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Digital IS

By Kyle Schurman, About.com

Definition: Digital IS (image stabilization) is a digital camera technology that works to reduce blurry photos by using software corrections inside the digital camera to compensate for camera shake. Digital IS might cause the digital camera to increase shutter speed or increase the camera's sensitivity to light (ISO sensitivity). However, by boosting these settings beyond what the camera's automatic settings should be, digital IS sometimes causes photo quality to degrade.

Contrast digital IS with optical IS, which makes use of hardware corrections inside the digital camera to compensate for camera shake as the photograph is snapped. Digital IS is not as effective as optical IS in creating high-quality photos while compensating for camera shake.

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