Image stabilisation addresses one of the common causes of blurred photographs: camera shake. You might think your lens is no good, or blame your camera's autofocus mechanism, but it's probably your unsteady hands that are at fault.
Camera shake is most likely to be a problem when you're taking photos in low light conditions or pushing your zoom lens to its limit. If there isn't much light, your camera will set a slower shutter speed to compensate, requiring you to hold still for longer. Using a long lens to magnify your subject also magnifies any small movements of your hands, making it even harder to keep the camera steady.
A rough rule for sharp photos is that your shutter speed should be faster than the reciprocal of the focal length (that is, 1/focal length). To take a sharp picture with a 300mm lens, you need a shutter speed faster than 1/300 second, and so on.
You can avoid camera shake by using a tripod, but that isn't always practical. Cameras with image stabilisation deal with it another way, by automatically compensating for your movements. Most use optical image stabilisation, which involves a floating lens element connected to a gyroscope that detects the trembling of your hands. As your hands move, the system automatically moves the lens element to maintain a steady image on the camera's sensor. This approach is used in Canon's IS (Image Stabilisation) cameras and lenses, Nikon's VR (Vibration Reduction) lenses and Panasonic's Mega OIS (Mega Optical Image Stabilisation) cameras, among others.
Some systems achieve the same effect by moving the camera's sensor instead. Konica Minolta's Anti-Shake system worked this way, and the technology lives on in Sony's A100 (or Alpha 100) digital SLR.
Image stabilisation won't cure all your camera-shake problems, but it does give you more leeway, enabling you to capture twilight scenes without using a flash or push your superzoom lens to its limit when photographing wildlife. It lets you reduce your shutter speed by two or three stops, which means that instead of needing a shutter speed of 1/1000 second, you can get away with 1/250 second or even 1/125 second.
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H5
Advanced amateurs who find dSLRs too bulky will like the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H5's versatility but lament the noise at higher ISOs.
Canon PowerShot S3 IS
A very well-executed megazoom camera, the Canon PowerShot S3 IS reminds you why dSLRs still have competition for photo enthusiasts' hearts.
Canon Digital IXUS 800 IS
Canon includes image stabilisation and a 4x optical zoom lens on the compact, 6-megapixel IXUS 800IS.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX7
An ultracompact model that counters blurriness with an optical stabiliser.
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