Is 'IS' past it's sell by date?

[Les McLean]

Now that more and cameras have the ability to shoot at crazily high ISO, has IS become redundant (or will become redundant?)

The theory being you can now shoot at fast enough shutter speeds in most conditions without the need for IS, and not forgetting the price premium for a lens with IS.

I must admit I don't own any IS lenses, and the one time I did it was a complete pain because I kept forgetting to switch it off when tripod mounted.

[colin C]

Re: Is 'IS' past it's sell by date?

All of my telephoto's have IS and the function is always turned off, on the basis that I am shooting moving subjects at a sufficiently fast shutter speed, therefore IS is unnecessary.

[MX5]

Re: Is 'IS' past it's sell by date?

Well I do expect there to be something like a Iv (ISO value) setting akin to Av/Tv (a bit like M with Auto-ISO, but not!). Especially when you can use 8+ stops of ISO range without any IQ degradation.

But IS is a good marketing tool into the mass market ... I think it will be around for while yet. But there's a still a misunderstanding about what IS does in some circles.

As for tripods and turning it off ... the IS electronic can detect a steady state and turns itself off (on nearly every IS lens Canon have made).

[Les McLean]

Re: Is 'IS' past it's sell by date?

Well I do expect there to be something like a Iv (ISO value) setting akin to Av/Tv (a bit like M with Auto-ISO, but not!). Especially when you can use 8+ stops of ISO range without any IQ degradation.

But IS is a good marketing tool into the mass market ... I think it will be around for while yet. But there's a still a misunderstanding about what IS does in some circles.

As for tripods and turning it off ... the IS electronic can detect a steady state and turns itself off (on nearly every IS lens Canon have made).

Not on the 24-105 F4L I had

[MX5]

Re: Is 'IS' past it's sell by date?

Not on the 24-105 F4L I had

Oh dear ... http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0807/tech-tips.html

[Les McLean]

Re: Is 'IS' past it's sell by date?

Oh dear ... http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0807/tech-tips.html

Not sure what you are saying here, the article is about damaging the IS if used on a tripod, which I'm not suggesting.
I can confirm quite clearly that 24-105F4L when tripod mounted caused 'blur' in images that didn't happen when the IS was switched off.

A friend of mine had a similar problem with this lens, he did a series of longish exposure shots of a factory for a client (5DIII+24-105F4L), tripod mounted , the images were very soft, I asked him if he'd left IS on (he had), he had to re-shoot the job, obviously with the IS off.
I remember the 100-400L had a similar problem.

[MX5]

Re: Is 'IS' past it's sell by date?

Not sure what you are saying here, the article is about damaging the IS if used on a tripod, which I'm not suggesting.
I can confirm quite clearly that 24-105F4L when tripod mounted caused 'blur' in images that didn't happen when the IS was switched off.

A friend of mine had a similar problem with this lens, he did a series of shots of a factory for a client (5DIII+24-105F4L), tripod mounted , the images were very soft, I asked him if he'd left IS on (he had), he had to re-shoot the job, obviously with the IS off.
I remember the 100-400L had a similar problem.

Reading between the lines of the article (and elsewhere) there is hypothesis that the IS is clever enough to know it is stationary (i.e. on a tripod) ... and I've been told that from other reliable sources as well ... my original notion was like yours and I still turn off IS when tripod mounted ... so I'm even more confused as to what the real behaviour of IS is.

[Les McLean]

Re: Is 'IS' past it's sell by date?

My original notion is correct, if you read the manual for the 24-105F4L it states that if you are using long exposures, then the IS function may introduce errors if left switched on, and it's well reported that this is the case, anything around a second or longer (typical landscape shutter times) then there is the likelihood the images will be soft. At fast shutter speeds I agree, the IS would probably not effect the image if mounted on a tripod. But for landscape photographers who regularly shoot at 5-20 seconds, it is an issue.

Here's an example of what IS can do to an image on a tripod mounted lens (100-400 in this case) if IS is switched on.

[MX5]

Re: Is 'IS' past it's sell by date?

Thanks Les - clarification with proof. I can now reference your posting. Sorry to have gone marginally off topic with my secondary response.

[Les McLean]

Re: Is 'IS' past it's sell by date?

Thanks Les - clarification with proof. I can now reference your posting. Sorry to have gone marginally off topic with my secondary response.

Partly my fault, in my original post, I should have been clearer in what I meant regarding tripod use & IS

[David Morison]

Re: Is 'IS' past it's sell by date?

Having only recently bought a 7D with EF 400mm f5.6 L to add to my Olympus E-M5 with 5 axis in body IS I was concerned that the lack of IS in this outfit would be an issue. However as most of my subjects would be birds, a high shutter speed was essential (up to 1/1600 for BIF) which makes IS not only unnecessary but actually counter productive (causing some blur). I have since bought an EF 40mm and a Tokina 12-24mm neither of which have IS and not had an issue so far, although I have never used it for wide angle lenses. The one area where I feel IS has a huge advantage is with hand held manual focus and especially with macro work when using LV or on m4/3rds EVF - more so when using enlargement of the digital image. So I feel that IS is not past it's sell by date but it isn't quite the cure-all that marketing sources would have us believe.

David

[Papathanassi]

Re: Is 'IS' past it's sell by date?

My findings are when shooting with a a 500mm using say 800 iso and using a tripod, and your available light is only giving you say a shutter speed of say 320/sec,160/sec it definately pays to use Image Stabiliser. Just make sure it is engaged before you press the shutter all the way down! If you look though the lens when on a tripod with Image stabiliser engaged and the shutter button half pressed, you can see your image very slowly moving around, that is why you get blurred images at very slow shutter speeds! (edit) On long lenses!

Papa.

[nickorando]

Re: Is 'IS' past it's sell by date?

For much of my shooting, IS is incredibly useful. At the one end of the scale, often shooting in dark interiors of churches, mosques and so on where tripods are banned or impractical it allows me to shoot at relatively low ISOs and still retain good depth of field. Additionally, I find panning mode useful for sport at times - makes sure any blur is the blur I want.

[paul linton]

Re: Is 'IS' past it's sell by date?

As most of you know i mainly shoot sport so IS is of no use too me whats so ever, my 200mm is IS free and so is my 300mm and I'm in no rush to change that situation.I'll be interested to see if my new 100mm macro IS helps to keep things sharp at low shutter speeds !!!

Paul

[Nathaniel]

Re: Is 'IS' past it's sell by date?

Thanks for this Les. The two sets of images are 100% proof why IS should be switched off when using a tripod.