IS or Not ?
Sep 30, 2015 11:04:31 #
Mightymouse
Loc: Long Island NY
Thank you Peter. I have been shooting mostly JPG which on my Mac I can still alter a little. At times I have gotten photos that have needed no PP but that is far and few between. Biggest problem is changing light and conditions when I am moving about
Sep 30, 2015 11:05:48 #
Mightymouse
Loc: Long Island NY
Thank you Peter. I have been shooting mostly JPG which on my Mac I can still alter a little. At times I have gotten photos that have needed no PP but that is far and few between. Biggest problem is changing light and conditions when I am moving about
Sep 30, 2015 11:09:56 #
Mightymouse
Loc: Long Island NY
Thank you Dsmeltz I was purposely shooting at f4 -5.6 thought it would be more forgiving focusing quickly
Sep 30, 2015 13:01:32 #
amfoto1
Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA
I've been shooting with Canon IS lenses for close to 15 years. In fact, IS was one of the reasons I switched to the Canon system. Back in 2000/2001 Canon was the only game in town offering it on their SLR lenses, and they'd already done so for 4 or 5 years.
My take: Leave IS on, even in sports situations where you're using a higher shutter speed. It does no harm at all and may help in several ways.
First of all, Canon's in-lens IS stabilizes the image in the viewfinder, too. That can help when tracking moving subjects. The longer the focal length, the more it helps.
Second, Canon's IS seems to help autofocus work faster and more accurately. If you think about it, it actually makes more sense that AF would have an easier time locking onto the subject when it's stabilized, than when it's not. I have not tested this, just observed it from many years use. (This is contrary to what some folks say about Nikon's VR, so don't equate the two different brands of stabilization and don't rely upon Nikon user VR experiences unless you're also using Nikon gear.)
Third, Canon's lens manuals suggest turning IS off when using higher shutter speeds and when using a tripod... But Canon USA tech guru Chuck Westfall says that's primarily suggested just to save the little bit of battery power that IS consumes. Frankly, after using a number of different IS lenses for many years, I don't think it uses very much power at all, so might as well leave it on.
Finally, it appears to do no harm at higher shutter speeds (and might help). Once in a blue moon I get a shot where it appears IS was not finished stabilizing an image and there was some camera shake blur actually caused by it... But those are extremely rare... One in a thousand or one in several thousand, I'd estimate. On most Canon lenses, IS is fast. It runs concurrently with autofocus, which you have to give a fraction of a second to achieve focus anyway. In fact, some of the latest Canon IS lenses have a Mode 3 version that doesn't actuate IS until the very moment of exposure, so it must be extremely fast to be able to do it's job in the milliseconds after you press the shutter release button fully, before the shutter trips.
After 15 years and taking perhaps a million photos with it, I'm still a big, big fan of IS. Wouldn't want to be without it on my telephoto lenses (two 70-200s, two 300mm, 500mm) in particular. I have pretty good technique and don't really look for IS on shorter focal lengths (say, under 70mm or so), but I certainly don't mind having it even on wide angles and normal lenses too. I also don't need IS on my macro lenses.... it is of limited use at high magnifications (although Canon's version of it on their 100L Macro is a special hybrid and one of the most effective... but it adds a lot to the cost of the lens for modest help).
Most Canon lenses do not require IS be turned off on a tripod. The reason a few do is because they use a simpler from of IS that can go into sort of a feedback loop that causes movement, when there is none to counteract. It's a pretty short list, though: EF 28-135 IS, EF 300/4L IS, the old EF 75-300 IS, EF 24-105L and EF 100-400L (first version) are among the few lenses that need it manually turned off to prevent the "feedback". Even with these lenses, if you forget to turn off IS and lock them down on a tripod so that they go into the "feedback" loop, no harm will be done to either the camera or the lens, you'll be see it occurring in the viewfinder (image jumps around a lot) and can then simply turn off IS.
But that won't happen and it's not necessary to turn off IS on most Canon lenses, even when they are locked down on a tripod. They "self-detect" and turn off IS themselves. This definitely includes all the Canon 70-200s, as well as all 200mm and longer primes with IS (except for the 300/4L).
Video shooters or someone shooting a very critically framed image (architecture?) might want to turn IS off with most lenses at times, due to what I call "image drift". This is a slower image movement that occurs due to IS. Again, you can see it happening in the viewfinder (or Live View). This may be a problem with video or might be an issue when trying to frame a still image very precisely, but it doesn't effect image sharpness at all, the way the "feedback" type of movement does with that short list of Canon lenses. IS on some lenses also makes some small noise, which might be picked up on the audio track of a video.
Again, all this is with respect to Canon IS.... Not Nikon VR, Sigma OS, Tamron VC or Tokina VCM-S (because I have little or no experience with all of those forms of in-lens stabilization). They must be different in some ways, too, because after Canon enjoyed so much success with stabilization, they all really had no choice but to scramble to implement some form of stabilization of their own in stay relevant. But they had to do so without infringing on Canon's patented technology. Also don't try to compare with in-camera stabilization, such as Olympus, Pentax and Sony offer. That's definitely not the same (at the very least, it doesn't stabilize the optical viewfinder image, but does stabilize every lens used on the camera, even vintage).
Again, my short answer is: Leave it on. I always do.
P.S. If you are struggling with action/sports photography, it is far more likely your autofocusing techniques, than due to IS.
You must use AI Servo. I also prefer to use a single, manually selected AF point (usually the center one). And I use Back Button Focusing.
In some situations multi-point AF can work well or even better, but those are far less common for what I shoot.
I'm editing 3600 shots I made at a sporting event on Sunday (with two 7D, and mostly 70-200 and 300mm lenses, all w/IS)... about halfway through, and out of about 1800 so far I've trashed a dozen or fewer images for focus issues... And I would guess at least half of those "misses" are my fault, not the camera's.
Most of those settings are not available on a Canon 60D.
My take: Leave IS on, even in sports situations where you're using a higher shutter speed. It does no harm at all and may help in several ways.
First of all, Canon's in-lens IS stabilizes the image in the viewfinder, too. That can help when tracking moving subjects. The longer the focal length, the more it helps.
Second, Canon's IS seems to help autofocus work faster and more accurately. If you think about it, it actually makes more sense that AF would have an easier time locking onto the subject when it's stabilized, than when it's not. I have not tested this, just observed it from many years use. (This is contrary to what some folks say about Nikon's VR, so don't equate the two different brands of stabilization and don't rely upon Nikon user VR experiences unless you're also using Nikon gear.)
Third, Canon's lens manuals suggest turning IS off when using higher shutter speeds and when using a tripod... But Canon USA tech guru Chuck Westfall says that's primarily suggested just to save the little bit of battery power that IS consumes. Frankly, after using a number of different IS lenses for many years, I don't think it uses very much power at all, so might as well leave it on.
Finally, it appears to do no harm at higher shutter speeds (and might help). Once in a blue moon I get a shot where it appears IS was not finished stabilizing an image and there was some camera shake blur actually caused by it... But those are extremely rare... One in a thousand or one in several thousand, I'd estimate. On most Canon lenses, IS is fast. It runs concurrently with autofocus, which you have to give a fraction of a second to achieve focus anyway. In fact, some of the latest Canon IS lenses have a Mode 3 version that doesn't actuate IS until the very moment of exposure, so it must be extremely fast to be able to do it's job in the milliseconds after you press the shutter release button fully, before the shutter trips.
After 15 years and taking perhaps a million photos with it, I'm still a big, big fan of IS. Wouldn't want to be without it on my telephoto lenses (two 70-200s, two 300mm, 500mm) in particular. I have pretty good technique and don't really look for IS on shorter focal lengths (say, under 70mm or so), but I certainly don't mind having it even on wide angles and normal lenses too. I also don't need IS on my macro lenses.... it is of limited use at high magnifications (although Canon's version of it on their 100L Macro is a special hybrid and one of the most effective... but it adds a lot to the cost of the lens for modest help).
Most Canon lenses do not require IS be turned off on a tripod. The reason a few do is because they use a simpler from of IS that can go into sort of a feedback loop that causes movement, when there is none to counteract. It's a pretty short list, though: EF 28-135 IS, EF 300/4L IS, the old EF 75-300 IS, EF 24-105L and EF 100-400L (first version) are among the few lenses that need it manually turned off to prevent the "feedback". Even with these lenses, if you forget to turn off IS and lock them down on a tripod so that they go into the "feedback" loop, no harm will be done to either the camera or the lens, you'll be see it occurring in the viewfinder (image jumps around a lot) and can then simply turn off IS.
But that won't happen and it's not necessary to turn off IS on most Canon lenses, even when they are locked down on a tripod. They "self-detect" and turn off IS themselves. This definitely includes all the Canon 70-200s, as well as all 200mm and longer primes with IS (except for the 300/4L).
Video shooters or someone shooting a very critically framed image (architecture?) might want to turn IS off with most lenses at times, due to what I call "image drift". This is a slower image movement that occurs due to IS. Again, you can see it happening in the viewfinder (or Live View). This may be a problem with video or might be an issue when trying to frame a still image very precisely, but it doesn't effect image sharpness at all, the way the "feedback" type of movement does with that short list of Canon lenses. IS on some lenses also makes some small noise, which might be picked up on the audio track of a video.
Again, all this is with respect to Canon IS.... Not Nikon VR, Sigma OS, Tamron VC or Tokina VCM-S (because I have little or no experience with all of those forms of in-lens stabilization). They must be different in some ways, too, because after Canon enjoyed so much success with stabilization, they all really had no choice but to scramble to implement some form of stabilization of their own in stay relevant. But they had to do so without infringing on Canon's patented technology. Also don't try to compare with in-camera stabilization, such as Olympus, Pentax and Sony offer. That's definitely not the same (at the very least, it doesn't stabilize the optical viewfinder image, but does stabilize every lens used on the camera, even vintage).
Again, my short answer is: Leave it on. I always do.
P.S. If you are struggling with action/sports photography, it is far more likely your autofocusing techniques, than due to IS.
You must use AI Servo. I also prefer to use a single, manually selected AF point (usually the center one). And I use Back Button Focusing.
In some situations multi-point AF can work well or even better, but those are far less common for what I shoot.
I'm editing 3600 shots I made at a sporting event on Sunday (with two 7D, and mostly 70-200 and 300mm lenses, all w/IS)... about halfway through, and out of about 1800 so far I've trashed a dozen or fewer images for focus issues... And I would guess at least half of those "misses" are my fault, not the camera's.
Quote:
... settings that will help you obtain better spor... (show quote)
Most of those settings are not available on a Canon 60D.
Sep 30, 2015 13:16:53 #
Mightymouse
Loc: Long Island NY
Thank you Amfoto1 this should not be a problem for me since I think about this after taking my photos !
Sep 30, 2015 14:13:49 #
Ersten
Loc: Concord, CA
Alan,
Thanks for the very detailed and helpful explanation of IS. I'll add that to my Canon info folder.
I also have a 7DII, and have custom settings for shooting from moving vehicles, BIF, and night time photography. I'll keep your custom settings just in case I do sports shots.
Ersten
Thanks for the very detailed and helpful explanation of IS. I'll add that to my Canon info folder.
I also have a 7DII, and have custom settings for shooting from moving vehicles, BIF, and night time photography. I'll keep your custom settings just in case I do sports shots.
Ersten
Sep 30, 2015 16:50:27 #
Mightymouse wrote:
Just took photos of my sons Jr. High soccer game. Got mostly decent action shots made a few errors trying to shoot quickly. ? Is should I have my IS on or off hand holing for action shots? I am using a Canon 60d with a 70-200 2,8 II. Trying to get better shots. My other problem is I do not take the critical shot because I am cheering ! Would not make it at Sports Illustrated! : )
I always turn off IS whenever I shoot any action shots handheld, as sports, or BIF, because IS is just most likely to get in the way in those situations. First of it is not made for slowing down motion blur, or those erratic movements of the camera and IS does slow down the AF by a tiny amount (also not wanted in these situations). And yes, I'm talking Canon here!!
Sep 30, 2015 18:58:51 #
Mightymouse wrote:
And yes a lot of my shots were at the far end of my range
Mightymouse, with the lens you are using, you do not need to worry about image quality at any focal length. It will be good. Use center spot focus point and AI Servo along with back button focus. You can continuously hold the focus button while following the action.
Sep 30, 2015 22:21:48 #
JohnSwanda wrote:
IS lessens camera motion, but it won't help with subject motion. You will have to use a high enough shutter speed to stop that, and IS would be extraneous.
:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
Use shutter priority auto --- set the shutter speed, and let aperture float. Either set a high enough ISO manually, or also use auto ISO.
You can use VR/IS/VC/IBIS as long as you do not use a secure tripod. But it only reduces camera shake. Read up on your camera's various AF modes, too. A little knowledge goes a LONG way, there.
Oct 1, 2015 13:41:30 #
Oct 1, 2015 15:27:52 #
Mightymouse wrote:
Thank you Bill can this same thing been done Manually?
Yes, and personally, I do it that way when the lighting is 100% consistent. I tend to set the camera up for "perfect" JPEG exposure, and save both raw and JPEG files. That discipline provides raw files with plenty of latitude to tweak what needs tweaking.
I use Shutter Priority for action when the light is changing, inconsistent, or unpredictable. If subjects are wearing black, white, or similarly toned very light or dark uniforms, I'll probably still use manual mode, though. Meters are stupid. They think everything in the world is gray!
Oct 1, 2015 16:52:59 #
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