How do you take advantage of Lens stabilisation ?

Hi DP fellows, here is a question for lens experts...
I eventually found out that I can take advantage of lens stabilisation with my EF 16-35 F/4 IS USM. I can easily increase exposure time to 1/10s and still avoid movement blur. Benefit is obviously a much lower ISO.

My question is: how do I know (with this lens or any other stabilised lens) the maximum exposure time I can reach by using stabilisation ? Of course, I will eventuellu find out by trial and error, but is there a rational number-based method to use this great feature ?

Thank you very much in advance for any advice.--
Michel
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gomezmi2013/

You won't get a guaranteed shutter speed so long as you are holding it with your hands.

If you want to guarantee stability, you need to use a tripod.

If you just want to use optical stabilisation to shoot at a smaller aperture or lower iso, you just have to try the shutter speed you want and check the photo afterwards. If it's not sharp enough, try again.

On your lens I find shooting at under 1/15s risky at all focal lengths. Sometimes I can go down to 1/5s, but only if I'm very composed and have the time.

Hi Fishy, many thanks for your response...
So I am back to trial & error...

Michel Gomez wrote:

Hi DP fellows, here is a question for lens experts...
I eventually found out that I can take advantage of lens stabilisation with my EF 16-35 F/4 IS USM. I can easily increase exposure time to 1/10s and still avoid movement blur. Benefit is obviously a much lower ISO.

My question is: how do I know (with this lens or any other stabilised lens) the maximum exposure time I can reach by using stabilisation ? Of course, I will eventuellu find out by trial and error, but is there a rational number-based method to use this great feature ?

Thank you very much in advance for any advice.--
Michel
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gomezmi2013/

Well, you know probably that one can hand-hold a shutter speed of about 1 / focal length.  I.e. a 100mm lens can yield good images with 1/100 shutter speed.   A 50mm lens with 1/50, etc. However, it also depends on your technique. Sometimes you get more sometimes less. Now, with IS, each lens is rated for a certain improvement, modern lenses usually around 3-4 stops. What you actually can achieve again depends on your technique.

You can also look at the lens tests here on dpreview.  Some have IS tests. From this you will see it's not an all or nothing at a particular shutter speed. Some shots will be bad, some decent, some good. As shutter speed gets slower, the ratio of good shots will drop, but you still might get some good ones. Hence, in critical situations it's good to take multiple shots and select the best. For example in burst mode, the first few images may still have blur due to your pressing the shutter, but later ones may be better. Also using a 2 sec delay timer can help. Good stance, breathing technique etc. can help.

I think this is good advice, and likewise I would add taking several shots at the same setting as well as try different settings.  I often find in low light when I'm stretching with hand held, one out of 3-4 at same setting might be significantly better focused than the others as there are a lot of variables when trying to do this.

Thank you Sir.
I did not think of looking at the DRP reviews, thanks for the detailed response !
Have a nice day.

the best ways are to move around a lot

or have the subject move around a lot

if you are both still then you cannot take advantage of that feature.

Michel Gomez wrote:

Hi DP fellows, here is a question for lens experts...
I eventually found out that I can take advantage of lens stabilisation with my EF 16-35 F/4 IS USM. I can easily increase exposure time to 1/10s and still avoid movement blur. Benefit is obviously a much lower ISO.

My question is: how do I know (with this lens or any other stabilised lens) the maximum exposure time I can reach by using stabilisation ? Of course, I will eventuellu find out by trial and error, but is there a rational number-based method to use this great feature ?

Thank you very much in advance for any advice.--
Michel
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gomezmi2013/

In general I use the stated "specs" as a guide. Start with the old i/FL rule of thumb, and starting counting stops.

For example, if your lens is "rated" for 4 stops of IS, and you are shooting at 30mm (on a FF), your rule of thumb would be 1/30th. At 1/30th you should get a very high % of keepers (maybe 98%). Drop 1 stop to 1/15th (relying on IS), and you should get a reasonably high % of keepers (maybe 80-85%), drop another 1 stop to 1/8th, and your % of keepers drops as well (maybe 70%), and so on.

I find that if I am pushing things a bit, I often shoot a high speed burst of 4-6 shots, and then pick the best of those. This does two things, gets you past a potential loss of stability with the initial shutter press, and increases your chances of getting 1 shot out of several that is sharp (working on the % keeper numbers).

I have found that it is easier to push the "rated" number of stops more on a longer lens (like 100-400L ii) than an wide angle where the 1/FL starts with a slow speed anyway.

I would say that 3 stops on a 100-400L ii is relatively easy with the rated 4 stops being achievable a lot of the time. But on a 16mm, 4 stops would take you down to 1 second shutter speed, which is a lot more optimistic.

Colin

photonius wrote:

Michel Gomez wrote:

Hi DP fellows, here is a question for lens experts...
I eventually found out that I can take advantage of lens stabilisation with my EF 16-35 F/4 IS USM. I can easily increase exposure time to 1/10s and still avoid movement blur. Benefit is obviously a much lower ISO.

My question is: how do I know (with this lens or any other stabilised lens) the maximum exposure time I can reach by using stabilisation ? Of course, I will eventuellu find out by trial and error, but is there a rational number-based method to use this great feature ?

Thank you very much in advance for any advice.--
Michel
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gomezmi2013/

Well, you know probably that one can hand-hold a shutter speed of about 1 / focal length. I.e. a 100mm lens can yield good images with 1/100 shutter speed. A 50mm lens with 1/50, etc. However, it also depends on your technique. Sometimes you get more sometimes less. Now, with IS, each lens is rated for a certain improvement, modern lenses usually around 3-4 stops. What you actually can achieve again depends on your technique.

You can also look at the lens tests here on dpreview. Some have IS tests. From this you will see it's not an all or nothing at a particular shutter speed. Some shots will be bad, some decent, some good. As shutter speed gets slower, the ratio of good shots will drop, but you still might get some good ones. Hence, in critical situations it's good to take multiple shots and select the best. For example in burst mode, the first few images may still have blur due to your pressing the shutter, but later ones may be better. Also using a 2 sec delay timer can help. Good stance, breathing technique etc. can help.

if you are using a hard a fast rule which I think is a good starting point you also have to include crop factor, if there is one.

I'd have thought the answer would depend on the user. Someone with a steady hand would be able to use longer shutters than someone with Parkinsons, for instance.

Michel Gomez wrote:

Thank you Sir.
I did not think of looking at the DRP reviews, thanks for the detailed response !
Have a nice day.

unfortunately not that many tests, and not many have the full IS test.

Here is one:

https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sigma-17-70mm-f2-8-4-os-hsm/3

But it illustrates the variabilities/limitations of the system. And it also depends on your personal ability to keep your hands still....

Thank you Andy for your valuable advices.

Great advice, Thanks !

MG

you do that by experimenting

Hence,  the data is variable, for each combo and your fitness

below is a 500F4 with IS ON and handheld at 1/200

At other times I cannot take a sharp picture with the same combo, at 1/1000

Thanks for your response
Excellent handheld catch btw !

Sometimes there's nothing to lose, so you just say "what the heck" and push it.

This was shot in almost total darkness. While I can't call it "good" objectively, I can attest that camera and lens "saw" the vessel far better than my eyes could. I doubt my 135 f/2 would have done a better job. Did stabilization save the day? Maybe. High ISO certainly helped.