I have done some searching on the subject of whether or not you should use Image Stabilsation with a tripod mounted lens - in my case its the 500mm f4 IS. The answers seem to be conflicting but one suggested that the latest lens - inc the 500mm f4 - have effectively 2 sensors with Mode 1 so that the IS can sense whether the lens is tripod mounted or not. This sounds great but does it actually give any benefit using IS on a tripod mounted lens and if so, is there a shutter speed at which this benefit is noticeable. Is it sufficiently good to offset mirror slap at say 1/15?

TIA

Andrew

-- Andrew Hardacre (andrew@jhardacre.freeserve.co.uk), October 10, 2001

Answers

Yes, the 500 F4L IS does indeed have the "tripod mode" IS, which for some reason is undocumented by Canon. The lenses which have this mode are: 300mm F2.8L IS, 400mm F2.8L IS, 500mm F4L IS, 600mm F4L IS, 400mm F4 DO IS, 70-200mm F2.8L IS. The tripod mode effectively cancels our mirror slap, and minor vibrations at a whole range of shutter speeds.

-- Isaac Sibson (isibson@hotmail.com), October 10, 2001.

To me this feature GREATLY expands the usefulness of IS, since I prefer to use tripod whenever possible. (I'm hoping Canon upgrades the 100-400L IS 5.6 zoom with the newer IS package) I don't have one of these babies yet... but I've seen an excellent discussion of their performance in the field at Joe and Mary McDonald's website:

http://www.hoothollow.com/

See the Switch to Canon article and the December 2000 question of the month. ***

-- Rod (rod.nygaard@boeing.com), October 10, 2001.

Here's another link that addresses this issue: the tripod-capable version of IS does very effectively address mirror slap.

http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0007/cameracorner.htm

I'd sure like to see results from a good bench test, though!

***

-- Rod (rod.nygaard@boeing.com), October 19, 2001.