Partial reduction of VR "blur" at 1/160 with the 300/4 PF VR post firmware update

<p>Despite excellent VR results at 3 or 4 stops below 1/300 sec, shooting speeds at just 1 stop under like 1/160 tend to exhibit shake even after lens firmware update. One thing I found reduces but not eliminates this on my D750 body, is to shoot in the Q (quiet) mode. To test this, I shot 5 frames in the S mode and 5 in the Q mode. I then selected the worst of each group and here are the results. All are tightly cropped at 100%. First VR in the S mode:</p><div></div>

<p>Now the Q mode.</p><div></div>

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<p>I then selected the worst of each group and here are the results.</p>

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<p>Alan, those are not sharp images. The thing is, in real life, when I use VR, I would shoot a bunch of images and discard the bad ones, not picking the bad ones.</p>

<p>If you are shooting some once-in-a-lifetime images, e.g. the first kiss at a wedding, the sprinters crossing the finish line in the 100-meter dash at the Olympics final ..., you have one chance to get it right. Otherwise, in most situations, what matters is how many good images you get. You could get millions of poor images; they don't matter. Nobody else needs to see them.</p>

<p>So for the 300mm/f4 PF AF-S VR, as long as its VR works well enough so that I can get 2, 3 sharp images out of 10, it is sufficient. Not to mention that for a 300mm super tele, I tend to use high shutter speeds to freeze action so that at least from my point of view, VR is not an important feature on that particular lens.</p>

<p>Good point Shun, I just wanted to demonstrate the worst-case scenario. I should note that there was very little variation between best and worst results for each group. I will post another topic shortly that covers everything: both VR on and off, to put this matter to rest as far as I'm concerned. </p>

Handheld, and those are the worst cases? Hmm... Someone, i cannot really believe that is the worst you can do. ;-)<br>What you are really testing is your handholding, far more than whatever it is VR could do.<br><br>Q mode reduces noise and the mechanical vibrations that originate after (!) the image has been captured. So shouldn't make a difference. So any variation is purely in your handholding (and the bit VR does to counter your unsteady hands).

<p>I think Q mode also slows down the mirror before capture (as well as allowing the user to delay its return), that's why there is additional delay between shutter release press and the opening of the shutter (and potentially reduced shake from the mirror movement).</p>

I don't know about that, Ilkka. All Nikon says (as far as i can find) is <i>"the mirror <b>does not click back into place</b> while the shutter-release button is fully pressed, allowing delay of the timing of the click made by the mirror and insulating the sound by covering the camera with a cloth"</i>. I.e. after exposure.<br>Makes sense, since you do not want to lose control over when the shutter clicks, but most of the time will have plenty of time to allow the mirror to slip back into place.<br>To reduce mirror induced shake, Mup is the thing to select.

<p>Q.G. did you try this with a camera, or are you just quoting the manual? I tested this with my D810 (I don't have a D750) and it is obvious that the delay between shutter button press and shutter opening is increased in Q mode. You do lose some control over when the shutter opens, unless you compensate for the increased delay by anticipation, which is possible if you use Q mode all the time. Personally I find Q mode difficult to use in practice and I don't think it's worth using because it throws my timing off. I've tried to use it before and always came to the same problem.</p>

I have indeed tried this with my D800E, and can't say i notice any difference at all. Not at the beginning of the exposure. No delay. No noise reduction.<br>I tried this again just now, and more extensively earlier, when trying to figure out whether Q mode is good for anything*.<br>Maybe it is different for different models, i don't know.<br><br>(*My verdict is that it is not. Has a cool name though. Good use of a nice letter. ;-) Why no good: the attention getting click caused by the mirror flipping up is still there. And unless when using long exposure times, the click of it coming down again is indistinguishable from the mirror up racket. On top of that, the closing shutter itself is about as loud, so where's the gain? Yes, using a decibel meter you may record a difference in sound level. But to normal people like you and me there's just an audible click and another just as audible click to choose between. When using long times, where the second curtain closing and the mirror coming down present a distinct second event, Mup is the mode to turn to.)

P.S.<br>Had a look at the manual too now, and it says: <i>"As for single frame except that noise is reduced by disabling beeps and minimizing sound produced when mirror drops back into place."</i><br>Hadn't noticed the thing with beeps since, as with everything that beeps, the first thing you do is turn that off.<br><br>Anyway, no sign that Q mode does anything at all that could reduce shake induced blur of the images we make. Not in the literature. Not in practice.<br>Alan's test results show the variation that comes with always unsteady handholding.

<p>The D800E may be different from the D810 since the D800E uses a spring to move the mirror and the D810 uses a motor. I can clearly see in the D810 that the mirror moves slightly slower in Q mode than in S mode. I can also hear the difference in timing and see that my timing is off in the images (if the subject moves), so I don't use Q mode. I think it's more suitable for (relatively) static subjects. I don't know what effects Q mode has on the D750. It would not surprise me if there is some reduction in shake, if the Q mode changes the delay between mirror movement, aperture closing, and shutter opening. </p>