Stabilisation

 Yup !  chose to have the option of portrait, not a very expensive mono-pod as it was a father's day gift- velbon up400dx , seems to do a good job but I still sense there is lateral movement so going back to previous question I will leave the IS on. Only had one chance to use it so far and that was to do some macro shots on some flowers, Lisa was pleased with the reults.

        Dave, must say thanks to yourself and all the other good folk commenting on my recent uploads, the responses have been much appreciated. 

Personally I think I probaly would. But why not try a few tests and see if you can detect any differences.....

No problem re the comments mate, it's partly why we are all here!! Keep 'em coming. Have to say I think our 'self imposed ' uploading quota is working well apart from a couple who maybe don't visit the forums, and a few new good snappers along for the ride too. 

been a long day catch you tomorrow....

For an explanation of how Nikon's VR system works, Nikon author/user/tester writes about it on his site.... I expect Canon's IS system is similar.

http://www.bythom.com/nikon-vr.htm

Below I think is a reasonable example of Nikon's VRII system being used.    Taken in the darkness at Hythe on a breezy wet night.

200mm  f2.8  1/8th sec. handheld.  As I didn't bring a tripod, without the VR, I wouldn't have got this photo along with several others that evening. ISO 4000 was as high as I wanted to go.

Picture by Paul Hilton