Turn off OIS on a tripod: For the second day in a row, I was doing some shooting with my Fuji XT-3 and 50–140 mm lens, using a tripod. This lens has a switch to turn the OIS on and...

Rab-Eye Loc: Indiana

For the second day in a row, I was doing some shooting with my Fuji XT-3 and 50–140 mm lens, using a tripod. This lens has a switch to turn the OIS on and off. I should have switched it off according to both conventional wisdom and the lens instructions. Well, I forgot to do that and the pictures are tack sharp anyway. I guess not turning it off could potentially cause problems, but evidently not all the time. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Ben

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Rab-Eye wrote:

For the second day in a row, I was doing some shooting with my Fuji XT-3 and 50–140 mm lens, using a tripod. This lens has a switch to turn the OIS on and off. I should have switched it off according to both conventional wisdom and the lens instructions. Well, I forgot to do that and the pictures are tack sharp anyway. I guess not turning it off could potentially cause problems, but evidently not all the time. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Ben

Many cameras now have auto-sensing mechanisms that turn it off when no body vibration is detected. I don't know about your XT-3, though.

Rab-Eye Loc: Indiana

burkphoto wrote:

Many cameras now have auto-sensing mechanisms that turn it off when no body vibration is detected. I don't know about your XT-3, though.

Bill, I don’t think it does. Maybe the bodies with IBIS do. I have a lens or two that “know” they are on a tripod and automatically disable OIS, but not my camera AFAIK.

Thanks,

Ben

charles brown Loc: Tennesse

Rab-Eye wrote:

For the second day in a row, I was doing some shooting with my Fuji XT-3 and 50–140 mm lens, using a tripod. This lens has a switch to turn the OIS on and off. I should have switched it off according to both conventional wisdom and the lens instructions. Well, I forgot to do that and the pictures are tack sharp anyway. I guess not turning it off could potentially cause problems, but evidently not all the time. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Ben

I think I recently did the same thing with a Canon EOS RP and 24-105 lens. As with you, did not appear to make any difference. Would like to hear from any camera rep monitoring this web site.

Sidwalkastronomy Loc: New Jersey Shore

I would love to hear what hoggers say. I think in the past was turn it off on tripod

Rab-Eye Loc: Indiana

Sidwalkastronomy wrote:

I would love to hear what hoggers say. I think in the past was turn it off on tripod

Theoretically, it still is!

charles brown Loc: Tennesse

In the past Hoggers have recommended OIS be turned off when using a tripod. Have read the same recommendation in various books, magazine articles and on the internet.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

charles brown wrote:

In the past Hoggers have recommended OIS be turned off when using a tripod. Have read the same recommendation in various books, magazine articles and on the internet.

"Read The *Fine* Manual" is the operant phrase there. Some models DO NOT require you to turn it off. They turn it off for you. This feature varies from brand to brand AND model to model, so look it up.

If you don't have a manual, it usually can be downloaded as a PDF from the camera company's support website.

Rab-Eye Loc: Indiana

Bill, the reason for my post is that I simply forgot to do what the manual says to do and left stabilization on while I was using a tripod, but there was no lack of sharpness in the image. Just saying.

PoppieJ Loc: North Georgia

I had similar results with my 70-200 f2.8 lens. I was shooting on a tripod and my photos were not as sharp as I wanted them to be. I tried turning IS back on and boom all of the pictures from that point forward were as sharp as I could ask for. The curious thing is that I have not had this problem before, but this time I was shooting in a low light setting.

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

In repeated occasions I have forgotten to turn IS off in my Olympus cameras when shooting from a tripod. Never an issue.

LFingar Loc: Claverack, NY

Rab-Eye wrote:

For the second day in a row, I was doing some shooting with my Fuji XT-3 and 50–140 mm lens, using a tripod. This lens has a switch to turn the OIS on and off. I should have switched it off according to both conventional wisdom and the lens instructions. Well, I forgot to do that and the pictures are tack sharp anyway. I guess not turning it off could potentially cause problems, but evidently not all the time. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Ben

"Conventional Wisdom" is not always very wise. Ever heard that you should reduce the air pressure in your tires before a long trip? That bit of conventional "wisdom" has killed people. Leaving IS active when on a tripod will not harm your equipment. If that was a possibility there would be a warning in your manual, probably in big red block letters that you MUST turn off IS when using a tripod. Instead there is probably just a single line in normal letters advising you to shut it off. Not a bad precaution with some cameras but totally unnecessary with others. The worst that will happen is that you will have an IQ issue with some of your photos that you probably won't notice until you review them on a big screen. Even that is only likely to happen under a particular set of circumstances, but, like any number of things here on UHH, you will be supplied with the conventional wisdom that your camera will vaporize in a white hot ball of flame if you forget to do this or that or something else.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

LFingar wrote:

"Conventional Wisdom" is not always very... (show quote)

BZZZZTT!!! < pop >

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Rab-Eye wrote:

For the second day in a row, I was doing some shooting with my Fuji XT-3 and 50–140 mm lens, using a tripod. This lens has a switch to turn the OIS on and off. I should have switched it off according to both conventional wisdom and the lens instructions. Well, I forgot to do that and the pictures are tack sharp anyway. I guess not turning it off could potentially cause problems, but evidently not all the time. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Ben

What do I always say?

A - L - W - A - Y - S ??

When using modern digital equipment, leave it on and forget it. Forget all that ancient conventional wisdom developed for old equipment and / or inferior camera brands.

So many of these 'rules' are nothing but old habits that people are too afraid to change.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

PoppieJ wrote:

I had similar results with my 70-200 f2.8 lens. I was shooting on a tripod and my photos were not as sharp as I wanted them to be. I tried turning IS back on and boom all of the pictures from that point forward were as sharp as I could ask for. The curious thing is that I have not had this problem before, but this time I was shooting in a low light setting.

Here is an example of differences in versions of equipment and why these ancient rules get started on the internet, never to be forgotten.

The original EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS has a different version of Canon's Image Stabilization than the v II models. All Canon EOS v II / v III lenses have been updated with the 'smarts' needed to detected a stable platform / tripod. The same 'smarts' exists in IBIS-enabled cameras, across all brands.

There are numerous examples of the differences and how the vII lenses behave as compared to the vI and even the unstabilized lenses on a tripod.