Image Stabilizer always on: Normal on Mirrorless?

[pixal_ch]

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.)

 

[lawny13]

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....

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.

Alternatively one can set a sleep button.

The button configuration out of the box is that those D-pad buttons are set to "set auto" in Fv mode. I changed one of them to set the camera to sleep. So when not in use IS is off. The camera wakes up pretty quickly, and it allow me to not have to turn it on and off to save battery.

 

[lawny13]

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.)

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.

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.

Unless you have the D-pad configured to immediately move AF (I assume you are using the touch drag, and the AF button to activate the D-pad). Then the D-pad is usually configured to "set auto" (2 of them are) and "set all auto" (also 2 of them) in Fv mode. I find this a little wasteful, since if you use Fv mode you only need one of each to do those two functions.

So I set one of them to put the camera to sleep (up in my case), I set the down button for switching screens.

Cheers... hope you figure out what works best for you.

 

[nokinonacynos]

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.

 

[lawny13]

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.

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.

 

[Mikeys]

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.

Thank you! that is very helpful.

 

[nokinonacynos]

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.

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.

I turn off camera when I'm walking with it on my side. Unfortunately, putting the display to sleep does not deactivate the VF sensor. I also set auto power off to 30s.

 

[davel33]

Thanks that was a good read, learned a few things

 

[Larawanista]

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.)

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!

 

[Eric_G67]

I confirm same on using EF 500f4 (v1), on which IS is quite noisy so very disturbing.

Only way I found to reduce is to set ECO and Power Off to 15 seconds.

I assign a button to manually go to sleep mode so this allow to stop all operations.

Hope canon will improve and make a firware update that would allow IS to work like on DSLR.

 

[lawny13]

Good question. And:

Is IS running when you are in the menu?

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.

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

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)

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.

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

 

[wmlele]

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!

Really? Mine doesn't behave like that, I swear. And I used it a *lot* with the EF 35mm F2 IS.

- If the IS switch is on "off", IS is off, period.

- IS is on when the live image is displayed in the EVF or the LCD. Shuts off during playback/menu and when the display (not the camera) goes to power save mode.

 

[Eric_G67]

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 ?

 

[wmlele]

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 ?

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.

 

[lawny13]

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 ?

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.

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?

 

[Eric_G67]

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 ?

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.

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?

Indeed, I understand with very silent IS mode this is not a problem (and I even don't notice with RF24-105). But, with an older EF lens, I found it disturbing, when sitting down and silent for wildlife photography with EF500f4 v1 IS to hear the IS noise rolling all the time whjen I have a look in the EVF.

Of course, there is a switch to set it off on the lens, but finally when it's time for shooting it is easy to forget switching on again :-(

So would be nice to have an option in menu, added after a firmware update to allow setting IS preference "only when shutter half-pressed" or "always on with EVF on".

 

[dbunduc]

Same problem here, with 70-200 4L IS. Not normal at all.

 

[wmlele]

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.

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

Since when countinuous AF is default "ON" on the Rs?

It used to be on the Ms and powershots, but the R comes with continuous AF set to off (unless it changed with the new firmwares)

And yes, I can't find a use case for it.

 

[Mark B.]

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.)

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

 

[lawny13]

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.)

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

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.

 

[gium]

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.)

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

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.

That's interesting lawny. Thanks for the info, any idea if you can find reliable sources for points 1 and 2?