's VR lenses, where fitted) as these vibrations are different to the kind normally associated with hand held photography.
I suspect that what Giac experienced has more to do with mirror slap, and the inability for this lens to compensate for that.

Both my 105VR and 18-105VR seem to magnify vibrations when using them on a tripod.

[ricktas]

So when the Tamron lens can't detect any vibrations, it makes it's own vibration? Isn't technology great...

Not just Tamron, most brands do this with VR/IS/OS unless they have a tripod mode

[JazzXP]

:p

very few tripods/heads can account for the high frequency vibrations caused by mirror slap.
That's why there's a tripod mode(on Nikon's VR lenses, where fitted) as these vibrations are different to the kind normally associated with hand held photography.
I suspect that what Giac experienced has more to do with mirror slap, and the inability for this lens to compensate for that.

Both my 105VR and 18-105VR seem to magnify vibrations when using them on a tripod.

This is what I was going to suggest. Mirror slap. In your camera there's an option to delay the mirror closing for a second. Can't remember the name of the option off the top of my head though.

[Spoz]

Exposure delay mode, menu item D10 in the custom settings menu.

I do make a habit of turning on when using a tripod. Some say it is not necessary for exposures longer than a second, but I still like to turn it on because it certainly won't hurt.

But mirror vibration was not the cause here as has already been said.