David Pogue's Digital Photography: The Missing Manual

Stabilizer

The second most important feature is probably image stabilization (also called antishake, antiblur, or vibration reduction). This feature, available in all types of cameras, improves your photos' clarity by ironing out your little hand jiggles.

It's especially useful in three situations:

• In low light. In dim scenes, the shutter has to stay open a long time to soak up enough light. The longer it's open, the more chance there is that the camera might move a little—and blur the shot.

• When you're zoomed in all the way. Zooming amplifies hand jitters.

• When there's no eyepiece viewfinder. If your camera doesn't have an optical viewfinder, then the only way to frame the picture is to hold the camera with your arms out. That's a less stable position than holding the camera with two hands, close to your body. Less stable = more blur.

In photographic terms, the stabilizer means you can slow down the shutter to admit more light without any additional blur.

Now, the camera makers know perfectly well that stabilization is a hot ticket these days. So just about every current model offers some form of it.

Be careful, though. Real, mechanical image stabilizers work amazingly well; they actually jiggle the lens or the sensor to counter camera movement. But a lot of less expensive cameras use cheap tricks to simulate a stabilizer. They might apply antiblur software after you take the shot, for ...