concerned Optical stabilisation isnt working on lens

413x

413x

413x

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I have been trying out a new (but used) lens today and cant help but feel the OS on it isnt working

its the sigma 120-300mm f2.8

if i take a series of shots hand held of a static target almost always it seems the static ones are overall better. sometimes there is a near perfect one sometimes a very blurred one
with OS on they all seem somewhat blurred and some are bad

i can see the lens flicking with the OS on

this is at
f2.8
150mm
2m to target
1/60 shutter

have i got a dud?
 
With the OS on all you should see in the viewfinder is a nice steady image with the shutter half pressed if it's flicking or jumping about then the OS is faulty!
 
al4x said:
have i got a dud?
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Nope, you just need to practice, it takes quite a bit to be able to shoot sharp images with a telephoto, especially at 1/60th from 2 meters away (any movement will be quite obvious)

I hear it's a very heavy lens, (3kg) which is the same as a 500 F4, tbh - it took me plenty of practice to get tack sharp shots with a canon 300 F2.8 which is lighter, but not at 1/60th,
 
^how do i test stabilisation.. its not that i expect hand held shots to be sharp, but the concern is the stabilization seems to make things worse
 
al4x said:
^how do i test stabilisation.. its not that i expect hand held shots to be sharp, but the concern is the stabilization seems to make things worse
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Do the following,

1.> Set the lens to 300mm, 2.8 wide open

2.> Go outside in a well lit area and focus on something like a wall

3.> Turn OS off, and practice holding the lens as steady as you can, see how much the image moves around

4.> Repeat the above with it turned on, you *should* be able to notice the difference, things should be slightly steadier


I don't know about the Sigma lenses, but I owned both a Canon 300mm F2.8 and a 600mm F4 and on both of my lenses I could physically hear the IS whirring when it was working - I imagine there would be some sort of sound it would make when the IS/OS/VR is functioning,

You also can't really test IS/OS/VR on a tripod as it can make things worse unless you use it in a specific way, it's really there for handheld usage,
 
thats kind of what im doing indoors as its night and at best i see no difference,
i will try tomorrow on my lunch break.

i do hear noise from the lens
 
I've just started using the Canon 70-200 2.8mkII and frankly my first session with it was shocking. I absolutely suck panning with that thing and my god it's heavy, that makes it more difficult to hold steady. At 200mm it's obviously going to be harder to get spot on shots. Add to that the trouble of having being spoiled by prime lenses before hand, the image quality difference is magnified a thousand fold.

As above, use it in controlled scenarios if you think it's wonky and if you don't find an obvious fault just practice using it.

My 70-200 F4 non IS was a dream to use. This IS lark isn't for me I think, gimmie primes any day :D
 
al4x said:
thats kind of what im doing indoors as its night and at best i see no difference,
i will try tomorrow on my lunch break.

i do hear noise from the lens
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You should be able to see the difference, it's subtle but it's there - with the canon lenses, when you engaged the IS (by focussing) the image in the viewfinder would sometimes "jolt" a tiny bit, so you definitely knew when it was or wasn't working.

Also, I'll be honest, I had a pretty good long-lens technique, but even with my 300 on a beanbag, I'd have to really concentrate to get tack sharp shots at 1/60th, I'd have to concentrate to get an acceptably sharp shot with a wide angle lens at 1/60th tbh.

Remember, the technique is about more than how you hold the lens, at 1/60th you're going to have to be so gentle in pressing the shutter to take the shot, the ability to get these shots sharp at 1/60th definitely won't come overnight
 
You've got a dud

I had a Sigma 150-500 that had exactly the same symptoms, when the OS was on it gave worse results so I took it to Sigma for repair. It was diagnosed as a faulty OS unit (they took three goes to get it fixed :()
 
i think i might ..good job i bought it from a retailer!

i will give it a good go tomorrow but i really cant see an improvement with it on,
like i said the non OS is what i expect..4 shots in a row and some are sharp some not with it i see it as worse/same

I really cant see any stability increase with it on. Im guessing this isnt an easy thing to check for
 
Different lens obviously, but the difference between on and off shouldn't be a million miles away from this (my canon lenses were very similar)

 
Janesy B said:
Sure you've got the right OS mode on? Usually there's mode general use and for panning.
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I don't know about sigma lenses but on Nikon automatically detect panning (although the exotics may have modes to force this). Also Nikon lenses have an active and passive mode. Active mode is for use on vehicles or boats with greater movement, active mode makes thing worse when hand held. Not sure if sigma have the same distinction
 
I'll check the video tomorrow

I have os1 and os2
Os1 is fit panning
Os2 Normal

I've tried both
 
I think I'm sending this back
I took 14 shots with os on and 14 off at slow speed shooting
Shutter 1/30
250mm
100 iso
F 13 due to shutter priority

Subject was just a car number plate at about 15m ish
Obviously hand held

The 14 without os include a few fairly good ones and a lot of bad ones..
The os ones are all somewhat worse than the beat non os ones

Just watched the link
Mine to me looks like there is no difference between on and off except with on the picture through viewfinder sometimes almost jolts

From what I have seen this isn't right
 
Last edited:
al4x said:
I think I'm sending this back
I took 14 shots with os on and 14 off at slow speed shooting
Shutter 1/30
250mm
100 iso
F 13 due to shutter priority

Subject was just a car number plate at about 15m ish
Obviously hand held

The 14 without os include a few fairly good ones and a lot of bad ones..
The os ones are all somewhat worse than the beat non os ones

Just watched the link
Mine to me looks like there is no difference between on and off except with on the picture through viewfinder sometimes almost jolts

From what I have seen this isn't right
Click to expand...

To be honest, if you're sure there's no difference at all between it being on and off then it's certainly possible it could be broken, the video I linked was pretty much exactly how I remember IS (on Canon anyway) and I don't think there's that much difference between them,

But tbh - 1/30th, handheld with a 3KG telephoto, I'd be impressed if one in ten shots were acceptably sharp, even with the best IS.
 
V-Spec said:
To be honest, if you're sure there's no difference at all between it being on and off then it's certainly possible it could be broken, the video I linked was pretty much exactly how I remember IS (on Canon anyway) and I don't think there's that much difference between them,

But tbh - 1/30th, handheld with a 3KG telephoto, I'd be impressed if one in ten shots were acceptably sharp, even with the best IS.
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I'm finding it hard to be sure about it

I was trying to find a shutter speed where I could see improvement. I can't see the difference like in the video you linked holding down the shutter release half way.
I'm fairly sure I'm right in thinking that if I press the shutter release half way that disregarding settings I should see roughly what that video shows.

Again, to me I don't see this, and if it is working I may as well send the lens back anyway as it's not improving my pictures. Handily I don't need to prove it's not working to get a refund.

I'm going to try my canon 100mm Macro IS lens with this as well (which I haven't tested as it was new but I'm fairly sure it's working as I get a lot of decent pics with it, more than I expected)
 
al4x said:
I'm finding it hard to be sure about it

I was trying to find a shutter speed where I could see improvement. I can't see the difference like in the video you linked holding down the shutter release half way.
I'm fairly sure I'm right in thinking that if I press the shutter release half way that disregarding settings I should see roughly what that video shows.

Again, to me I don't see this, and if it is working I may as well send the lens back anyway as it's not improving my pictures. Handily I don't need to prove it's not working to get a refund.

I'm going to try my canon 100mm Macro IS lens with this as well (which I haven't tested as it was new but I'm fairly sure it's working as I get a lot of decent pics with it, more than I expected)
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To be totally honest, a 120-300 is a nice piece of glass, but these things are not easy to use, they're heavy, unwieldy and because of their sharpness/focal-length you need good technique to get the best out of them,

It's easy to think that something so modern and precise will just give you great images, but the reality is it takes a great deal of practice to use them properly.

Before I moved down to London I was doing a lot of wildlife photography, and I used to spend ages at the side of the road practicing on cars (hours on end) practicing on anything I could to get my technique as good as possible - you can't point and shoot with long glass.

TLDR: Have a think about what you're trying to achieve - if you think long glass is not for you or your sure it's broken, then return it I guess, but make no mistake - that is a nice lens, it'll just take some getting used too...
 
V-Spec said:
To be totally honest, a 120-300 is a nice piece of glass, but these things are not easy to use, they're heavy, unwieldy and because of their sharpness/focal-length you need good technique to get the best out of them,

It's easy to think that something so modern and precise will just give you great images, but the reality is it takes a great deal of practice to use them properly.

Before I moved down to London I was doing a lot of wildlife photography, and I used to spend ages at the side of the road practicing on cars (hours on end) practicing on anything I could to get my technique as good as possible - you can't point and shoot with long glass.

TLDR: Have a think about what you're trying to achieve - if you think long glass is not for you or your sure it's broken, then return it I guess, but make no mistake - that is a nice lens, it'll just take some getting used too...
Click to expand...

I wish I was sure. I haven't enough experience to make the call IIt's not that I am expecting great images at slow shutter speeds it's that I have that feeling I'm paying for stabilisation and it may not be working. Someone else may be able to look at it and go 'yep broke' or 'it's you, the lens is fine'

I guess I was expecting at least some improvement with stabilisation on hand held at non ideal shutter speeds I wasn't expecting all shots with stabilisation on to look worse than the best with it off
 
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