Just four days ago, Sony announced its a7II: the world’s first full-frame digital camera with 5-axis image stabilization build into the body. But as impressive as we know the image stabilization could be, no one was quite sure what glass said stabilization would work with.
The news, however, is all good. New reports are confirming that the a7II’s stabilization will work with all(!) 3rd party lenses.
Image stabilization is a tricky business. There are a plethora of ways to do it: optical image stabilization, algorithmic stabilization and, more recently, hybrid options that combine the best of analogue and digital input.
A great example is Instagram’s new Hyperlapse app, which gathers data from the accelerometer built into your iPhone and uses that data to digitally correct for camera shake and give you smooth footage.
And now, an upcoming product called SteadXP wants to do the same thing for your DSLR or GoPro.
Typically, lens announcements go unnoticed unless the lens in question is some optically incredible, super-wide aperture prime lens. But if the idea of an 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 lens leaves you thoroughly unexcited, we would beg you to read on, because Fuji's first attempt at a weather-resistant XF lens might just knock your socks off.
Tokina broke new ground yesterday when it announced its very first optically-stabilized lens. Dubbed the AT-X 70-200mm F4 PRO FX VCM-S, it uses a voice coil motor-driven IS system to deliver a promised three stops of image stabilization for the shaky of hand.
Canon's 50mm lens lineup is getting crowded... at least that's what Canon seems to think. According to a fresh rumor, the company has plans to replace the current 50mm f/1.4 USM. But it won't be replaced by another f/1.4. Instead, Canon might do away with the lens altogether and release a high-end 50mm f/1.8 IS USM instead.
Optical image stabilization is all about keeping the camera still even as the housing shakes or otherwise moves around. And when it comes to stabilization in nature, few creatures are as good at keeping their camera (read: head) perfectly still as the chicken.
So why not strap a camera onto a chicken's head and turn the guy (or gal) into a fowl-stabilized action cam!? Why, no reason at all!
Today's minor update from Instagram -- you can tell it's minor because it's version 4.0.2 -- was actually a bit more feature-packed than the number suggests. Coming on the heels of the major Instagram Video update in 4.0, the newest iOS update adds much sought-after landscape support as well as video stabilization when using the front-facing camera.
This month, the Consumer & Imaging Products Association (CIPA) released a new standard to help make better sense of the world of image stabilization. Theoretically, the standard will make sure that all manufacturers test and report image stabilization statistics the same way, so you can better compare between lens brands.
And although we haven't heard anything from any other company, Nikon has already hopped aboard and released a list of CIPA-compliant numbers.
In light of the ever-tightening bond between camera manufacturing giants, Olympus is rumored to be working hand-in-hand with Sony to bring their 5-Axis image stabilization technology to Sony's upcoming A-mount cameras.
Nokia recently announced its new Lumia 928: a 8.7-megapixel PureView, Carl Zeiss, OIS-toting replacement for the already impressive Lumia 920 that will do its best to blow away the rest of the market in terms of image and video quality.
But in case words aren't enough, Nokia has also released the above video comparing the low-light video capability of the new Lumia with that of the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the iPhone 5.
Film footage from the early 1900's, when hand-cranked cameras were all the technology available, aren't exactly high-quality. Choppy, jumpy, and sped-up, the people in these films look anything but natural.
One YouTuber, however, has taken it upon himself to enhance some footage from this time period and, in the process, produced something much closer to today's standards of clarity and stability.
Kris Kitani, a postdoctoral research fellow at Carnegie Mellon University, has developed a unique type of image stabilization that can actually transform the footage from a camera attached to the side of a spinning football from nausea inducing, to smooth fly over.
The video at the top shows the footage he collected when he attached a GoPro to the side of a football. On the left you have the un-altered version, and on the right the version with his software applied.
Back in 2010, we humorously reported that chickens have image stabilized heads. Some people took the idea further, turning chickens into organic Steadicams and doing further research into the subject.
After the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L Mark II was announced at the beginning of this year, many photographers were disappointed that it didn't include Image Stabilization. When October rolled around, there were new rumors that Canon had an IS version of the 24-70mm up its sleeve. The company did, but it wasn't what people were expecting. When the new IS lens was unveiled in November, it was an f/4 lens rather than an f/2.8.
If you're one of the many people who wanted both the convenience of having IS and the benefits of having f/2.8, here's some good news: there is indeed a 24-70mm f/2.8 IS on the way.
The rumors were off but the leak was spot on: today Canon officially announced the not-so-secret 24-70mm f/4 IS and the 35mm f/2 IS, bringing image stabilization to two new focal length ranges.
Canon's two soon-to-be-announced lenses were leaked today by Japanese website Digicam info. The first one is, as suspected, the 24-70mm f/4 IS. The second one was more a surprise: it's not a new 50mm, but a 35mm f/2 IS. Canon is continuing its new trend of building image stabilization into wider-angle lenses -- a bit strange for still photographers, but great news for people who record video with their DSLRs.
An update to the image-stabilized Canon 24-70mm lens rumor that we shared yesterday: Canon Rumors is reporting with certainty that the lens is in fact on the way. However, the lens won't be an IS version of the f/2.8, as previously reported, but an entirely new Canon 24-70mm f/4L IS. In other words, the lens will give up a stop in max aperture in exchange for IS.
When Canon unveiled the followup lens to its popular Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 L back in February, many photographers found it strange that the lens eschewed Image Stabilization even while two wide-angle prime lenses announced at the same time had IS. After all, a $2,300 lens that extends to 70mm on the telephoto end seems like it would benefit more from stabilization than 24mm and 28mm lenses. If you've been yearning for a "Brick" (as the 24-70mm used to be called) with IS, here's some good news: the lens reportedly exists, and may already be floating around in the wild for initial tests.
Nokia has already confessed and apologized for faking the optical image stabilization sample footage in a new promo video for its Lumia 920 phone. In case you weren't sure: yes, the sample still photographs in the video were faked as well.
Designer Youssef Sarhan did some investigative work after the story initially broke, and came to the conclusion that the images were almost certainly taken with a camera other than the Lumia 920.
The bean bag is a tool that photographers sometimes use to stabilize their camera. Plop it down on a …
Nokia faced the heat of the Internet yesterday after it came to light that a promo video for its …
After Nokia unleashed its 41-megapixel 808 PureView phone back in February, most people thought that it would set the bar for future phones branded with the PureView monkier. "PureView" came to mean, "a ridiculous number of megapixels in a phone camera." Turns out that's not the case.
The company unveiled its new Lumia 920 phone today, which also carries the PureView name. It features a much more modest 8-megapixel camera, showing that PureView isn't about the megapixels after all.
A couple years ago we reported on the amazing fact that chickens have image stabilized heads, and shared some interesting "research" into using chickens as camera stabilizers. It turns out birds aren't the only creatures with IS systems built into their hardware: cats have it too!
One of the interesting features in Olympus’ OM-D EM-5 retro-styled camera is the …
Sharp recently announced its AQUOS SH-01D phone, which is one of the few phones on the market that feature …
Nikon has a support page for people who wonder why the company hasn’t …
We shared a video of Canon’s Image Stabilization technology in action in the beginning of the year, …
Canon might be rolling out a new Image Stabilized lens with a built-in teleconverter, but Tamron and …
Ever wonder what Canon’s Image Stabilization technology looks like in action? Like a lens element doing a jig, that’s …
Wow. People are taking chicken head camera stabilization pretty seriously after the fact that chickens have image stabilized heads went viral recently. Research is ongoing, and people are reporting their interesting experimental findings on YouTube.