Testing VR?

Maury

Our 18-200 VR (1) recently started making four faint thumps when the camera is turned on. Reading over posts here and other forums, this is either a complete disaster that requires hundreds of dollars of work, or completely normal and expected behaviour.

What the posts do have in common is they point their finger at the VR system. That leads me to my question:

How do you know if VR is working? Is there some sort of simple test I can perform?

spraynpray

There is a rough and ready test: Half press the shutter button and sloooowly move the camera and you should see the image trying to lock onto a subject but then failing and the VR locking onto the next thing it is pointed at. Like I said, this is rough and ready so is more apparent on lenses with excellent VR than those with earlier VR. Your 18-200 could have VR1 or VR2 so could be more noticable on the newer version than the older version.

sevencrossing

Another rough and ready test

Take some handheld photos at about 150mm @1/60
first set with vr ON the other with it OFF
the ones with VR ON should be noticeably sharper

heartyfisher

Both versions nikkor 18-200 are functionally and optically exactly the same.. the only difference is the Zoom Locking switch..

To test VR you would do as sevencrossing suggested .. I would use an even slower speed like 1/30.

When I first got my 18-200 the VR failed and was swapped by nikon under warranty. But it was not faint bumps, it clunked ! GL with your testing :-)

spraynpray

I learn something every day, thought they upgraded the VR when they added the switch...

manhattanboy

Our 18-200 VR (1) recently started making four faint thumps when the camera is turned on. Reading over posts here and other forums, this is either a complete disaster that requires hundreds of dollars of work, or completely normal and expected behaviour.

What the posts do have in common is they point their finger at the VR system. That leads me to my question:

How do you know if VR is working? Is there some sort of simple test I can perform?

I would do it more scientifically:
Take a series of shots at the longest end of the zoom on a distant subject (preferably that has writing) start with VR off and a high shutter speed and shoot towards slower shutter speeds. Repeat the same with the VR on. The difference in the shutter speeds is roughly how many stops of VR you are getting. The VR is evaluated best at 100% crops as downsized images can look clean when in fact they are quite blurry.

heartyfisher

I learn something every day, thought they upgraded the VR when they added the switch...

to confuse things :-) .. they are both VR2 :-)

spraynpray

) @-) 8-}

Msmoto

I think to test the VR, I might shoot a series of images, at least three at each setting to eliminate the hand shake variations, but try at the long focal length shutter speeds of 1/2 sec, 1/4 sec, 1/8 sec, and 1/15 sec. Shoot three each with VR on and VR off. I suspect after examining the images one would be able to determine if VR were working.