Tag Archives: stabilization

Equipment, Technique

IBIS Does Not Replace Your Tripod

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Recently I have heard some photographers suggest that IBIS-equipped cameras have made tripods obsolete. IBIS is a fine thing, but that overstates the case.

Photographer Patricia Mitchell
“Photographer Patricia Mitchell” — Photographer Patricia Mitchell at work in early morning autumn light in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Contemporary cameras incorporate remarkable advances in camera and lens image stabilization. Some newer cameras with IBIS (In-camera Image stabilization) claim to extend the useful range of shutter speeds for handheld photography by as much as seven stops.

IBIS can be very useful for photographers who shoot handheld. I do urban night street photography using a handheld, IBIS-equipped camera that supports high ISOs — and I can capture subjects that would have been just about impossible to photograph a few decades ago.

Continue reading IBIS Does Not Replace Your Tripod →
Commentary, Equipment, Technique

Thoughts About the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS Lens

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(This is another post based on something I wrote elsewhere as a response to a question about this lens – I’m re-sharing it here with minor editing.)

I’ve used the Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS lens  a lot – for things as varied as handheld shooting of bicycle races and tripod-based landscape photography. Over time I’ve developed a few thoughts about the performance of this lens and some of the comments that I frequently hear and read about it.

First, especially from my tripod-based work, I have found that the lens is capable of very good performance in terms of image quality – e.g. “resolution.” This is true at all focal lengths, but more so perhaps at some than at others. To give one example, I also own the f/4 IS 70-200mm lens. At one point I tended to always switch to the shorter lens when shooting in the range up to 200mm, concerned about a potential sharpness hit with the 100-400. Over time I figured out that while the 70-200 is probably a very tiny bit sharper here, in most cases the difference in many kinds of shooting is insignificant and invisible in real-world output – and in many cases where I would have switched lenses I now leave the 100-400 on the camera. Continue reading Thoughts About the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS Lens →

Commentary

Announcements from Nikon and Canon

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Today Nikon announced two new 36+MP full frame DSLRs, the D800 and D800E, and Canon announced a long-awaited update to their EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L zoom. I’ve posted a bit more information in a new entry on the Deals page.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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