Do I need Image Stabilization for Sports?

I have read a lot of blog posts about the use of image stabilization when shooting sports.  While most photographers say it is unnecessary and perhaps even counter productive, I have found several post praising the use of image stabilization.

Well I am here to tell you that when shooting sports, as long as you can put your shutter speed faster than the focal length, you do not need it.

In fact, many of the lenses I use do not even have the feature on them.

I have done the majority of my sports shooting with the old Canon 70-200 (non IS) and the Sigma 70-200 (non IS) and to be honest, I don't feel I need the feature.

Now lets get something out of the way, if I could afford the IS version I would have purchased just to have the feature available should I need it.  But when you compare the $470 I paid for my used Sigma lens to the $2,000 for the latest and greatest from Canon it was a non brainier for a feature I would rarely use.

Here is why you don't need it.  When your shutter speed is fast, the minor camera shake is so insignificant it does not cause any loss in sharpness of the picture.  When you are shooting sports, if you slow your shutter speed down, you will end up with a big blur anyway because of the movement of the players.

I have only even considered using IS to shoot sports one time.  And that was during a horribly light little league game.  I had to slow my shutter speed all the way down to 1/200 of a second to keep my ISO down at 3200.  But I did not like the motion blur it was creating in the player movements, so I ended up pushing the ISO up and dealing with the noise issues in Lightroom.  No big deal.  Certainly not worth the extra $1500 for an IS lens.

But even at a 200th of a second it is more than manageable to handhold.  In fact on occasion I shoot some low light situations down the 1/30 of a second.  I just have to be very careful with how I hold the camera to avoid shaking it.

For me I shoot a lot of sports outside during the daytime right now.  That means my shutter speed is up around 2000 or more on a bright California day.

If money is no issue, buy the best you can get.  But you really will not need the feature for outdoor sports shooting.