What does image stabilisation do and how does it work?

To prevent blurring caused by a shaky hand, image stabilisation will compensate to eliminate movement; very useful when zooming. Camcorders offer one or both of the two types of image stabilisation:

Optical – the optical stabilising lens moves to compensate for external movement; found in upper range models, this usually provides the best results.

Digital (electronic) – the image captured by the lens ‘floats’ on the CCD; the camcorder uses electronics to adjust the video with adequate results.