Impact of IS

[monkeyleader]

So I picked up the 24-105L the other day and played a bit with the impact of IS. I don't have the steadiest hands in the world so I'm sure you could open the shutter up a little bit more but from what I've done so far I've been VERY impressed - see here

[geofftelforduk]

Thats pretty impressive!!

Bit out of my budget at the mo!! Maybe when we meet in Brum you will convince me further!!!

[Chunder]

Looks more like the focus is out on the non-IS image... quite a significant difference, though!

[monkeyleader]

You know I thought that too but it was in focus through the viewfinder ...

[Radiohead]

It works doesn't it - just remember that it doesn't help stop movement of subjects, something to bear in mind with IS in low-light shooting people. (I know you know this already)

[onefivenine]

Those shots are like night and day. It certainly does the job.

Does that lens have two IS modes - one for horiontal panning?

[Jazz Monkey Jr]

Originally Posted by onefivenine

Those shots are like night and day. It certainly does the job.

Does that lens have two IS modes - one for horiontal panning?

No, only on the longer lenses.

[Kaoshan]

The 24-105 does not have a mode switch for IS. It is either on or off! I tend to have IS off on my 24-105 most of the time but use it all the time on the big zooms where it is extremely worth while.

Canon EF 28-135mm f3.5-5.6 IS USM lens for sale.

[T0MAT01]

Originally Posted by Kaoshan

I tend to have IS off on my 24-105 most of the time

Any particular reason for that? Do you use it on a tripod instead?

[Kaoshan]

Originally Posted by T0MAT01

Any particular reason for that? Do you use it on a tripod instead?

Nope, I use it handheld. To be fair, in situations where I might need IS, which would normally be indoors and I don't need the extended range, I'll switch to using the 24-70 f2.8 lens.

One thing I have discovered with the shorter zooms is that when I'm using them on a 5D with the battery grip the weight and bulk of the camera/grip assembly is a great stabiliser

[T0MAT01]

Thanks for that, I guess that since you're using a FF camera you haven't got to worry so much about keeping the shutter speed up as much as us 1.6 crop folks!

[Radiohead]

Originally Posted by T0MAT01

Thanks for that, I guess that since you're using a FF camera you haven't got to worry so much about keeping the shutter speed up as much as us 1.6 crop folks!

[T0MAT01]

Originally Posted by Radiohead

Well since they say that to get a sharp image you should aim for a shutter speed of about 1/focal length, I guess you can hand hold without IS switched on more often when using a FF camera (i.e. shorter overall focal length than a crop camera).

Just trying to understand why someone wouldn't use IS when hand held really.

[Radiohead]

Originally Posted by T0MAT01

Well since they say that to get a sharp image you should aim for a shutter speed of about 1/focal length, I guess you can hand hold without IS switched on more often when using a FF camera (i.e. shorter overall focal length than a crop camera).

Just trying to understand why someone wouldn't use IS when hand held really.

One thing to bear in mind when thinking about crops and FF's:

The focal length never actually changes, just the field of view. So a 50mm lens on a Canon 5D is 50mm focal length, and is 50mm focal length on a 30D/ BUT, on the 30D you're only using part of the lens which gives you a FF equivalent field of view 80mm. Thus, it's as if you were looking through an 80mm lens on a 5D, but the focal length isn't changing. The same effect can be had by cropping a 5D's 50mm image down to what you would see were it an 80mm.

Does that make sense.

[T0MAT01]

That makes perfect sense, thanks.

So are you saying that at 50mm on a 1.6x crop body, I should aim for 1/50 or 1/80 sec?