Image stabilization panning detection in RF lenses

SigZero wrote:

Duckman21 wrote:

Many "cheaper" EF or EF-S lenses have only one stabilizer mode, but Canon previously indicated these to have panning detection built in, so the horizontal axis would disable if you pan fast enough. I'm wondering if the same holds true for the RF lenses like the RF 100-400mm.

I will start with my impressions of the RF 800mm f11. The IS works very well for stationary subjects but not so much for slow panning at medium to low shutter speeds. Not sure if I'm panning too slowly to trigger a "panning mode" or there just isn't one to begin with. I've been photographing ducks and other waterbirds swimming leisurely and noticed considerable motion blur. Turning off gave me some sharper shots but most were prone to overall blur in both the vertical and horizontal axis. I had a similar issue with my Tamron 150-600mm G2 on DSLRs, and always do this for flying birds, but found swimming birds less of an issue. I also wonder how much of an effect IBIS is worsening this by "enhancing" the stabilization and if it fares better with non-IBIS bodies.

My experience with RF lenses without "2" IS mode is that only way to get panning working correctly is to disable IS at all. I tried with RF 800 f/11, RF 24-105 f/4 and when IS is on, most panning shoots look like IS+IBIS is trying to compensate for that which results in background being sharp and main subject blurred (and fact that IBIS has quite a lot of movement, effect is amplified).

Br, Pawel

Yeah I think it would be nice if IBIS could be turned off or if I could just have one or the other. It's just a bit odd how cheap lenses used to have panning detection (Sigma and Tamron do as well). It might be possible to improve it with firmware but I doubt Canon will do that. Tamron added panning detection to the 150-600mm G1 (but this lens is too old to use the tap-in console so you must send it in), while the 150-600 G2 still doesn't have this feature and requires me to flick between the different modes. That said, I suspect you need to pan fast enough to disable the horizontal stabilization and something like slow-flying birds or swimming ducks won't cut it.