Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Cameras, Lenses and Shooting gear => Topic started by: charleswham on April 21, 2006, 09:41:13 pm

Title: Canon IS on a Tripod
Post by: charleswham on April 21, 2006, 09:41:13 pm
My question is what Mode (1 or 2 or off) should I select when using a newer generation (500/4, 600/4, 400/4 DO) Canon lens on a tripod?
Title: Canon IS on a Tripod
Post by: Booya on April 21, 2006, 10:25:00 pm
Quote
My question is what Mode (1 or 2 or off) should I select when using a newer generation (500/4, 600/4, 400/4 DO) Canon lens on a tripod?
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Simply choose the mode that suits the task at hand. Mode 2 is for panning horizontally (tracking a moving car, bird in flight, etc...), while mode 1 is for static subjects.

________________________
Chris
www.imagineimagery.com
Title: Canon IS on a Tripod
Post by: gingerbaker on April 22, 2006, 09:06:23 am
Maybe I'm "out of the loop", but I was under the impression that if you are shooting  a static scene, say, a landscape, with your IS lens on a tripod, it was best to turn the IS off.

Otherwise the IS would "hunt" for reference, and you would wind up with more vibration than you would get with a tripod, which is theoretically zero.
Title: Canon IS on a Tripod
Post by: Tim Gray on April 22, 2006, 09:26:25 am
On or off depends.  The newer models (eg 70-200) with IS can sense the stability of the tripod and won't drift.  The older models (100-400) need to be turned off.  This is easy to see - just watch what happens to the view when you'r on a tripod and activate focus with IS on.  You'll clearly see the drift, and if you don't then there's no problem.
Title: Canon IS on a Tripod
Post by: gingerbaker on April 22, 2006, 12:35:47 pm
Thanks, Tim.

Do you think there is any advantage to leaving the IS turned "on" if you are using a tripod for a landscape, if perhaps, there is a gentle breeze blowing?

I wonder how useful the IS would be under that sort of situation?

GB
Title: Canon IS on a Tripod
Post by: mlord1 on April 22, 2006, 03:29:20 pm
Quote
On or off depends.  The newer models (eg 70-200) with IS can sense the stability of the tripod and won't drift.

That's the theory.  In practice, my photos are also fuzzy unless I explicitly turn off the IS on my 70-200L (when on a tripod), regarless of mode 1/2 setting.

Cheers
Title: Canon IS on a Tripod
Post by: Tim Gray on April 22, 2006, 08:36:59 pm
Quote
Thanks, Tim.

Do you think there is any advantage to leaving the IS turned "on" if you are using a tripod for a landscape, if perhaps, there is a gentle breeze blowing?

I wonder how useful the IS would be under that sort of situation?

GB
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Not sure the point about a gentle breeze - if it's moving the subject then no  IS in the world is going to help.  If the tripod is unstable - say a heavy wind, then there's no problem leaving it on regardless of the design, the point is that the drift is very noticable - if you see it drift, turn it off.
Title: Canon IS on a Tripod
Post by: gingerbaker on April 23, 2006, 06:04:29 pm
Quote
Not sure the point about a gentle breeze - if it's moving the subject then no  IS in the world is going to help.  If the tripod is unstable - say a heavy wind, then there's no problem leaving it on regardless of the design, the point is that the drift is very noticable - if you see it drift, turn it off.
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Well, the other day I was shooting some landscapes with my Canon 70-200 IS.  There was a gentle breeze blowing, with occasional soft gusts, probably no more than 10 mph.

I have always left the IS off when using my tripod, a Manfrotto 3001, I think is the model.  I use a remote trigger, and I will often put my hand on the tripod after the mirror lock up to steady the tripod if there is any wind.

Especially with that lens, my heaviest, I thought I could feel a vibration in the tripod from the wind, and I was glad to have my hand on there.  I was just wondering, after reading this thread,  if the IS system would be useful for such small excursion, high frequency movements such as might be produced by wind.

The IS system, as I understand it, uses gyros.  Once they spin up, we are dealing with the physics of perturbing their effect.  I have no idea how the equations for such a process would look - I leave it to the physics Majors to explain if the effect is linear or exponential,  tiny or strong at small values, etc.    


I am selling this lens, so any discussion is academic for me, but I thought it was a somewhat interesting question, which might shed a little light, that's all.  
Title: Canon IS on a Tripod
Post by: gingerbaker on April 23, 2006, 06:21:29 pm
Jst saw this - answers all questions, I think

http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index....showtopic=10513 (http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=10513)
Title: Canon IS on a Tripod
Post by: lester_wareham on April 24, 2006, 09:59:54 am
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My question is what Mode (1 or 2 or off) should I select when using a newer generation (500/4, 600/4, 400/4 DO) Canon lens on a tripod?
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This has been answered by others I think.

As an additional note with my generation 1 IS (300 f4) I found Mode 2 was better than Mode 1 when using a monopod.

The results of these test are here : [a href=\"http://www.zen20934.zen.co.uk/photography/LensTests/IS_Tests/index.htm]http://www.zen20934.zen.co.uk/photography/...Tests/index.htm[/url]