Why turn off the Image stabilizer?

[Peter Jason]

I have an Olympus E5.

The manual says to turn off the image stabilizer
when using a tripod.

Why? Does the I.S. use camera resources that
detract from image quality?

Peter

 

[Peter Jason]

I have an Olympus E5.

The manual says to turn off the image stabilizer
when using a tripod.

Why? Does the I.S. use camera resources that
detract from image quality?

Peter

.....uh, sorry, rong ng.

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

I have an Olympus E5.

The manual says to turn off the image stabilizer
when using a tripod.

Why? Does the I.S. use camera resources that
detract from image quality?

Peter

When I. S.s first appeared, the stabilised image was slightly smaller
(in pixels) than the whole sensor: that's how they worked, they pan a
smaller image around to take out movement. I would guess they still work
that way. (Obviously if it's on a tripod it doesn't need I. S..)

 

[choro]

When I. S.s first appeared, the stabilised image was slightly smaller
(in pixels) than the whole sensor: that's how they worked, they pan a
smaller image around to take out movement. I would guess they still work
that way. (Obviously if it's on a tripod it doesn't need I. S..)

It could be to save battery juice when the camera is mounted on a
tripod. Particularly where long sessions are involved.--
choro
*****

 

[Peter Jason]

It could be to save battery juice when the camera is mounted on a
tripod. Particularly where long sessions are involved.--
choro
*****

Thanks; and yes, I have it set up for all-day time
lapse and I have had to charge the battery every
evening after the shoot.

 

[Rob]

Thanks; and yes, I have it set up for all-day time
lapse and I have had to charge the battery every
evening after the shoot.

Image stabilising has to have movement to work. Its not necessary when
the camera is mounted on a tripod.

Yes the motor runs in the lens which uses battery.

 

[NY]

I have an Olympus E5.

The manual says to turn off the image stabilizer
when using a tripod.

Why? Does the I.S. use camera resources that
detract from image quality?

No. It's because the IS actually produces *more* blur if the camera is
absolutely stationary: unable to find any camera movement to correct, it
seems to "hunt".

I proved this when I was taking some several-second exposures of a floodlit
abbey the other year. I couldn't work out why the pictures were still
blurred even when I'd focussed manually (so it wasn't the autofocus that was
failing to focus correctly on the building in the dim light) and I'd used
the self timer so it wasn't camera shake. Then my fiancée said "you *have*
turned off the IS, haven't you?" which was the first I knew of the
recommendation. Once I turned it off, the pictures were sharp.

This was on a fairly cheap Canon compact camera. It seemed to produce more
blur vertically than horizontally - highlights became vertical ovals. On my
Nikon SLR with an IS lens, I've not seen the problem, but I always turn off
the IS now - just in case!