I'm not as steady-handed as I used to be; I could hand-hold at a 15th of a second and get reasonable sharpness. Now, especially after sand sculpture... not really. So, one day I mounted the macro lens and used it to take some photos of a sculpture I'd already shot with the usual 24-70 zoom.
The difference was astonishing. I used the 100 macro for all subsequent sculptures.
But... the photographic tail was wagging the sculptural dog. That long lens required shooting at some distance, and pretty much precluded making multiple sculptures or even earthworks, even when shot horizontally to suit my Second Life image display device. I loved the sharpness, though, so stayed with it.
I did, however, start looking in two directions. One was a compact camera with stabilization, the other being a stabilized wide-angle lens for the big camera. After much dithering, the answer became "Yes." I bought a 24-70 F/4 zoom with stabilization, and a compact camera with stabilization and an electronic viewfinder. The latter was intended to come with me on walks when the big camera was too much to carry.
First up in testing was the zoom. I took it with me for this sculpture. I intended to do earthworks, and had a plan, but I allowed myself to be rushed. I was getting the sculpture in before a gig in Second Life, and I don't have a watch. The earthworks are rudimentary.
It's bean clam season. The sculpture was full of them. Not big, but still made carving a challenge.
On my way home, the post-sculptural dazed walk north along the beach with the low tide whispering on my left, I saw this clump of drying kelp under the very hard light. With the 100MM lens, I wouldn't have gotten the shot. Without stabilization, it would have been very blurry. The stabilized zoom worked very well. Not so sharp as the macro, but sharp enough that the GIMP's unsharp mask makes it look great on the big Second Life display. This shot is unsharpened, except in the effect of being scaled. I love the colors in this.
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