Body vs Lens stabilization. Olympus 5-axis IBIS test.

[Guillermo Luijk]

Some claim in-body stabilization performs worse than lens stabilization. Leaving aside the pay once, stabilize all advantage of in-body IS, with body systems such as the Olympus 5-axis IBIS, does this hold true?.

I did a little test to see the effectiveness of my E-P5 IBIS with a fairly long focal length (75mm, 150mm eq.). Shooting handheld at 1/15 arms up in the air (this is more than 3 stops slower than the reference 1/eq_focal_length rule), I did two series of 4 captures each, with and without the IS, discarding the worst result on each of the series (emulating what a photographer does in real applications):





Thoughts? lens stabilization, real advantage or just pay one thousand times?

[Telecaster]

Uh…real advantage, of course.     In low light with my E-M1 I use 1/(focal length x 0.5) shutter speeds with confidence. (That's actual, not "equivalent," focal length.) If there's any blur it's not due to shake but because things in the frame are moving. With a bit of care I can pull off 1/(fl x 0.25) consistently too. Using a fast lens like the Voigtländer 17.5/0.95 (approx. t/1.2) to take pics in very dim conditions handheld with a reasonable ISO…can do.

-Dave-

[bcooter]

Uh…real advantage, of course.     In low light with my E-M1 I use 1/(focal length x 0.5) shutter speeds with confidence. (That's actual, not "equivalent," focal length.) If there's any blur it's not due to shake but because things in the frame are moving. With a bit of care I can pull off 1/(fl x 0.25) consistently too. Using a fast lens like the Voigtländer 17.5/0.95 (approx. t/1.2) to take pics in very dim conditions handheld with a reasonable ISO…can do.

-Dave-

The em1 and em5 stabilization is crazy good.   Man if they made a robust video codec  . . . that camera would rock.   It's almost like a a steadicam.  Not quite as smooth but damn close.

IMO

BC