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tripod and lens IS?

Started 4 months ago | Discussions thread
Len Philpot
Len Philpot Contributing Member • Posts: 625
Re: tripod and lens IS?

stevet1 wrote:

I guess I'm just trying to come to grips with using a tripod. I haven't used one very much up to this point.

For what it's worth (which may not be much!), I look at it this way...

The IS mechanism in a lens (and presumably IBIS as well, but I have no IBIS camera) is fundamentally a "loose" link between the optics and lens body, and ultimately, the sensor as well. It's a gyro mechanism that allows the optical train to "float", gyro-stabilized, while the lens moves around it, as it were. That means any relative movement is slowed down (although not eliminated) so it can be more accurately captured by longer shutter speeds (typically at longer / darker focal lengths). So effectively the optical train isn't "hard-locked' to the lens body nor therefore, to the camera / sensor.

When the camera is on a tripod, having IS enabled means there's no longer a "hard lock" between the stability of the tripod and the optical train. In that case IS is allowing "float" to happen, which IMO isn't a good thing. So instead of actually improving IQ by reducing movement, it can degrade IQ by creating it instead.

At least, that's the old-time logic. Maybe newer lenses can sense there's no motion in the ocean, so to speak, and hard-lock automatically. But why risk it? Your tripod is presumably steady so let it do its job.

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Len Philpot
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