Changing IBIS settings

[thebeardedgroundsman]

I know you should read the manual (have you seen how thick it is, and the small print?) but I have only just discovered that you can and should change the settings for IBIS depending on the focal length of your lens. I assume this is done automatically on lenses with electronic connections and certainly for lenses with OSS.

But I was interested to find out I needed it for my manual (Laowa) lens. There seems to be a bit of conflicting advice as to what you set it for, if you have a zoom lens- do you set it for the shortest focal length, the longest, or the median?

[Pieter]

That's one of the great things of IBIS: all your old, manual, 'dumb' lenses are suddenly stabilised. All you have to do is dial in the proper focal length. I put this in my Fn-menu to prevent a menu dive every time I put on a manual lens.

If you set is to the shortest you're safe but motion at the longer end of the lenses zoom range will be undercompensated (it won't get maximum stabilisation). If you set it to the longest, the camera overcompensates motions if you set the lens at a shorter focal length.

I guess the end result is pretty equal if IBIS over- or undercompensates motion, but in my opinion I'd rather have some (suboptimal) stabilisation than to have shots ruined by motion blur caused by the IBIS-system.

If you want to set it somewhere in the middle, make sure to set it to the average viewing angle rather than the average focal length, to prevent big overcompensation at the shorter focal lengths. E.g. for a 24-105 this is at about 42mm (instead of 65 mm for the average focal length).

Edited October 7, 2021 by Pieter

[Aldowski]

Great question and no easy and complete answers (from Sony as well).

Sony may not be very happy when non-Sony lenses are being used in parallel or most of the time together with Sony lenses (somehow logical from that perspective).

Anyway; I asked this, exact same question at discussions at the site of one of well known Sony cameras ambassadors (really good site), got answer which is:

Quote

Yup, manual lenses without electronic contacts don’t transmit focal length to the camera and while it’s pretty easy to set Manual steady shot settings for manual primes, zooms are another story. It’s probably best to set Steadyshot for the middle of zoom range and hope for the best (assuming of course you’re not speaking of a super zoom like 24-300mm in which case I that way too much.

Anyway, if I am using Olympus Zuiko zoom one (push-pull), I am not changing the zoom every second, so I am trying to use some settings in the middle or if it's being used mostly or all the time at one side of the range, I am just having that in mind for Steadyshot settings. 

 

[thebeardedgroundsman]

Thanks for these useful answers.

Fortunately for me, I'm only likely to use manual Primes - my Zooms being fully integrated.

But hopefully, by asking the question it will help others.