[fb_penpho]

As I am usually taking pics of birds on my K20, my lens is a 500mm mirror lens handheld with SR on. I had always seen the slight delay in the viewfinder of the SR icon. However it is off to the right so I do not take much notice of it, plus my uncooperative birds have most of my attention. On reading some old comments I wondered if I was taking some pictures too early, the manual says you MUST wait for the icon.

After some simple testing using a 500mm mirror at 1/8s, I came to the following conclusion.
1) A picture taken without SR is the same as one taken with SR before the icon appears.
2) A picture taken with SR has a considerable improvement, my respect for the PENTAX SR increased enormously thinking their 4 stop improvement was quite possible.
3) The EXIF data shows that SR was turned on, not that it was operating when the picture was taken.
(That is when I took a quick picture before the icon appeared, the picture was blurred but the EXIF showed SR on.)
4) That in reality Pentax should really not show the SR on in the EXIF, if the SR had not become operational.

I know this is a much commented subject, my apologies if this has been discussed in the past, but I have never seen any mention of the EXIF data.

[Marc Sabatella]

I believe there are two different EXIF fields dealing with SR - one that records whether it was turned on or not, the other that reports whether it was actually active for the shot (ie, whether you waited). Some programs won't display both, though.

[Ira]

I was just thinking about this yesterday, and I think the Pentax utility only shows if it's on.

Gotta look now, because this is good to check my shooting habits.

[bigdog104]

This SR info is shown when using the software PhotoMe. It has one field that shows that the SR was on and another that shows that the result was "stabilized".

[fb_penpho]

Thanks for the quick replies. Two thoughts: is this the reason why at times commentators have complained of blurred pictures but insist that their SR is on; why could not Pentax have changed the colour of the green hand in the camera's picture info to red, when stabilisation had not been reached?

[ytterbium]

Btw, does the time at wich the SR gets activeted and how long it is kept active has any effect on outcome?

E.g. after finding out that you have to wait for the hand i usually keep the shutter release half pressed whenever the camera is to my face. This way, unless i need to refocus (i operate exposure with AE-L) the hand is lit most of the time. Or it is better to "re-initialize" SR just before taking the shot?

Since the sounds of active SR can be heard only during the exposrue, i assume the stabilisation happens only during the shot. Otherwise such holding may decrease battery life.

[Ira]

Btw, does the time at wich the SR gets activeted and how long it is kept active has any effect on outcome?

E.g. after finding out that you have to wait for the hand i usually keep the shutter release half pressed whenever the camera is to my face. This way, unless i need to refocus (i operate exposure with AE-L) the hand is lit most of the time. Or it is better to "re-initialize" SR just before taking the shot?

Since the sounds of active SR can be heard only during the exposrue, i assume the stabilisation happens only during the shot. Otherwise such holding may decrease battery life.

An answer to this, and the post above:

Good question about having to reinitializie it. I don't think it's that critical, but:

Bad pictures from SR problems do not look like regular out of focus images. When you view at 100%, there are horizontal lines causing the blurring. Maybe it depends on your camera, but this is what I've been led to believe by examples of non-SR confirmed shots posted here.

It's a different animal.

[ytterbium]

Yeah. The SR is sure an interesting beast. I've always wondered if it has any effect on how you hold your gear and where the shake happens.

Eg. you can hold the camera very firmly but with long tele lens its end may be "traveling around".

If you hold it by lens somewhere near the mount, both camera and lens will "travel around" this point. And additional shake will be added to both ends from hand.

Are accelerometers placed wise enough to account such variations or there is some best place where to "place shake".

[fb_penpho]

ytterbium, when I carried out my simple tests, I deliberately moved the camera while taking the shots with SR on and stabilised. I was truly amazed how well the SR coped with my exaggerated movement.

[joshnl]

I've actually noticed that SR seems to work BETTER if I move the camera in a circular motion IMMEDIATELY prior to pressing the shutter release button fully. While this seems weird, my guess is that I'm quite jittery normally, and jitter is not well accounted for with SR. When moving the camera in a circular motion, I'm in a way smoothing out the jitter effect, and replacing the jitter with a motion that SR is better suited for handling.

Anyone else have similar experiences?

[fb_penpho]

For the past two months I have, without success, been trying to get PENTAX to help show in the camera that a picture has been taken too early, before the SR was ready. I suggested that the green hand be displayed in red.

I include the two photo's that proved the to me, how ineffective the SR is, if the picture is taken too early. I used a 500mm mirror f8 1/8sec at about 3m. The difference is obvious, photome showed the first as ON but 'not ready', the second as ON and 'stabilised'. I have left in the exif data. I took a third with the SR off, it is almost identical to the first picture, so I have not included it.

Other solutions are possible, like custom setting of 'Hold off taking picture, until SR is ready'. I also found that if taking bracketed exposures before SR ready. Then the SR icon did not come on until all the pictures had been taken.