Image stabilisation: everything a wildlife photographer needs to know
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ก.ค. 2024
- How does image stabilisation work? How should you use it? Which is better, optical stabilisation (OS) or in-body image stabilisation (IBIS)? Do you need image stabilisation? I'll cover all this and more, whilst I head out to get photos of sea birds.
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Chapters:
0:00 What is image stabilisation?
0:49 What is optical stabilisation? (OS)
1:45 What is in body image stabilisation? (IBIS)
3:20 OS or IBIS: which is better?
7:16 Make the best use of optical stabilisation?
9:49 How is stabilisation measured?
12:48 When not to use stabilisation
15:22 How important is image stabilisation?
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Alot of food for thought & much appreciated😁
Great explanation, many thanks for that!
Thanks for watching.
I wish they would label the modes on the lenses with words instead of numbers. I struggle to remember the meaning of each mode number.
Absolutely, or at least a little symbol that represents what they do. Something like 1 is a dot, 2 is a straight line, 3 is a squiggle.
So I guess 5 axis could also be called "5 degrees of freedom". A solid body moving freely in space has six degrees of freedom total. The one that's missing is the movement forwards and backwards perpendicular to the sensor plane. Makes sense to miss that out since moving a short distance in that direction makes negligible difference to the image when the distance to the subject is many times longer than the distance you move the camera.
Hi Barney. Yeah I guess so. If you think of pitch and yaw as roll around the axis perpendicular to the plane of the roll, then you're just missing movement along the fore/back spatial axis.
@@WalksOnTheWildSide Right. And I read that although it's marketed as 5 axis that refers to the sensors, not the movement of the sensor. The movement of the sensor relative to the camera chassis is I think only happens within the plane, i.e. x,y, and rotation around the front to back axis. And for photographing subjects at a distance no small transnational movements of the camera matter, only rotations affect the image. But measuring and compensating for translations matters for macro photography.
Absolutely. The stabilisation is to detect and counter the motion in the five axes they refer to. But the sensor doesn’t move in all five axes, only in the x-y plane. If you’re careful and nudge the sensor housing you can see how it moves.
Greetings from France, where is this beautiful place full of birds ? Yor shots are amazing.
Hi. This was in the UK, on the Yorkshire coast at a little place called Bempton Cliffs. Thanks for watching.
I find that long telephoto lengths, even at high shutter speeds the image stabilisation still helps me by giving me a more stable image in the viewfinder.
Without it the image stabilisation the image in the viewfinder is generally much shakier, in my experience.
Regarding tripds and image stabilisation, I think that advice comes from landscape photography and slower shutter speeds than you'd use for wildlife. Not necessarily long exposures in landscape photography. Basically an exposure longer than the old rule of 1 over your focal length: image stabilisation can ruin such exposures when shooting on a tripod by introducing vibrations. I've had that happen and it really depends on the circumstances and the gear used. But I don't think it was ever applicable to wildlife photography, really.
Hi Tim. You could be right, it would affect the slower shutter speeds of landscape photography far more. But I do think there is something in the variation between camera brands and the different algorithms they use for stabilisation. I was shooting some long exposure seascapes after sunset a couple of nights ago, needing roughly a 13 minute expose due to the darkness. I had stabilisation on the whole time and the photos were perfectly sharp. But I know landscape photographers who use other gear who would swear it needs to be switched off. I think I want to do a bit more investigation on this one. Thanks for watching.
@@WalksOnTheWildSide I recall an evening out when I was photographing a cityscape in the dark and it was with a camera that did not have IBIS, but the lens had OIS.
The first shot was unsharp -- the OIS was still on.
After I turned on the OIS, all shots were sharp.
However, with IBIS in my other bodies I find that it is quite OK most of the time, to leave IBIS on and long exposures will often come out sharp.
That's of course not a scientific study, but a datapoint to keep in mind, for myself!
Some great images today from the bird colony, thanks for sharing. On the subject of image stablisation and tripods, there are definitely some combinations that see strange effects. I have the new Nikon 180-600 lens and it has VR as Nikon call it, it works with the Z camera IBIS in tandem. There are no VR switches on the lens , the controls are within the settings or i menu. There are certain times when using this lens, especially at higher shutter speeds on a tripod can result in blurred images, this has been reported by many people and where the shot is repeatable, IE with a non moving animal/object turning off the VR produces normal, sharp images. Strange but there seem to be other combinations that do the same, so I for one turn image stablisation off on tripods, it isn't needed there. Interestingly this phenomenon is absent if VR is in the sport mode (Nikon's name for panning). Just thought I'd mention this as it's quite often reported.
Interesting. The Nikon scenario isn't one that I've seen much about, but on googling it, it appears Z series cameras can also detect when they are on a tripod. I agree that there is little point in using image stabilisation if your camera is locked in position on a tripod, but usually I'm using it with a gimbal head on my tripod to get smooth motion as I'm tracking a bird moving - in which case I would definitely want optical stabilisation on. I'm going to look into this a little bit more and see if I can find some firmer answers on it. Thanks for watching.
@@WalksOnTheWildSide Yes, thanks for the reply, I use VR in sport (panning mode) on a Gimbal head, never had a problem..
I'm just a beginner and notice that many of your photographs are at f9 and quite low iso and shutter speeds. I have had the chance to take photos of juvenile Australian Gannets here and I tend to put the shutter speed up high with auto iso. My photos tend to be silhouettes needing noise reduction post processing. I am always afraid of blown out highlights or backgrounds and don't seem to be able to get the right balance of the three elements. I haven't watched your seabird video yet. It may help. Thankyou for all your videos. They are always informative and well thought out and produced. (I use Olympus 100-400mm and OMD M1)
You explained this so well Scott in such a great way, that's for a great interesting video 👍
Thank you as always Raymond.
Everything a wildlife photographer needs to know about the IS and why some people need it on. But you will experience it when you get older 😉 and if your gear ruin your shots because of the IS, you are using the wrong brand 😉😊
My brand (Nikon) recommends turning off the stabilization when on a tripod. I try to remember (not always successfully) to do that, but on my gimbal head, when photographing birds in flight, I leave it on. For something like a full moon, it positively needs to be off. I still use DSLRs, so no IBIS.
Hi Bill. Absolutely - if it’s locked in position on the tripod, using something like a ball head or a geared head, there is absolutely no point in using stabilisation. I use the stabilisation when I have the camera on a gimbal head or fluid head, photographing something moving. Thanks for watching.
Excellent video, thank you. As a specific application to your point that, when you turn off one function of your lens the remaining operable functions on the lens will work better, when shooting a moving wildlife subject, and thus using a faster shutter speed, some photographers have suggested that your autofocus will respond quicker and more efficiently when the in lens stabilization is turned off (apparently permitting the AF function in the lens to operate better). What has been your experience in that regard and what would you recommend in that regard? Thank you. PJI
Hi. I've experimented with this a couple of years back by having OS on and IBIS off, then vice versa, then both on and I can definitely get sharp pictures with the lowest shutter speeds when both are on. I don't think this was the case though back in the mid-2010s when image stabilisation was first becoming wide spread. But that experimentation was with the Sony system. However all manufacturers seem to say that their OS and IBIS are designed to work together when native lenses are used. So if people have got newer gear (the last five years or so) I always recommend using both. But give it a go. Find a subject you can photograph over and over again and try the different variations to see what gives you the best results. Thanks for watching.
Nice video with good explanations. But would’ve liked to see more 10:46 handheld video. Isn’t that what image stabilization is all about, shooting handheld video?
Hi Fred. No, image stabilisation was invented for stills photography and remains to be the main use case for it. Since the camera market has been making cameras to suit videographers, so that people can do both in one body, they've been trying to make stabilisation that works for video. The problem is that it doesn't work very well for video. I used the example of the dampeners in optical stabilisation being a bit like suspension on a car. It's a perfect example because optical stabilisation smooths things out a little bit, just like suspension lessons the effect of a bump in the road. It doesn't stop you feeling it, it's just not as harsh as a car without suspension. Image stabilisation can smooth things out just enough for the split second it takes to get a picture, but video can still look really bumpy even with it. In the world of film making they don't use video cameras with stabilisation for this very reason. If you ever see a film or TV crew doing any hand held filming they use video gimbal stabilisers that look like a big long pole with counter weights and is often attached to harness on the camera operator's body. m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61LMNe8vkZL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg Stabilisation has got a long way to go before it works well for video. Thanks for watching.
Hi Scott, now i'm wondering if I am doing this all wrong. I usually turn off IS anytime my shutter speed is above 1/1000. I guess I'll have to try and leave it on next time and compare my results.
I wonder if taking multiple photos (e.g. in burst mode) and combining in post, probably using auto align might be a good alternate or additional way to deal with camera shake for stationary or slow moving subjects. Increasing shutter speed reduces the effect of shake but increases noise. Blending multiple photos of the same scene should reduce noise.
They use that technique in astrophotography for noise reduction. It would probably only work with wildlife in very limited scenarios. Firstly the subject would need to be perfectly still, but secondly you'd need nothing in the background (ie a subject shot against a clear sky or something like that) otherwise you've get all sorts of weird perspective artefacts in the blend. It might be worth an experiment though to see what can be achieved.
I have been using Mode 3 for use on a tripod when there is some wind or vibration - with shutter speeds 1/30 to 1/250, 500mmm lens. Any thoughts?
Hi. It probably depends how you are using the tripod, how windy it is and how the wind is affecting your lens. If you've got the lens locked in position and it's not moving at all, you might not even need stabilisation switched on. If it's on a gimbal head or a fluid head so that you can photograph something moving, look at what happens to the lens when you're not holding it. If it's blowing from side to side, you want mode 2. If the vibrations are in all directions you want mode 3. Thanks for watching.
holy crap Scott, I've bookmarked this to re-watch a few more times, as I know all this stuff, but you make it make a crap load more sense the way you explain it than I ever have.. this should be standard viewing in every school and camera club.. wow!! thank you.. cheers from Sydney ( @dez_blanchfield )
Hi Dez, that's very kind of you to say so. Thanks for watching.
Am I crazy, or does my Sony a7IV not allow in-body IBIS if the lens has it? (when shooting photographs)
No, but you can be forgiven for thinking that. With some Sony cameras if you have both the lens and camera with steady shot (Sony’s phrase for stabilisation) you can only switch it on and off via the lens switch. The menu option in the camera is disabled. So that means it can only be on for both OS and IBIS, or off for both. You only see the option to switch on steady shot in the camera menu if you have a third party lens, or a Sony lens without steady shot. Thanks for watching.
@@WalksOnTheWildSide That actually seems like a really good move from Sony. It's confusing when a visible control has a state that doesn't match the actual state of the system it's supposed to be controlling. So until lens manufacturers start building in motorized switches and knobs it makes sense to disable the virtual switch when there's a physical switch in place for the same control. Although they don't do that for AF/MF for some reason. In principle they could add an additional position on the physical switch that means "controlled by virtual switch", like Fuji do on their aperture and shutter speed dials.
Dear Walker,
I am using Sony FE 200-600 and Sony A7R5.Can I use both OSS and IBIS? I Don't Think So.I am a begginer.Plese Clear my doubt.
Thank You.
Hi. Yes, absolutely. With the A7RV and the 200-600 you can use both together or neither. With that combination there is no option to turn off stabilisation (or Steady Shot, as Sony calls it) in the camera menu, it is all controlled by the switch on the lens. If it’s switched on at the lens both OS and IBIS are on. If it’s switched off at the lens both OS and IBIS are off. Thanks for watching.
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