GeoffHill
Member
In any case, IS is at best a gimmick. It doesn't sense rotation of any type, which is far more likely than just moving the camera up an down or side to side. It also senses movement that has already happened. So it just guesses at the correction needed based on the movement that occurred a fraction of a second earlier. It is more likely than not to guess wrong, and "automatically" blur an otherwise good shot.
My Canon with IS consistently produces the blurriest pictures of any camera I have. It is especially bad if you are skilled at bracing yourself and smoothly pressing the shutter release.
You must be using it incorrectly, or have faulty IS. I regularly use my 70-200 f2.8 IS at 1/25th - 1/50th and my 300 f4 IS at 1/60th sec and get sharp results without bracing. I'm not a very steady person, but the IS allows me to use FP4@125 where I would normally use HP5@400. This is about as un-gimmiky as you can get IMHO
The IS will give blurry results if you pan the camera with it switched on (unless your canon IS lens has a 'mode 2').
I'm not convinced it would be that useful on a shorter lens, but, after having it, I would not consider buying a telephoto lens without IS