100-300 : Use lens OIS on stabilized body? (OMD)

[campbellcj]

Hi everyone,

I apologize if this has been covered before. I tried searching, but the search function seems to be broken.

Anyway, I just got the Panasonic 100-300 for use on my OM-D E-M5 and was wondering if I should enable or disable the lens stabilization (OIS), since the body also has stabilization. The instructions don't give any guidance.

Thanks in advance for any info!

 

[Chrisnmn]

i use the camera ibis and the lens ois off, if you turn on boths, its a mess...

 

[pxpaulx]

Hi everyone,

I apologize if this has been covered before. I tried searching, but the search function seems to be broken.

Anyway, I just got the Panasonic 100-300 for use on my OM-D E-M5 and was wondering if I should enable or disable the lens stabilization (OIS), since the body also has stabilization. The instructions don't give any guidance.

Thanks in advance for any info!

It would depend on your requirement - as far as I have always understood they are somewhat different. In-body stabilization will allow you to hand-hold to a slower shutter speed - in-lens stabilization also does this, but has the benefit of being able to stabilize at a faster speed in lower light, which is a benefit for moving subjects. I could be wrong but someone will correct me if that is the case!

Edit: Chrisnmn is right though, one or the other but not both!

 

[994]

The EM5's IBIS is very effective. If this is your only lens, I'd say go with either. If you attach other lenses, then I'd say shut off lens IS and use only IBIS, that way you don't have to keep switching the IBIS on and off.

If it was any other m43 camera, I'd suggest using the lens IS, because then the view is stabilized for video, but with the EM5, go with the in-body stabilization.

Don't use both at the same time, as was mentioned.

 

[slothead]

i use the camera ibis and the lens ois off, if you turn on boths, its a mess...

I disagree big time! I was concerned about this issue and figured the same would be true, but I tested it anyway. I was really pleased with how both IS systems worked together! The body IS helps stabilize the image during exposure and the lens IS helps stabilize during focusing.

Especially helpful with that 300mm end of the zoom, as soon as you hit the release button (halfway), the subject settles down, helping you to ensure that you have laid your focus on the correct element of your composition. Release the rest of the way and you get a good exposure. With the Mega OIS off, that 300mm (effectively 600mm at 35mm equivalency) jumps around (at least hand-held) pretty good, making it fairly difficult to make sure you are focusing on what you want.

 

[Chrisnmn]

I disagree big time! I was concerned about this issue and figured the same would be true, but I tested it anyway. I was really pleased with how both IS systems worked together! The body IS helps stabilize the image during exposure and the lens IS helps stabilize during focusing.

Especially helpful with that 300mm end of the zoom, as soon as you hit the release button (halfway), the subject settles down, helping you to ensure that you have laid your focus on the correct element of your composition. Release the rest of the way and you get a good exposure. With the Mega OIS off, that 300mm (effectively 600mm at 35mm equivalency) jumps around (at least hand-held) pretty good, making it fairly difficult to make sure you are focusing on what you want.

thats great to know, my first try with my p100-300 and a monopod was that when using both is systems plus pressing half shutter the image was springy and jumping all around the frame and not when i only had the ibis, buts thats my personal experience. try it out yourself and youll know what works for you best!

 

[Tincam]

In my experience, using both lens IS and IBIS at the same time causes undesirable results. It seems to me that, when used this way, the image is stabilized in the VF constantly, but becomes unstabilized (or possibly the two IS systems are counteracting each other) when the shutter button is half-pressed and full-pressed, which is the opposite of what we need. I advise not keeping both on, but some experimentation will tell you what works for you.

 

[usayit]

It would depend on your requirement - as far as I have always understood they are somewhat different. In-body stabilization will allow you to hand-hold to a slower shutter speed - in-lens stabilization also does this,

Correct..

but has the benefit of being able to stabilize at a faster speed in lower light, which is a benefit for moving subjects. I could be wrong but someone will correct me if that is the case!

I don't believe this is correct. Both IS and IBIS counteract blur that is introduced by hand movements/shake. This allows for reasonably sharp photos at slower shutter speeds. The difference is how they counteract the blur. In lens shifts optics within the lens barrel while IBIS shifts the sensor in the camera.

Neither will benefit stopping MOTION blur due to moving subjects. Stopping motion for reasonably sharp photos can only be done with a faster shutter speed. Faster shutter speeds that are obtained via a more sensitive media (higher ISO) or larger aperture (lower "f" number). Sports photographers (one of the most demanding on the equipment) invest heavily on long telephotos with faster apertures (lower "f" number) in order to establish both fast shutter speeds AT lower ISO settings. Both an absolute for a good quality image that stops motion.

 

[usayit]

I disagree big time! I was concerned about this issue and figured the same would be true, but I tested it anyway. I was really pleased with how both IS systems worked together!

Manual, Page 49:

"When using a lens with an image stabilization function, turn off the image stabilizer
function of either the lens or the camera"

Both IS use a gyroscope to counteract the shake of the physical body of the camera/lens. They will over counteract for certain amount of movements since they are not coordinated together. I have tested this and found this to be true.

The body IS helps stabilize the image during exposure and the lens IS helps stabilize during focusing.

No longer true.. OMD E-M5 has a setting to turn on IBIS while focusing...

Both In lens IS and IBIS stabilize during exposure...

There is a caveat in regards to the OMD later post.

 

[usayit]

I haven't tested this completely yet but

1) IBIS at 9fps in the OMD has been reported to turn off as the shutter is tripping...
2) IS in lens I believe still operates even at 9fps.
3) I found OMD's IBIS more effective than the IS in lens.

My hypothesis:

* When shooting at 9fps, its more effective to rely on the in lens IS.
* When shooting at less than 4 fps, its more effective to use IBIS

 

[jnewell]

I have done some informal comparisons on the OM-D and gotten essentially identical results with IBIS and OIS. If I had to pick one or the other, I would say the results were maybe 55:45 in favor of IBIS over OIS, but I consider this within my personal margin of error.

These were all single frame SAF.

 

[2ndLight]

My experience with the 100-300 on the OMD at 300mm has been the OIS works a bit better than the IBIS. I seem to get sharper handheld shots but of course it's hard to be scientific when comparing hand held shots.

I also find the shooting experience better with OIS than IBIS at 300mm. It's much easier to compose a shot when the VF is continuously stabilized. I turn on the half press stabilized VF option on the OMD and that's much better but still not nearly as seamless as the OIS. YMMV

With shorter lenses, it has been a toss up for me and I usually default to IBIS since I often used unstabilized primes.

 

[campbellcj]

Thanks for all the input on this. I did some quick backyard testing with it this morning but need to put in some more time and keep track of which settings I'm using. The lens does seem to have good sharpness and image quality especially for its price point. This was with the IBIS on and OIS off, handheld @ 300mm.

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Scrub Jay by cjcam, on Flickr

 

[slothead]

Manual, Page 49:

"When using a lens with an image stabilization function, turn off the image stabilizer
function of either the lens or the camera"

Both IS use a gyroscope to counteract the shake of the physical body of the camera/lens. They will over counteract for certain amount of movements since they are not coordinated together. I have tested this and found this to be true.

No longer true.. OMD E-M5 has a setting to turn on IBIS while focusing...

Both In lens IS and IBIS stabilize during exposure...

There is a caveat in regards to the OMD later post.

Hey if you don't believe me try it yourself! I didn't either before seeing it first-hand.
Sorry,

 

[usayit]

Hey if you don't believe me try it yourself! I didn't either before seeing it first-hand.
Sorry,

i did...

 

[CPWarner]

Hey if you don't believe me try it yourself! I didn't either before seeing it first-hand.
Sorry,

Did you reset the focal length of the IBIS to 300mm? It is typically at a lower focal length, which lead me to believe that this setting was something of a sensitivity setting. If you do that as well as having the right settings for the IBIS to stabilize the viewfinder, I found the image in the viewfinder to be very stable, and the image to be sharp.

 

[slothead]

Did you reset the focal length of the IBIS to 300mm? It is typically at a lower focal length, which lead me to believe that this setting was something of a sensitivity setting. If you do that as well as having the right settings for the IBIS to stabilize the viewfinder, I found the image in the viewfinder to be very stable, and the image to be sharp.

I didn't even know that the E-M5 had a focal length setting for the IBIS! (There are soooooo many things I don't know about this little gem yet). Thanks for that tidbit, but is it going to be painful resetting the IBIS focal length setting every time I change lenses? I'll try that. Thanks CPW!

 

[ShrubMonkey]

Did you reset the focal length of the IBIS to 300mm? It is typically at a lower focal length, which lead me to believe that this setting was something of a sensitivity setting. If you do that as well as having the right settings for the IBIS to stabilize the viewfinder, I found the image in the viewfinder to be very stable, and the image to be sharp.

I guess the issue is what to set the focal length to when using a zoom lens? I've attached my 100-300 to my OMD so will do some experimenting

 

[usayit]

For the native lenses like the 100-300mm you don't need to set focal length... its automatic. You do set it for vintage adapted manual lenses.

 

[ShrubMonkey]

For the native lenses like the 100-300mm you don't need to set focal length... its automatic. You do set it for vintage adapted manual lenses.

Doh, I just this minute read that in the manual, but thx anyway