The paper discusses the difference between explicit sensor-based control and impedance control, using an example of fast vision-based contour tracking. While explicit sensor-based control may cause a rough desired robot path with sharp vertices, impedance control is known to filter the trajectory at the expense of a bigger control error. We present a new implementation and a new approach to impedance-based control where the latter turns out to produce smooth trajectories with small control errors. Both methods are independent of actual control errors but only depend on the desired speed and the sensed shape of the contour.