no offence taken... but please do look a little closer...

there are two leaves and a spider.... one leaf is alot closer to the lens than the other... with a ringflash, and a small aperture for DOF, there should be a bright highlight on the leading edge of the first leaf, and a harsher shadow following the edge of the first leaf on the second leaf.....there are infact two lighter tones of green alternated with two darker shades of green caused by lighing (about 2 or 3 tenths of a stop I didn't really meter, it was done quickly before spider left.).

there was a second flash unit (500 ftz) positioned to add both fill and backlight to the scene. I had total control of the contrast of that image, and set the fill very close to the main.
Could easily have adjusted the contrast by either dialling up/down the 500 ftz or dialling down the iso, the ringflash was set to full (blast manual).

the key with ringflash is to always think of two or more lightsources, (ambient +ringflash), or (another flash + ringflash).
here's a better example with the same two lights...

"the sr is of little use to me," is what I meant to say.
We were splitting hairs in a lengthy debate, and between your observations and mine I concluded two things....

1) I'm blessed with the eyesight, and steadiness of hand to shoot lowlight (with wide to normal lens) with slower shutterspeeds, and can still get sharp images. I saw no improvements with sr in those circumstances...

2) You ruled out the possibility that I'm as steady as a tripod. sr, or no sr, a tripod beats handheld in low light.

Hence my reasoning above.
leave it off, if you think you need it try it, if no real improvement, turn it back off.

edumad....
how's the collection coming along?
what lenses do you have?
what are you still looking for?
curiuos minds want to know....

thank you guys!
Right now, I'm fairly sure the 200mm and my 1.7 is probably a better option for us as opposed to the 300mm...
but there's still time to think about it before we buy.....
Just next year for sure going to travel on motorcycle for a few weeks.... maybe do some wildlife and landscape...
will be trading in my old fj1200.... eyeing up the new vmax.....

chris, didn't you over the course of your extensive testing , uncover a glitch/malfunction, that caused a little heart stop moment, but no actual harm to the camera?

royd63uk....
that last question.....
get a better tripod.
seriously.
the right tripod for the conditions is one that holds the camera steady.

ps here's what I've concluded...

when the light is low, and you have no tripod, try turning sr on and see if it helps.
if you cannot see a NOTICABLE improvement, turn it back off and leave it off untill you think you need it.

I'll spare chris from having an anurism bursting in his brain, by not rehashing what caused me to draw those conclusions, but will say his testing and results convinced me that the sr is of little use except for telephoto shots, handheld.

I'm getting decent results with my old pentax afo8oc ringflash. (ttl on ds2, manual on k10) It'll take more than p-ttl to convince me to upgrade.

want to try out that combo, but nobody has the lens in stock in my area....

it's not inferior to what you're using.....covers all the same ranges, and has af....so it would be a small improvement.......one lens convenience......is actually a very nice lens. high quality for that range..but not quite what you'd get from the other lenses suggested...if you plan on making large prints, the differences will be noticable.
you'll suffer in low light where you (already) would need faster glass....
I'd spend my money Expanding my photo options, not Swapping them....

I don't know what they sell for in your area, but a minty af 28mm 2.8 usually goes for about $70.00 Cdn used around here and the 50mm1.4 is the best street photography, low light lens for anybody on a budget.
add the 2.8 100mm macro, and you got a versitile set, all taking 49mm filters, all usable on aps and (full frame film) bodies

here's a test.....raid your toolbox, or (presumably your wife's) dresser for anything that vibrates. hold that against your camera, and see if it shakes the dust out...(esp for those with *ist dlsrs...).

probably more gimmic than function if you ask me... but if I had shaky hands, or was not mechanically inclined, or worse yet, a technophobe, then the built in sensor shake, would be better than taking it in to a repair shop to have it cleaned.....

ignore the test...it was a joke...