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IS on a tripod? (1 Viewer)

mike from ebbw

mike from ebbw

Well-known member
Am I right in thinking that keeping the IS on when mounting the lens on a tripod causes fuzzy pics?I heard somewhere that it has the opposite effect and tries to rectify even the slightest movement therefore causing some camera shake even in bright sunlight.
 
mike from ebbw said:
Am I right in thinking that keeping the IS on when mounting the lens on a tripod causes fuzzy pics?I heard somewhere that it has the opposite effect and tries to rectify even the slightest movement therefore causing some camera shake even in bright sunlight.
Click to expand...

Mike,

Ive only just got my 500 IS so im hardly qualified to answer! but surely that would be defeating the object of having an IS if it didnt work on a tripod? You'd have more movement for sure handheld!!! As a matter i tend to turn mine off after a while as ive been using a 300-800 Sigma & old habits die-hard ;)
 
A book I have by an renowned wildlife pro says to turn it off; however, he's also assuming you are using a rock-solid tripod. A little wind on an inexpensive pod can be similar to handheld, and the IS would help.
 
It will depend a lot on the lens... with older versions of Canon's IS system (found in the 300 f4 and the 100-400) it is recommended that you turn off the IS when using a tripod. However on lenses with the newer version of the IS system (the big primes, 70-200 f2.8, etc) you can leave it on without any problems.
 
An older version of Canon IS, like that found on the 100-400, does not work well on a stable platform like a tripod - it tries to correct the vibrations of it's own motors!

More recent IS, like that found in the big primes, can be left on - in fact, I see no reason to switch it off...did the renowned wildlife pro have a good reason?

EDIT: Ah, see I crossed with Pete's post.
 
mw_aurora said:
More recent IS, like that found in the big primes, can be left on - in fact, I see no reason to switch it off...did the renowned wildlife pro have a good reason?
Click to expand...

I always turn IS off once the shutter speed is up near to ,or faster than, the focal length (i.e. 1/500th with a 500mm) because IS uses processor power, with it off AF is noticably faster as there is more processing power availble for focusing, this makes a very noticable difference when shooting birds, and particularly fast aircraft, in flight!

Newer versions of IS work fine on tripods however when using very slow shutter speeds with the shorter focal length lenses, i.e. night shots, it is recomended to turn IS off
 
Thanks all.The reason I asked is that a mate of mine is using a 40d with the Canon ef 100-400 IS L lens on a tripod.Even in bright sunlight he is getting pics with obvious camera shake.
 
The emphasis in this thread has obviously been on DSLRs and their lenses, but I thought I might ask what others think about the IS/tripod issue with point and shoots, especially since more and more P&S cameras have it nowadays.

I can say that my new Canon S5IS seems to work fine with IS turned ON even on a tripod. I do turn it off if I think of it, but in those cases where I forget, it looks fine.

I think that most (all?) P&S cameras use the lens-shifting technique for IS (as opposed to sensor-shift), so it would make sense that manufacturers like Canon would use the latest versions of their lens-shift technology in their newest P&S models - i.e. as stated earlier in this thread, newer lenses do work OK with IS on a tripod.

Canon has some info on their website about DSLR IS lenses and tripods (essentially saying what is said in this thread), but are silent about their P&S cameras, although they keep adding IS to more and more models. Guess they figure that P&S users don't even know what a tripod is!
 
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