IS & VR-systems are taking photography (image quality) to a whole other level. The most impressive feature that digital imaging offers is the increase in sharpness.
As far as I'm concerned, the quality of the optics has increased more than a lot as well. And that's necessary too, 'cause lenses we use nowadays reach a saturation point by 22 megapixels. At least that's what I have read in an article written by a technician/scientist.
I think that there is still lots of improvement possible when it comes sensor development. I'm thinking about clearness, power management, file compression etc etc ... . But people who say that shooting film provides you better images than digital sound alienated to me. I don't discuss with them, I give in immediately and move on
Digital is already better than film. The Canon Ds II and Nikon's D2x are just mindblowing and the "scary" thing is that the next generation DSLR's are lurking around the corner. BRING IT ON !!!
Anyway, enough said about that, just want to say something about the stabilization systems.
One of the most important things about this system is that you don't just have to point and shoot. You have to give this system some time to come into action
After that, you hardly miss
It's like SDK2003 said, taking ultra-sharp images at 400mm with a shutter speed of 1/80 is perfectly possible. You can clearly see when the stabilitazion system has set itself, you see when the stabilization system provides the stability needed.
Vive Le IS & VR
Cheers