I know that Canon advises XL1s users to turn off the image stabilization when using a tripod-although I have don't know exactly why. But when I am in a set of bleechers, the vibrations from the crowd shows up on the tape. I assume that it is ok to use the image stabilizer in this case but if there is any reason I shouldn't could any one let me know. Thanks

See http://www.dvinfo.net/canon/xl1faq.php#ois:

"When shooting from a tripod, it's very important to turn OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) off, otherwise you'll encounter a serious problem: OIS wants to dampen movement (that's what it's designed to do). If your camera is mounted on a tripod, the only movement you have is that movement which you intend to do, such as a pan. Lacking any other extraneous movement, OIS will try to fight your panning, resulting in an undesirable stuttering pan. Likewise, when you do a zoom, OIS wants to counteract that change and you'll see a jump in the image at the end of your zoom. Therefore, be sure to switch OIS to the off position whenever your camera is mounted on a tripod. And don't operate the camera in Green Box (easy recording) mode from a tripod, as OIS is always on in this mode (even when the OIS switch on the lens is set to the off position)."

-- hope this helps,

Thanks for the reply, it was very helpful. Do you have any suggestions relating to what I could do to help stabilize the camera when the bleechers are moving with the crowd noise? These are aluminum bleechers and are quite sensative to movement?

In that case you might experiment with OIS on, but beware of odd image pulses at the end of zooms.

David:

If I were you, I might try turning OIS on one time just to see what comes out at the end. Just shoot three minutes of footage of the next event that you film from the bleechers with stabilization enabled, and then compare that with the footage you shoot without OIS. You've got nothing to lose, and potentially some image stability to gain. If you are on an entirely stable platform, and shoot with your tripod, its probably not a great idea to have OIS on, but on shaky bleachers it might just work.

Good luck, and let us know how it works out.

Under the circumstances you've described, I would turn OIS on. Try not to zoom at all. Zooming is where you'll notice the problems. Or try not to stop zooming until after the play ends. Then you can edit the hops out and you won't miss the play.

Sometimes small rubber pads under the tripods legs might help
to avoid small vibrations coming up....

I used a DSR250 with optical stabilization on a tripod when shooting under conditions of high vibration. It works great, but you can't pan or you'll see a problem. Never tried zooming.

Just to let everyone know, I tried both senarios. One with the stabilizer off and one with it on. The results were truly polarized. With the stabilizer off the image was extremly shakey. when I turned on the stabilizer, it results were fantastic. It didn't appear to make any difference on the panning or zoom either. The only thing I can't relay is the amount of movement in the stands. It was quite significant and I am sure that is why the result with the stabilizer was so positive. Thanks for all the suggestions.