Posted by Cherokee My only guess is that the lens's image stabilization was causing it? That seems counterintuitive to me, but I can't think of anything else. Got any tips to share?
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You're dead-on. When you have a rock steady hold of the camera and you're doing a long-exposure, some camera systems suffer from a feedback loop caused by IS trying to compensate against a movement that doesn't exist. Turn off the IS if you know it isn't needed. If you're not already using it, try mirror lock-up. If the camera doesn't have the option to manually set mirror lockup, you might be able to accomplish it by shooting on self-timer after placing it in live-view causing the camera to take a picture with the sensor exposed before moving the mirror.
This also depends on the camera, but sometimes you have to shoot in manual mode to get the best out of IS. The automatic exposure program on my camera doesn't acknowledge IS, so it would try to pick the same exposure settings regardless of IS settings. My camera does not acknowledge the lens is rated at 4 stops of IS.