Canon 100-400 IS related?

[daniel martins]

<p>Hey all,<br>

I was out shooting a baseball game with a Canon 100-400mm lens. I was using a monopod with IS mode 1 on and got a bunch of shots like the one below. Should I have turned IS off? I know that you ahve to turn it off when using a tripod but was unsure about the monopod</p><div></div>

[daniel martins]

<p>Here's a better example...</p><div></div>

[zml]

<p>Shutter speed, f/stop, ISO..? EXIF seems to be truncated...</p>

[daniel martins]

<p>First pic:<br>

Shutter Speed 1/40th, ISO 400, f/5<br>

Second pic:<br>

Shutter Speed 1/60th, ISO 400, f/5.6<br>

It was an evening game.</p>

[claytontullos]

<p>I would have shot with a faster shutter speed, at least 1/200th if not 1/500th.</p>

<p>Anyway, this seems to be an article on point.<br>

http://www.dlcphotography.net/TripodAndIS.htm</p>

[peter_j2]

<p>http://www.photo.net/canon-eos-digital-camera-forum/00BiQt</p>

[daniel martins]

<p>Thanks for the article Clayton. I couldn't get shutter speeds that fast due to it being 8:30 to 9:00pm. I did up the ISO on some later shots to 800 but could still only manage about 1/80th of a second. Maybe it was the shutter speed.<br>

Peter, I already know to turn it off when using a tripod. That thread is all about tripod use. I need to know about monopods.</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>1) yeah, probably the monopod is stable enough to need to have the older IS turned off, but</p>

<p>2) Your camera (whatever it is) will go higher than ISO 400 - Maybe a little more noise is better than a blur? Maybe you have to bite the bullet and go to 1600 or (gasp!) 3200.</p>

<p>2) maybe your expectations for the speeds you're shooting with so long a lens so late in the day are too high?</p>

[alan_bryant1]

<p>The manual for my 24-105/4 IS and 70-200/2.8 IS both include the sentence, "The stabilizer is equally effective for hand-held photography and photography with a monopod." I don't know if the 100-400 is the same. Do you have the manual? It probably says.</p>

<p>Regarding the sample pictures, it looks to me that the camera moved more than the IS was able to compensate for. IS is useful, but not miraculous; you still have to be as steady as you can.</p>

[jc_stark_arts]

<p>this is a case of what is more important to you - noise or sharpness?<br>

most of us will tell you that to get a sharp shot you need to shoot the inverse of the lens...<br>

so 400mm is 1/400th of a second...<br>

this is a rule of thumb for a sharp shot of something that is NOT moving....<br>

Add sports into the fray and you need to get up to 1000th of a second to get sharpness<br>

Bite the bullet and raise the ISO - not sure what camera it is but everything newer than a 40D will be useable at 1600 - more useable than those shots</p>

 

[geoffs1]

<p>I shoot a lot at "stupid slow" shutter speeds with my 100-400mm. With shutter speeds and focal-lengths like yours, I'd expect about 5:1 average keeper ratio (i.e. one sharp shot for five frames) hand-held. You would expect a better ratio with a mono-pod, but I certainly wouldn't expect 100% success.</p>

<p>Any idea of the bad:good ratio for that session?</p>

<p>I would certainly bump up the ISO if you need a more keepers.</p>

<p>To answer your question: I'd personally leave the IS on with a mono-pod.</p>

[mrossi]

<p>I don't think it's an IS question, the shutter speeds are just way too low for 400mm. Unless the players were standing still I don't think you'd have much chance of getting a sharp shot that time of day except at 800 or higher ISO.</p>

[zml]

<p>The IS (esp. in mode 2) might work a bit differently in portrait orientation so this could be a part of the issue. Do you get similar results whilst shooting in landscape? Also, the technique is important with a monopod, and the keyword is "smooth": try to stop the camera movement before very gently squeezing the shutter release. And of course the shorter shutter speed the better (that's why there are 400/2.8 lenses, not that I'd recommend to you a $7K lens...) but next time try to bump up the ISO speed up to 1000 or so so the hutter speed will be shorter.</p>

[sattler123]

<p>This is not rocket science - your shutter speeds were wayyyy too slow. Yes, you have IS to compensate, but that does not help you with subject motion. At 1/40sec you should not expect to get any sharp images of moving objects - no matter what the lens. IS doesn't help in those situations.</p>

[alan_bryant1]

<p>...I'll buck the trend and say whether to raise the ISO depends on what hit rate you require. Shooting at 1/40 to 1/60 you absolutely *will* get some keepers, maybe not a lot, but some. If you only need some, and you need them noise-free, that may be the way to go.</p>

<p>I shoot live theater with a 5D on a monopod. I shoot at ISO 1250, f/2.8, and get shutter speeds generally from 1/8 to 1/80. I've gotten keepers from dance sequences at the low end of that range - yes there's motion blur, but it can be attractive. I find, for me, 1250 is a good compromise for noise vs. keeper rate. I'll accept some blurry shots in exchange for less noise in the good ones.</p>

<p>Shot from Big River: Huck and Jim drifting down the Mississippi. 1/12 second, ISO 1250, -1 1/3 stop EV compensation on account of the very dark background. Reduced size but otherwise unedited.</p>

<p><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v490/alanpix/IMG_9983MwithEXIF.jpg" alt="" /></p>

[greg_hildebrandt]

<p>I have the 100-400 as well and know that it can get slow at times.<br /> <br /> The best way that I fount to get some more speed in low light situations is to shoot in RAW, use the highest ISO that you can stand noise wise (usually 640-800 on my 30D) and underexpose by 2 stops. RAW helps you to recover the underexposure later and you gain some additional speed.</p>

[mercedes1]

<p>I use a 100-400mm. Handheld I never go below 1/125 on a subject that has normal movement at 400mm. I found the keeper rate using this rule was pretty high.</p>

[lamoine_einspahr]

<p>Is it possible you did not press the shutter button to half staff long enough to allow the IS gyro to reach working speed, BEFORE you tripped the trigger?</p>

[steve santikarn]

<p>I use the 100-400 with a mono pod and leave the IS on all the time, no problem there. So the problem must be elsewhere.</p>

[marsha_howell]

<p>You need to turn the IS off when using monopod or tripod. On my 100-400 I can feel vibrations if I do not, and have done research to indicate that this is correct.</p>

[zml]

<blockquote>

<p>You need to turn the IS off when using monopod or tripod.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Not so. Many a lens "sense" the tripod and act accordingly. And here is some info specifically about the 100-400 straight from the Canon's mouth - <a href="http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0906/tech-tips.html">Chuck Westfall's Tech Tips</a></p>

[norris_lam]

<p>Just do an experiment at home and u will find it! I find neither Mode 1 nor 2 could work at all on monopod. Switch it off. </p>