Image Stabilizer always on: Normal on Mirrorless?

davel33 said:

Mikeys said:

I've just brought an R and am finding the continuous stabilizer noise distracting. Worse still, surely this will damage the lens in the long term as Canon say you shouldn't excessively move the lens while it is active.

Do we now have to switch it on at face level, then take a photo, then switch it off before lowering the camera, and repeat....

Click to expand...

Its NOT ON all the time, its ON when the LCD or EVF are on. Set your "Display Off" timer to a shorter time out. I have the "Display Off" timer set to 15 sec. and when I start to move the camera to my eye I press the shutter button to wake up the display, it will not take a picture. By the time the camera is at my eye its ready to go.

Most motor failures are on startup, the startup current on a motor can be 10 times the MAX continuous current. I would bet that you use more battery life with the start/stop method than with holding it on a bit longer.

I dont think that Canon would do this without a good reason, they have used this on the M cameras for a few years now.

Click to expand...

Mikeys said:

lawny13 said:

pixal_ch said:

This is from the EOS R Manual: "If the attached lens has an Image Stabilizer and you set the Image Stabilizer (IS) switch to <1>, the Image Stabilizer will operate at all
times even if you do not press the shutter button halfway. The Image
Stabilizer consumes battery power and may decrease the number
of possible shots depending on the shooting conditions."

So the Image Stabilizer will always be on as long as the camera is on.

This bothers me a lot:

1. It uses power from the camera's battery

2. It wears the stabilizer mechanism of the lens

3. But what bothers me most: the noise. My 100mm Macro lens, which I intend to use with the EOS R, has a very noisy IS. And I absolutely need IS for my butterfly photography.

Is this behaviour normal on mirrorless cameras?

(The "normal" behaviour in my opinion would be for it to be only on as long as you press the shutter button.)

Click to expand...

Its not exactly a solution...

But since I like to conserve batteries I have a button set to put the camera to sleep. This way I don't need to use the power button much either. As a result when I am not shooting the camera is asleep and the IS is not running.
I also have the 100 L macro, and its IS is fairly noisy as you say. Hope they do a FW update, but with sleep I don't mind as much.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I will try that. I have the 70-200 'coffee grinder' which is a stunning lens, but noisy. I will have a look at how to do what you have achieved.

Click to expand...

nokinonacynos said:

I set mine to manual VF and assign a button to toggle between VF and screen. When I turn on the camera it goes to VF. However, it will sleep fairly quickly if you don't have your eye on the VF. The IS is only on when the VF is on.

TBH I seldom use the screen now with exp sim on VF. I don't need to chimp as much lol. Set up this way, the IS is only on for a short while unless you have your eye on the VF all the time.

Click to expand...

nokinonacynos said:

I set mine to manual VF and assign a button to toggle between VF and screen. When I turn on the camera it goes to VF. However, it will sleep fairly quickly if you don't have your eye on the VF. The IS is only on when the VF is on.

TBH I seldom use the screen now with exp sim on VF. I don't need to chimp as much lol. Set up this way, the IS is only on for a short while unless you have your eye on the VF all the time.

Click to expand...

lawny13 said:

nokinonacynos said:

I set mine to manual VF and assign a button to toggle between VF and screen. When I turn on the camera it goes to VF. However, it will sleep fairly quickly if you don't have your eye on the VF. The IS is only on when the VF is on.

TBH I seldom use the screen now with exp sim on VF. I don't need to chimp as much lol. Set up this way, the IS is only on for a short while unless you have your eye on the VF all the time.

Click to expand...

How do you carry your camera? I am a little afraid having it on my side that perhaps my body could block the EVF sensor and it will wake up. Wish I could turn off wake on EVF sensor detect. I would rather just press a button or half press the shutter for wake up.

Click to expand...

pixal_ch said:

This is from the EOS R Manual: "If the attached lens has an Image Stabilizer and you set the Image Stabilizer (IS) switch to <1>, the Image Stabilizer will operate at all
times even if you do not press the shutter button halfway. The Image
Stabilizer consumes battery power and may decrease the number
of possible shots depending on the shooting conditions."

So the Image Stabilizer will always be on as long as the camera is on.

This bothers me a lot:

1. It uses power from the camera's battery

2. It wears the stabilizer mechanism of the lens

3. But what bothers me most: the noise. My 100mm Macro lens, which I intend to use with the EOS R, has a very noisy IS. And I absolutely need IS for my butterfly photography.

Is this behaviour normal on mirrorless cameras?

(The "normal" behaviour in my opinion would be for it to be only on as long as you press the shutter button.)

Click to expand...

Nick Lawes said:

thunder storm said:

Nick Lawes said:

thunder storm said:

Good question. And:

Is IS running when you are in the menu?

Click to expand...

No, in the menu or image review it's off.

It's actually IS with autofocus that's always on when the VF is showing the live image. So if you swing the camera around, you hear it focus.

Click to expand...

The question was if IS was on. Do you hear IS or not?

Nick Lawes said:

In poor light it hunts like mad, which is quite noisy on my EF24-105L

I never needed this on a DSLR, only when I triggered the AF (normally on a back button, rather than half-press on the shutter)

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I guess the IS on this lens is reasonably quiet, it's the AF that I hear. Unless I put my ear to the lens, when I can hear the IS, and I hear it spin up and down when flipping between menu and viewfinder.

So in actual fact it's the permanent AF that is most annoying for me... Even in one-shot mode, the AF makes the lens hunt as the camera moves about. Must double check the settings for that to make sure I've not enabled something by mistake.

Click to expand...

Noogy said:

Tested my EF35mm f2 IS USM, and yes the image I'm seeing both on LV and EVF is always stabilized. Ironically when I turn off the IS, it affects the shot I take but not how the image looks like before I take the shot!

Click to expand...

Eric_G67 said:

I was expecting an improvement here with new firmware, but seems there is no change on the IS behaviour.

Is there an official way to bring the information to Canon and make them consider a possible change in a future firmware ?

Click to expand...

wmlele said:

Eric_G67 said:

I was expecting an improvement here with new firmware, but seems there is no change on the IS behaviour.

Is there an official way to bring the information to Canon and make them consider a possible change in a future firmware ?

Click to expand...

Unlikely: the M had 3 iterations with this behaviour before the R came out. This is clearly the way they want IS to work on mirrorless.

Click to expand...

lawny13 said:

wmlele said:

Eric_G67 said:

I was expecting an improvement here with new firmware, but seems there is no change on the IS behaviour.

Is there an official way to bring the information to Canon and make them consider a possible change in a future firmware ?

Click to expand...

Unlikely: the M had 3 iterations with this behaviour before the R came out. This is clearly the way they want IS to work on mirrorless.

Click to expand...

Not to mention that IS is silent with RF lenses. And it is probably designed to last even when on all the time. Canon will likely put all their eggs in the MILC basket. They are not afraid to break away from the old ways of doing things, so why implement a old fashioned concept?

Click to expand...

lawny13 said:

lawny13 said:

So in actual fact it's the permanent AF that is most annoying for me... Even in one-shot mode, the AF makes the lens hunt as the camera moves about. Must double check the settings for that to make sure I've not enabled something by mistake.

Click to expand...

turn off continuous AF then... it is a complete battery sucker anyway.

Click to expand...

pixal_ch said:

This is from the EOS R Manual: "If the attached lens has an Image Stabilizer and you set the Image Stabilizer (IS) switch to <1>, the Image Stabilizer will operate at all
times even if you do not press the shutter button halfway. The Image
Stabilizer consumes battery power and may decrease the number
of possible shots depending on the shooting conditions."

So the Image Stabilizer will always be on as long as the camera is on.

This bothers me a lot:

1. It uses power from the camera's battery

2. It wears the stabilizer mechanism of the lens

3. But what bothers me most: the noise. My 100mm Macro lens, which I intend to use with the EOS R, has a very noisy IS. And I absolutely need IS for my butterfly photography.

Is this behaviour normal on mirrorless cameras?

(The "normal" behaviour in my opinion would be for it to be only on as long as you press the shutter button.)

Click to expand...

Mark B. said:

pixal_ch said:

This is from the EOS R Manual: "If the attached lens has an Image Stabilizer and you set the Image Stabilizer (IS) switch to <1>, the Image Stabilizer will operate at all
times even if you do not press the shutter button halfway. The Image
Stabilizer consumes battery power and may decrease the number
of possible shots depending on the shooting conditions."

So the Image Stabilizer will always be on as long as the camera is on.

This bothers me a lot:

1. It uses power from the camera's battery

2. It wears the stabilizer mechanism of the lens

3. But what bothers me most: the noise. My 100mm Macro lens, which I intend to use with the EOS R, has a very noisy IS. And I absolutely need IS for my butterfly photography.

Is this behaviour normal on mirrorless cameras?

(The "normal" behaviour in my opinion would be for it to be only on as long as you press the shutter button.)

Click to expand...

Wow, if that's true I'm certain I won't be switching to a Canon mirrorless anytime soon unless they change that sloppy coding. That would certainly make the battery drain much faster than necessary. How difficult would it have been to make it the same as DSLRs, i.e. so the IS is not activated unless the shutter button is activated and then disable a short time after the shutter is released.

Mark

Click to expand...

lawny13 said:

Mark B. said:

pixal_ch said:

This is from the EOS R Manual: "If the attached lens has an Image Stabilizer and you set the Image Stabilizer (IS) switch to <1>, the Image Stabilizer will operate at all
times even if you do not press the shutter button halfway. The Image
Stabilizer consumes battery power and may decrease the number
of possible shots depending on the shooting conditions."

So the Image Stabilizer will always be on as long as the camera is on.

This bothers me a lot:

1. It uses power from the camera's battery

2. It wears the stabilizer mechanism of the lens

3. But what bothers me most: the noise. My 100mm Macro lens, which I intend to use with the EOS R, has a very noisy IS. And I absolutely need IS for my butterfly photography.

Is this behaviour normal on mirrorless cameras?

(The "normal" behaviour in my opinion would be for it to be only on as long as you press the shutter button.)

Click to expand...

Wow, if that's true I'm certain I won't be switching to a Canon mirrorless anytime soon unless they change that sloppy coding. That would certainly make the battery drain much faster than necessary. How difficult would it have been to make it the same as DSLRs, i.e. so the IS is not activated unless the shutter button is activated and then disable a short time after the shutter is released.

Mark

Click to expand...

As usual, things are a little blown out of proportion.

1. Power drain due to always on IS is negligable. I invite anyone to use a camera for 2 hours continuously with IS on vs IS off, and you won't notice any appreciable difference.

2. If you do some research, you will find that turning the IS on and off, on and off etc etc etc, as many are suggesting, you actually wear the mechanism faster. So always on is in fact better for longevity.

3. I also find the noise from IS (especially the 100 L macro) to be very annoying. However, from the 35, and 24-105 RF lenses, it is also always on, but you don't hear them at all. Canon tech on IS has advanced, and it is virtually silent.

*** So assuming that all RF lenses will have quite IS, and IS always on doesn't wear out the mechanism any faster, and the battery drain is negligible. The design choice to not turn it on and off constantly is the better way to go... though annoying with adapted lenses. Perhaps if canon gave us the option to set its behavior everyone can make their own choice. But having it implemented as they do now is the simpler approach in terms of complexity and code logistics.

Click to expand...