Both photos are as you can see from the Exifdata without flash with a lens with normal normal Lichstärke been made. Both motifs were behind glass. The photos were taken with open aperture and aperture priority. Both photos are not blurred. About the thumb you say with a steady hand you can Freehand 50mm focal length from 1/60 second get free of decay. The larger the focal length, the harder it will be to blur the picture. The top picture is like you can read with 1/50 second and a focal length of 56mm. With luck you can do that without blurring. The lower picture is made with 1/40 second and with 200mm focal length. Without image stabilizer freehand the image at the exposure time of 1/40 second and the focal length of 200mm would certainly not be sharp.

Normally I always prefer lenses with image stabilizer with the same focal length and light intensity. Unfortunately, these lenses, especially when they are really strong, always have a very high price. Here you just have to decide if you are ready to pay the price for a hobby. However, it does not always have to be an original Nikon lens, there are cheaper alternatives from Sigma or Tamron. Unfortunately, these are often a little weaker.