Olympus 300 mm f2.8 on a Tripod. IS On or Off?

[Hany Aziz]

When using the Olympus 300 mm lens on an E3 often with the 1.4x and 2x converters, mounted on a tripod with a gimbal head, should I leave the IS on or off? Many Canon shooters including Art Morris advocate leaving their lens based IS system on even when using a tripod. Art even jokingly suggests glueing the switch in the on position. How does this apply to the in-body (sensor shift) IS in Olympus? This is for bird photography and I am working purely on a solid tripod with a gimbal head.

Thanks.

Sincerely,

Hany.

[Roger Clark]

Hany,

Does your Olympus body have live view? If so turn it on and observe the image (at max magnification in live view). If the gimbal head is not locked down, you will likely see a lot of vibrations. Then turn on IS and see if it helps. The problem with early US mechanisms was when locked down the IS could go into a feedback and it harmed image stability, but that was only on a very still lens and camera when you are not touching the camera. When following a subject on a gimbal head, your body transfers small vibrations to the optical system, so IS on generally works well. The newer IS systems detect the no vibration situation and shuts down the IS.

I am interested in hearing about how the IS works on the Olympus body with in-body stabilization and a long telephoto. The theory is that with long focal lengths, e.g. your 300 with a 2x TC, the vibrations are so magnified that in-body stabilization could not keep up, so it would lose effectiveness. Also because the viewfinder image and the AF system do not see a stabilized image, tracking and focus would be more difficult. But that was the theory on the internet discussions. You are the first person I have encountered with real experience. So how well does it work in bird photography situations?

Roger

[Giulio Zanni]

I recently switched to Canon from Oly, which I used for the past couple of years, including the 300/2.8. According to my experience, when on the tripod, I was keeping the in-body IS on up to 1/1600 and I was switching it off at faster shutter speeds.

Giulio

[Hany Aziz]

I recently switched to Canon from Oly, which I used for the past couple of years, including the 300/2.8. According to my experience, when on the tripod, I was keeping the in-body IS on up to 1/1600 and I was switching it off at faster shutter speeds.

Giulio

Any particular reason you switched? Also did you mean 1/600 or 1/1600 of a second?

Thanks.

Sincerely,

Hany.

[Giulio Zanni]

I meant 1/1600. I think that is more or less the threshold of the in-body IS effectiveness.<O:p</O:p
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Giulio<O:p</O:p

[Hany Aziz]

I meant 1/1600. I think that is more or less the threshold of the in-body IS effectiveness.<O:p</O:p
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Giulio<O:p</O:p

Thanks. I am still curious as to the reason you switched from Olympus to Canon?

Thanks again.

Sincerely,

Hany.

[Giulio Zanni]

Thanks. I am still curious as to the reason you switched from Olympus to Canon?

Thanks again.

Sincerely,

Hany.

I needed better high iso performance and more fps.

Giulio

[Gus Hallgren]

From Olympus:

In-Body Image Stabilization

The Olympus E-3 provides an in-body image stabilizer to greatly reduce the amount of camera shake, regardless of
the lens being used. This stabilizer can compensate for up to 5 EV steps, allowing the camera to be handheld in
some situations where a tripod would normally be required.
Choose from two accurate, high-speed image stabilization modes:

I.S. 1: For general image stabilization, using both horizontal and vertical movements. (This can be ON for most
situations.)

I.S. 2: Should be used when panning the camera in a horizontal direction to get a blurred background; in this
mode, image stabilization is applied only to vertical movements.
To enable the Image Stabilizer function, press the IS button while rotating the control dial to select the desired Image
Stabilizer mode.

Tips:

• To view the effect of the Image Stabilizer while using Live View, hold down the IS button.

• When using a lens with a built-in image stabilizer, turn OFF the image stabilizer either in the lens or in the
camera.

• When shooting on a tripod or with high shutter speeds, the image stabilizer mode should be set to the OFF
position.