IS lenses?

[Jon Arno]

Okay I was talking to someone about the 17-85mm USM IS, and how it performed with sports photography. And they said it might blur the picture due to the IS, will it?

Counteract the motion of the camera?

Thanks

[Longwatcher]

In my experience the IS will have very little effect on the image if you are moving fast enough (aka panning) other then to improve the shot. Not sure on 17-85, but all of my IS lenses I can turn the IS off when I don't need it.

Note: there is a very small region of speed (actually angle of arc covered) where the target could be moving at just the right speed for the IS to get confused and make the picture worse, but as mentioned, I can turn the IS off on all of my lenses. Then no problem.

[pcasciola]

I've heard this before about not using IS for sports, but I use it for much of my sports shooting. Just yesterday was a perfect example. It was late in the afternoon and very overcast at a little league baseball game, and I took 250 shots with my 300/4L IS, all handheld with IS on (mode 1), ISO 400-800 and many at shutter speeds between 1/125-1/250, and I didn't get one blurred shot. At those shutter speeds and focal length, I would normally get many blurred shots.

I'm not arguing the fact that it might cause problems, but I wish I knew in what situations I should be turning it off. As far as I know, with the 300/4L, IS should not be used on a tripod, but I believe that's ok with my 70-200/2.8L IS becuase it's the "newer" IS. Other than that, I only turn it off at about 1/400 and above with the 300/4L, and 1/250 and above with the 70-200/2.8L IS.

Here are some examples of indoor sports IS shots with the 300/4L IS. The 3rd and 4th shots were handheld at 1/250, which is a little slow for a 300mm lens:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=58331

[MrChad]

My expereince with the Consumer EF 75-300 IS is that it sucks for panning. (I always turn it off for racing events.)
I would assume the same holds true for the 17-85 IS EF non-L.

I think the L's have setting for panning.

[Jon]

I think the major risk with the IS for sports would be the temptation to use too slow a shutter speed for the action, getting it blurred rather than frozen.

[raylks]

For sports shooting, always use fast shutter speed. IS lens cannot freeze the movement of the subject. It can only freeze the camera movement given a range.

[pcasciola]

For sports shooting, always use fast shutter speed. IS lens cannot freeze the movement of the subject. It can only freeze the camera movement given a range.And what about when you can't get a fast shutter speed?

This was shot with my 300/4L IS at ISO 800, f/4, 300mm, 1/160th. I don't think this shot would have been possible without IS. It was late in the day and overcast, and ISO 3200 would have been incredible noisy in this situation. IS saved me.

http://www.casciola.com/pics/MRLL0144.jpg

[Jon Arno]

Thanks guys.