Canon Image Stabilization question...

emtp563

I just purchased my first Canon IS lense (28-135 USM IS). With IS on, are you suppose to physically feel and/or hear the gyroscope spinning? I can't hear or feel anything. I can only hear a hum inside the lense if I place my ear right againt the lense body. Is the IS system suppose to be this inconspicuos? Even if I set the camera down on the desk and open the shutter to activate the gyro, there are no vibrations. I was expecting to be able to at least feel some sort of vibration.

kdog

I've never felt or heard anything with the IS on.

On the other hand, you can see it work easily. Compare IS on and off while hand-holding the camera and lens and looking at a distant object through the viewfinder. You should see the scene literally be more stable with the IS turned on.

Andy

emtp563 wrote:

I just purchased my first Canon IS lense (28-135 USM IS). With IS on, are you suppose to physically feel and/or hear the gyroscope spinning? I can't hear or feel anything. I can only hear a hum inside the lense if I place my ear right againt the lense body. Is the IS system suppose to be this inconspicuos? Even if I set the camera down on the desk and open the shutter to activate the gyro, there are no vibrations. I was expecting to be able to at least feel some sort of vibration.

if your ears are good, you'll hear a small sound.
as kdog says, you can also "see" it correcting things

Matthew Saville

EMTP, you must have it set to the middle setting, which is something along the lines of "on but only at the instant you click the shutter. This feature i guess is to conserve batteries; and you won't be able to see the effects of the IS. With VR I know for sure, if you hold the shutter half way down though, you can hear a TINY hum, the sound is closesst to that of maybe an ice skater gliding across some ice? I dunno, its hard to describe. However, if you let off the shutter, after a second or so you may hear a little click as the lens element jogs back into the "locked" position. But again,this is with Nikon's VR. I haven't used IS lenses enough times to remember.

But as you said, you should feel NOTHING. and you'll hear almost nothing, and see nothing too unless you turn IS to fully on. If it's fully on, it will activate when you press the shutter down halfway, and you'll be able to visibly see that the image through your viewfinder is "steady", it sort of slows down and holds still. It's really cool to see for the first time, but I imagine it consumes battery power so I usually just set it to turn on only at the instant of shutter release. In this setting, the motors are on and "ready" when you press the shutter halfway, but they only jump into action and move the lens element at the exact instant you depress the shutter, so you can't actually see the effect. Except in your final result.. At 28mm with IS on, you might be able to steadily handhold at 1/4 or 1/8 sec and get very sharp results. Good luck!

-Matt-