Film cameras and image stabilization

thuggins said:

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.

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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

As this term has been used again, I still would like to know what `bracing´ means.

Bracing is a way of standing, you position your body to give maximum rigidity and stability. You can also brace your body when sitting or lying down. It's very useful when shooting

Ian

GeoffHill said:

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

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"I'm not a very steady person"... You just proved my point! If you know how to hold the camera and brace yourself for a shot IS will automatically blur a significant portion of your pictures. If memory serves, Nikon had to put in a mechanism to turn off the VR (their version of IS) when the camera is on a tripod. The VR was blurring pictures with the camera on a tripod!

Ignorance isn't always bliss. It is worth doing a little reading to find out how a technology works, rather than just believing that it is magic.

VR and IS work incredibly well.

Why would the IS/VR blur when standing still/using a tripod?

Canon and Nikon recommend that the VR/IS is switched off on tripods. The really really expensive (£3000+) lenses have Tripod detection built in. The rest, the manufacturers recommends are switched off when you mount the lens on a tripod.

The IS is an incredibly useful tool, when you need just a bit more stability then you can hand hold. I dont think that anyone could argue that a tripod wasn't better, but its not always possible to use a tripod. IS will give about as much stability as using a monopod, IME.

You do need to know how to use it, and to suggest that it is useful all the time, and in all situations, is about as silly as suggesting that that you should never use it. However, if you find that you consistently get less sharp pictures with IS switched on, than with IS switched off, during exposures in the 1/400th to 1/25th sec range, while handheld, I think that its faulty on your camera.