CT
TPer Emeritus
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I keep reading posts which suggest that the general consensus of opinion is that IS should be switched off on a lens when tripod mounted.
I think we really need to establish exactly what we mean by 'tripod mounted'.
Method 1
The vast majority of my images are taken with the 500mm F4L IS tripod mounted on a gimbal head. This means one hand on the camera, one hand on top of the lens, and my face pressed to the viewfinder, which is accepted good long lens technique. No matter how steadily you hold the camera in this position, you can see a slight tremble of the image in the viewfinder. As soon as the shutter is half pressed and IS kicks in, the image becomes rock still in the viewfinder. Clearly the system is detecting enough movement through your contact with the lens for IS to still detect movement. I don't think I've ever switched IS off when using a lens on the tripod in this manner.
Method 2
This is with the camera tripod mounted, but with the tripod head completely locked off and releasing the shutter with a remote release or delayed timer, so no movement whatsoever which can be detected by the IS system, and on the face of it - no point in engaging IS..
As I understand it, there have been 2 versions of the Canon IS system, and the advice from Canon with Version 1 was to switch off IS when tripod mounted. In my opinion this only ever meant tripod mounted as in Method 2.
The later version of Canon IS is capable of detecting that the camera is tripod mounted (as in Method 2) and still engaging with no detrimental effects on your shots. Canon clearly state this is the case in the specs they put out for these lenses. I've certainly used the 500mm F4L IS tripod mounted as in Method 2 for shots of the moon with no problems whatsoever. I have had corrupted images from the 100-400L using IS when occasionally using Method 2 on a tripod, so it's entirely possible that the lens has the earlier IS version. Using the same lens as in Method 1 I get absolutely no problems at all..
I just thought the above needed clarifying as we have a lot of newcomers here, quite likely to be thinking " Right - tripod - so switch off IS", which may not always be the right thing to do, and in fact not using IS to their full advantage.
I think we really need to establish exactly what we mean by 'tripod mounted'.
Method 1
The vast majority of my images are taken with the 500mm F4L IS tripod mounted on a gimbal head. This means one hand on the camera, one hand on top of the lens, and my face pressed to the viewfinder, which is accepted good long lens technique. No matter how steadily you hold the camera in this position, you can see a slight tremble of the image in the viewfinder. As soon as the shutter is half pressed and IS kicks in, the image becomes rock still in the viewfinder. Clearly the system is detecting enough movement through your contact with the lens for IS to still detect movement. I don't think I've ever switched IS off when using a lens on the tripod in this manner.
Method 2
This is with the camera tripod mounted, but with the tripod head completely locked off and releasing the shutter with a remote release or delayed timer, so no movement whatsoever which can be detected by the IS system, and on the face of it - no point in engaging IS..
As I understand it, there have been 2 versions of the Canon IS system, and the advice from Canon with Version 1 was to switch off IS when tripod mounted. In my opinion this only ever meant tripod mounted as in Method 2.
The later version of Canon IS is capable of detecting that the camera is tripod mounted (as in Method 2) and still engaging with no detrimental effects on your shots. Canon clearly state this is the case in the specs they put out for these lenses. I've certainly used the 500mm F4L IS tripod mounted as in Method 2 for shots of the moon with no problems whatsoever. I have had corrupted images from the 100-400L using IS when occasionally using Method 2 on a tripod, so it's entirely possible that the lens has the earlier IS version. Using the same lens as in Method 1 I get absolutely no problems at all..
I just thought the above needed clarifying as we have a lot of newcomers here, quite likely to be thinking " Right - tripod - so switch off IS", which may not always be the right thing to do, and in fact not using IS to their full advantage.
