There are people spreading myths that if you're shooting from a tripod, you will get sharper photos by turning IS off. My testing shows that the opposite is true.
OFF:
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ON:
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I have written an article about it
here.
I encourage everybody to to try it for themselves. (and share your results.)
If your IS on image is sharper than your IS off image you either have a problem with your camera or your tripod is not as stable as you think.
Thats been a internet can of worms for a long time, along with the dont use IS with fast shutter speeds, both need testing with your own set up.
Yes it has been................your post makes the perfect launch pad for my reply.
IS has a feedback loop and it is theoretically possible for the IS to cause problems when the camera is not moving as in on a “Steady” tripod. In the old days of IS this could cause problems and I saw evidence of it causing problems back in the dark ages. But IS has come a long way since the 90’s and in modern cameras/lenses I have not seen any problems with leaving it on. You do have to be careful with other systems that still have lenses with IS that were made in the 90’s because they could very well cause issues on a tripod because they are from as I said earlier “the dark ages”.
As for fast shutter speeds it really is not needed for sharp photos. Although it could be helpful in some situations like panning. Now.........having the IS on does use up computing resources that could be used for the CAF system (which is the case with the original EM1), I am going on the fact that most times you use fast shutters speeds is for sports and you will be using CAF. Even knowing that I still keep it on in my EM1 because having the stablized view finder is more helpful than the small gain in CAF ability I would get turning it off.
So it depends on the lens with Canon. However I once had a Canon 70 200 mm lens which lost the ability to focus sharply. They told me never to take the lens off without turning the IS button off. I don't see how this is bad,but If you accidentally removed the lens while the camera the mechanism may be damaged and the lens become misaligned.I had to send lens to the factory.
I have to say that I have never heard that before. Who was the "they" that told you this? Canon support? Your local photo store? Other users? Forum members?
I am not suggesting that "they" are wrong, but I had Canon cameras, both crop and full-frame, for many years, along with perhaps 8 or 10 lenses, almost all with IS, and I never turned the IS button off when changing lenses, and never had that problem. Perhaps I was lucky, or perhaps the problem only exists with certain lenses, or perhaps it was an old problem that was fixed, or ...
I have been an electronic tech for a long time (almost 30 years) and I was taught to always turn off power before removing some like a circuit card in a system. Why? Because there is a chance (very small but still a chance) that you could cause a spark or some other surge or something that could damage electronic circuits. I have always turned my camera off while when removing a lens because of this. Now......the chance of anything happening are very small, but I figure why take a chance when shutting the camera off is really not that hard.
As for what you were told about turning IS off when removing the lens. If the camera is turned off there is no need to turn IS off because there is no power to cause any problems. If the camera is not off but you turn IS off, there is still power applied to the lens and turning IS off may prevent one potential problem but there is still power coming to other pins that could cause problems. So I would say turning off lens IS is not needed and will do you no good. You need to turn the cameras power off, not the IS.
AFAIK, the latest Olympus bodies detect when the camera is tripod mounted and effectively turn IS off anyhow.
Not true but true.............they have refined the IS in modern cameras/lenses. Some systems are more advanced then others. Just like when it comes to CAF/Tracking, each company has their own algorithms and some are better than others. Olympus has some of the best IS on the market and their algorithms are pretty damn good as well as they have some very good gyros and they are good at detecting that there is no movement and don’t try to invent some like the older systems did.
For the record. The system I was a technician on in the Navy used antennas that were roll stabilized to keep parallel to the horizon. So I do have a lot of experience with the same basic technology involved in cameras IS.
Lol maybe this is a statement of how good Olympus IBIS is. Apparently Sigma lens IS isn't so reliable:
How a Sigma Art Lens Messed Up My Ferrari Photo Shoot
Actually his problem stemmed from turnin the IS off. If he had kept it on the problem probably would never have showed itself. His problem was the elements that move for stabilization use magnets to keep it centered when the IS is off, pretty similar to what Olympus does with its IBIS. I have actually seen this phenomenon with my EM1 when waking the camera when I have my eye to the viewfinder. You can see the image jump and take a second to stabilize. It is why I don’t let my camera go to sleep when there is a chance I could need it for a surprise photograph. I just take extra batteries because walking around the swamp for 5-6 hours and never letting the camera sleep sucks up the juice.
