Topic: Need help from fellow FUJI 100-400 owners (Read 7477 times)

One Frame at a Time · « **on:** April 10, 2016, 01:44:09 pm »

Testing the new lens I just purchased noticed something strange. I can hear the gyro spinning inside the lens - NO MATTER WHAT SETTING ITS ON.
I can hear it with the system set to Shooting OIS, Continuous OIS, OIS OFF, OIS ON. Can someone verify that this is how their lens is working??
There is a difference in the viewfinder between Mode 1 and Mode 2 but it seems the gyro is spinning whenever the camera is powered up.
You need to be indoors and no other noise, and hold the barrel up to your ear to hear it - but mine is definately on all the time

When OIS is set to Continuous its functioning all the time. Even when your not half depressing the shutter. It seems to tighten up when you half depress but maybe I am imagining that. Set to Shooting only, its impossible to tell if its working until you look at your image.
After doing some more shooting all the images I shot with Continuous OIS seem much sharper?

I should mention that the lens I received had obviously been repackaged after someone else had received it and returned it to the vendor. This makes me suspect the lens had a problem or was not sharp. But, I was offered a big discount on the price once I made mention of the issue. So now I am trying to figure out if its a "problem" lens or a good lens someone decided not to keep for other reasons. To date I own the 18-55, and the 55-200 and I can say they are the best zoom lenses I have ever seen in terms of quality control. I tested a couple of the 18-55's and it was nearly impossible to tell them apart.

david loble · « **Reply #1 on:** April 10, 2016, 02:47:35 pm »

I don't have this lens but a search at fujix dash forum.com found that the noise is normal.
David

rdonson · « **Reply #2 on:** April 10, 2016, 08:08:28 pm »

My 100-400 lens only has OIS off or on. I don't know what Shooting OIS or Continuous OIS is. I use it with my X-T1.

I've not tried putting it to my ear in a very quite place to hear the noise but a faint sound in that environment wouldn't surprise me.

David Sutton · « **Reply #3 on:** April 10, 2016, 09:04:39 pm »

Quote from: rdonson on April 10, 2016, 08:08:28 pm

My 100-400 lens only has OIS off or on. I don't know what Shooting OIS or Continuous OIS is. I use it with my X-T1.

Menu item 5_ IS Mode. You can set the X-T1 to to run the OIS continuously or just when the shutter is half pressed. Don't know why anyone would run it continuously, sounds like a good way to flatten the battery quickly.

One Frame at a Time: the noise is normal. I can also hear it on the 50 - 140mm. It's probably not the IOS at all, but the focussing mechanism.
David

One Frame at a Time · « **Reply #4 on:** April 10, 2016, 09:15:07 pm »

David,

The "Shooting only" setting only activates the OIS when fully pressing the shutter (its impossible to tell if it did its thing until looking at the image).
The Continuous Setting keeps the OIS on ALL THE TIME if the OIS switch on the lens is set to ON. No matter what the position of the shutter button.
I verified this on all 3 of my OIS lenses.

I wish it worked like Canon's system where half depressing the shutter it activated the stabilization system (you could hear it turn on). I suspect the gyro system is always
spinning when the camera is on - given the constant noise of the lenses when the camera is on.

Paul2660 · « **Reply #5 on:** April 10, 2016, 09:17:25 pm »

I agree it is the focusing, runs all the time, and with both the 100-400, and 50-140, will drain the battery on the camera a bit faster with a lot of use. I was hoping that Fuji would change this in the 100-400, but it's the same. Not a big deal on the X-T1 as you can use the grip, but on the X-Pro2, plan to carry a lot of batteries. However on the 50-140, it seems that some lenses are louder than others. I have used 3 now mine and a couple of friends and mine is the loudest of the three.

Paul C

David Sutton · « **Reply #6 on:** April 10, 2016, 09:58:05 pm »

Quote from: One Frame at a Time on April 10, 2016, 09:15:07 pm

David,

The "Shooting only" setting only activates the OIS when fully pressing the shutter (its impossible to tell if it did its thing until looking at the image).
The Continuous Setting keeps the OIS on ALL THE TIME if the OIS switch on the lens is set to ON. No matter what the position of the shutter button.
I verified this on all 3 of my OIS lenses.

I wish it worked like Canon's system where half depressing the shutter it activated the stabilization system (you could hear it turn on). I suspect the gyro system is always
spinning when the camera is on - given the constant noise of the lenses when the camera is on.

Hi.
According to the manual it's supposed to turn on when the shutter is half pressed like the Canon one (see screen shot below), but I haven't tested it to find out. Looking through the viewfinder, on most lenses I just can't see any difference between switching the IOS off or on. I wonder is this a function of the refresh rate of the EVF? I assume it's worked after looking at the files.
David

One Frame at a Time · « **Reply #7 on:** April 11, 2016, 01:21:55 am »

Hi David, thanks for your responses. Spent most of today working with this lens. The good news is that it seems like another great lens from fuji and the copy I got seems good. One more test and I'll probably decide to keep it. The bad news is that the OIS is a really important aspect of this lens, more so than the 55-200.
Its made me much more aware of the way it operates.

If the camera is set to Shoot Only - you'll never see the OIS affect the viewfinder. With the camera menu set to Continuous and the lens OIS switch ON, the image in the viewfinder is stabilized. Its a dramatic difference at 400mm. Unfortunately half pressing the shutter does not affect the OIS in continuous mode. Its activated with the camera power switch and stays active till you shut down the camera

David Sutton · « **Reply #8 on:** April 11, 2016, 02:30:29 am »

That's useful information.
My 100-400 arrived today and unfortunately is not usable as far as sharpness goes. Also some weird exposure shifts when I switch to manual focus. I'll do some comparison shots tomorrow with some other lenses to confirm it's not the camera body before getting in touch with Fujifilm NZ. Both camera and lens are the latest firmware.
David

Paul2660 · « **Reply #9 on:** April 11, 2016, 10:36:23 am »

The half press shutter for OIS is one way to operate, however the noise that the lens makes all the time is no OIS, but something else. No setting I have found will make that lens be quiet, just like the 50-140. In fact most Fuji lenses do this, but they are much quieter.

The 50-140 indoors as soon as the camera is turn ON, you will hear a noise, no matter what you have OIS set to, on off, half press etc. In fact OIS is very quiet, you can't really hear it. With Canon or Nikon lenses you can always hear the IR or VR engage.

Fuji doesn't want to talk much about the motor noise, I have called them on the 50-140 2x. It just runs all the time and thus will effect your battery life in a negative way. The 100-400 follows the same method of running all the time (by running I don't mean OIS). Even putting the camera in manual focus mode doesn't kill the motor. True with X-Pro2 and X-T1 at least from my experience.

Outdoors in normal conditions, you most likely won't hear the sound, but indoors at least on my lenses, it's pretty noticeable. The only issue I have with it, is the extra drain on the battery especially on the X-Pro2 which doesn't have the same life per cell as the X-T1.

Paul C

One Frame at a Time · « **Reply #10 on:** April 11, 2016, 11:19:53 am »

Paul,

I thought the half press turned on the OIS at first too. But after my day shooting yesterday I realized it's on all the time. I think you'll find the same on the 50-140. Its not a really big deal but it will make me more conscience to turn it off on the lens. With the 400, leaving the camera menu set to Continuous makes the lens much nicer to shoot hand held - imho. I think Canon and Nikon linking to shutter half press is a better implementation.

One Frame at a Time · « **Reply #11 on:** April 11, 2016, 01:43:01 pm »

Decided to keep the lens. It compares far (far!) better than my old Canon 100-400 and the stabilization is much better as is the IQ.

Attaching images of the case I am using to store the camera w lens mounted at home and in the car.
You can get these padded cases for less than 20 bucks. The one pictured was 25 I think
Some have shoulder straps and nearly all have a bunch of extra pockets.
Search for Bike Trunk or Rear Bike Pannier

Alan Smallbone · « **Reply #12 on:** April 11, 2016, 02:31:28 pm »

I ran some tests today with the OIS on and off. The motor noise is faint but on all the time, I think it might be focus motors and or the aperture controller. When the OIS mode is shooting only the viewfinder display is not stabilized and when you press the shutter there is a really brief slightly different sound and that I believe is the OIS turning on and off. If in mode 1 which is continuous mode the display will be rock steady and stabilized. This will run down the batter faster as noted. Since the OIS when you are shooing only mode, (mode 2) I was curious if it really was being engaged, so I ran some tests. These are SOOC from the embedded jpgs in the raw files. No editing was done and these are by not beauty shots and were also shot through my dinning room bay windows through double paned tempered glass. All were shot with the 100-400mm at 400mm and the 1.4x TC attached for a total focal length of 560mm, handheld, shutter priority at 1/15s and ISO 200. The first is the control, no OIS, then the following two images are with the OIS on and mode 2 then mode 1 of the OIS settings:
https://flic.kr/s/aHskuGwx5u

Basically the OIS works great and works as it should. I will use the continuous mode for when I want a rock steady display and shooting only mode when I want longer battery life.

Alan

One Frame at a Time · « **Reply #13 on:** April 11, 2016, 02:40:57 pm »

Thanks Alan, Its really a nice lens. I know all hand held shots with this lens will have a lot of shot to shot variation.
Your quick year test mirrors my initial results where the Continuous OIS seems to give better IQ

rdonson · « **Reply #14 on:** April 11, 2016, 06:53:02 pm »

Quote from: David Sutton on April 10, 2016, 09:04:39 pm

Menu item 5_ IS Mode. You can set the X-T1 to to run the OIS continuously or just when the shutter is half pressed. Don't know why anyone would run it continuously, sounds like a good way to flatten the battery quickly.

David

Thanks, David. I checked my settings and I have IS Mode set to "Shooting Only". I set that so long ago I forgot about. It might explain why my battery life seems unaffected with the 100-400.

One Frame at a Time · « **Reply #15 on:** April 11, 2016, 08:22:28 pm »

Never had an issue with it set to Shooting Only with the smaller zooms but with the 400 its a heck of alot nicer shooting handheld with it set to Continuous.
I also think it may give better results. Would be great if other owners could see what kind of results they get.

rdonson · « **Reply #16 on:** April 12, 2016, 08:37:23 am »

I've used the 100-400 handheld, on a monopod and from a tripod. I've not tested Continuous AF versus Shooting Only as I haven't seen any reason yet to move from Shooting Only.

BTW, I've not seen a significant difference with IS ON or IS OFF when shooting from a tripod. Has anyone noticed any difference? I know that conventional wisdom is to turn IS OFF when on a tripod but one time I neglected to do that for a while and didn't really notice a difference after I turned it off.

David Sutton · « **Reply #17 on:** April 12, 2016, 05:04:54 pm »

Quote from: rdonson on April 12, 2016, 08:37:23 am

BTW, I've not seen a significant difference with IS ON or IS OFF when shooting from a tripod. Has anyone noticed any difference?

Yes. Five to six minute exposures. Forgot to turn IS off and nothing was sharp. Forehead slapping moment. Could have been wind but every image since has been fine with the IS off. I wouldn't bother turning it off for exposures under a few seconds.

rdonson · « **Reply #18 on:** April 12, 2016, 06:16:07 pm »

Thanks, David. I don't think I've taken anything with the IS on that was slower than about 1/30 sec.

The funny part is that I have a reminder on my ballhead "TURN OIS OFF" that I ignored for several minutes. Sometimes you just get caught up in the moment.

Chris Kern · « **Reply #19 on:** April 18, 2016, 09:29:54 pm »

I rented one of these for a week. It was delivered late this afternoon and I only had time to do a few quick tests in my backyard before dinner. I am very impressed by the image stabilization. I've attached a 1:1 crop of a handheld 1/100sec, f/5.6 shot made at 400mm with an X-T1 body. I can't detect any motion blur—and my hands aren't the steadiest. I don't even shoot the Nikon 24-120mm on my D800E fully extended at 1/100 if I can avoid doing so.

I also don't hear any continuous noise from the stabilization mechanism in the lens, even inside the house. (And unlike my hands, my hearing is still pretty good.)

Author Topic: Need help from fellow FUJI 100-400 owners (Read 7477 times)