Strong and stable shooting
Get to grips with Canon’s Image Stabilization options for sharper images and movies
Can you believe that Canon’s Image Stabilizer (IS) technology is 25 years old? Launched in 1995, the EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM was the first interchangeable camera lens to boast built-in optical image stabilization – by today’s standards though, two stops of shake reduction is hardly something to
boast about. Canon continues to be at the forefront of stabilized lens design, with the latest IS lenses typically offering four or five stops of shake reduction for sharper results at slower shutter speeds.
Where Canon has been a bit slow off the mark is with in-body image stabilization (IBIS). A number of rival mirrorless camera manufacturers are already using this technology, however Canon is soon to launch its first body with ‘true’ IBIS – the EOS R5.
When vibrations are detected by an IBIS system, the imaging sensor is adjusted via electromagnets in order to keep the image as stable as possible. The EOS R5’s implementation will offer 5-axis stabilization, meaning that it’ll minimize vibrations in five directions: vertical and horizontal shifts, plus pitch, yaw and roll movements. Canon also says the EOS R5’s IBIS will ‘work in harmony’ with the optical IS of Canon RF lenses – presumably giving even more stops of shake reduction when shooting.
IBIS has a few advantages, chief being it can stabilize almost any lens that doesn’t have IS. A possible drawback, though, is it isn’t usually as effective at longer focal lengths, where the greater magnification (and bulk) of a telephoto lens can require more compensation.