C300 MkII Slow Motion Mode - Optical IS disabled?

[Mathew Williams]

I use a few Canon stabilised lenses (24-105) and (70-200) and these work well with the IS on. However, I’ve been shooting in slo-mo mode and the IS doesn't work which makes the filming very shaky. I’m not sure why this is? I have two (70-200) lenses and it is the same with both of them, so it is not a fault with the lens.

Apparently the auto focus features of this camera are disabled when shooting in slo mo (this in itself is not a problem as I don’t use auto focus) but I’m just wondering if the fact the AF is disabled in slo mo mode means that all power is cut from the lens also? This would mean the lens is unpowered and therefore no power for the IS (image stabilisation) feature. Is this the case? If so then it seems a big oversight as when shooting video with this lens the IS is essential, especially given the crop on the higher framerate slo mo as it crops in, so a 200mm becomes a 400mm – shooting anything like this needs the lense’s image stabilisation feature to be working without a doubt!

Any thoughts appreciated! Thanks,

Matt

[Mathew Williams]

It's worth mentioning when setting the camera's frame rate to 50P the IS function works fine, however when selecting 50P in slow motion mode the IS doesn't work. So it would seem to be connected to the fact that auto focus is disabled in slow motion mode - seems likely this does cause power to the lens to be be disable also which is very unhelpful as means IS doesn't work. I wonder if this could be fixed in a firmware update?

Matt

[Dan Brockett]

I've never shot slow motion with rental C300 MKIIs but if what you say is true and slow motion disables IS and AF, that sucks and definitely lowers my desire to ever buy a C300 MKII. Both features are extremely important for my work and my shooting style.

[Barry Goyette]

Dan...just a fwiw. What Mathew is talking about is canon's special "slow and fast" motion mode...which allows you to select a variety of frame rates (1-120fps) that automatically get recorded as a standard 23.98 or 29.97 file. Shooting in standard 60p (conformed later to 24 or 30p) doesn't have this issue.

I've not noticed the IS thing myself...but it wouldn't surprise me. The AF not working in S&F motion is clearly spelled out in the manual and has been discussed here several times. My guess,...just a guess... is somehow the lens controls are synched to the standard frame rates and that the variable rates in S&F motion cause problems with that synching.

I think you'll find that the C300II with it's almost complete lack of rolling shutter looks just fine in slow motion without IS.

Here's a clip shot in 60p, non-IS lens, hand held, walking with the camera, conformed to 30p using face detection AF in low light. I'm by no means a steady individual or an experienced handheld cameraman.

C300 Mark II Low Light Face Detection. 30p on Vimeo

[Gary Huff]

Originally Posted by Barry Goyette

My guess,...just a guess... is somehow the lens controls are synched to the standard frame rates and that the variable rates in S&F motion cause problems with that synching.

If that were true, then IS would not work on any camera that cannot read the electronic information coming from that lens.

[Mathew Williams]

I shoot a lot on long focal lengths (200mm) - to maximise the shallow depth of field and foreshorten. Therefore IS is very important to me. The fact shooting in slo mo mode does disable the IS is a pain, and something that I can't imagine is necessary. I appreciate they may want to disable AF (that's fine with me and I don't use it) but there must be a way of disabling this without cutting power to the lens - keep the lens powered and the IS would work. I'm now shooting slo mo just by adjusting the frame rate to 50P, but not ideal as I now have to make sure my editors interpret this as 25P, plus it means I can't use the slower frame rates.

Matt

[Slavik Boyechko]

This thread made me curious to test some lenses out, as I've been shooting 120fps in the slowmotion crop-mode on the C300II and haven't noticed jitters from lack of IS.

Here's the interesting results: In slow motion (crop mode), IS is disabled on most EF and EF-S lenses, but DOES work on the newer STM lenses, at least the ones I have around. So, 10-18mm, 18-135mm (both the older STM version and the brand new Nano USM version that just came out but doesn't bill itself as STM), and the 55-250mm STM.

Considering you're getting a 2x crop on top of the crop sensor, I think either the 18-135mm or the 55-250mm might be plenty zoom for most applications. Will they be super sharp? Probably not, as the crop mode already softens the image.

There might be other lenses that are new-ish but aren't particularly STM that might work too. For me the 70-200mm f4 IS and the 24-105mm (the older one, not the new STM version) turned off IS.

Hope that helps -

Slavik

[Mathew Williams]

Hi Slavik, that's interesting - thanks for testing. The only IS lenses I have are 24-105mm and 70-200mm 2.8 II. On both these lenses whether in slo-mo mode (non-crop) or slo-mo (crop) the IS doesn't work. In your testing did you try those other IS lenses in slo-mo mode (non-crop)? So shooting at 50/60P? Thanks again.

[Slavik Boyechko]

Yes I believe all Canon lenses with IS maintain their stabilization in the normal 50p/60p mode on the C300II. AF as well. Is that what you're asking?

[Barry Goyette]

I think Mathew wants to know if those lenses work in the "non-cropped" Slow and Fast Motion recording mode.

I tried the only IS lens I have, the 17-55m EF-S 2.8 IS, and I can report that it does not work in S&F motion recording mode. I think what I alluded to earlier is most likely in the right ballpark, especially given Slavik's reporting that the STM lenses work. Most of Canon's IS lenses were designed for stills not video, but function well at standard frame rates for video. The STM lenses are designed for video and obviously have what canon thinks they need to produce quality results in IS mode, thus they've enabled it for S&F motion. Or it could simply be a processing power thing, but that wouldn't explain why the STM lenses work. Who knows.

All I know is that anyone who regularly shoots with a 200mm hand held is more man than I. So cheers to you on that, Mathew.

[Slavik Boyechko]

Thanks for the dose of wisdom, Barry. It all makes sense.

I tried the 18-135mm (the new nano USM) with the Slow & Fast mode, non crop, and the IS does work. AF does not, of course.

As a side note, I don't really get what the S&F (noncrop) mode is for, apart from the low framerates for timelapses. The maximum S&F framerate is 30 in this mode. So, you could shoot 59.97p as your normal framerate, but have S&F record 30fps, or 29, or 24.. but why?

Cheers,
Slavik

[Barry Goyette]

Hi Slavik,

Two reasons to use slow and fast motion mode....

Conforming to a standard project rate in camera.. Ie.. Shoot in 60p and have the camera record as 29.97 or 23.98. This is the reason Matt likes to use it.

Ability to shoot intermediate frame rates. We shot a music video recently so that the music was synced to the artists footsteps. The original music was too slow to walk naturally, so we sped the music up by 20% and then shot at 36 fps..conformed in camera back to 30fps. Pretty common technique in music videos.

Mess of Me -- Official Music Video on Vimeo

[Barry Goyette]

Looks like there's a new firmware update that fixes the issue.

Firmware Version 1.0.5.1.00 incorporates the following fix:

1. Fixes the phenomenon in which the image stabilization function of some lenses*1 may not operate under certain combinations of settings such as when set to slow & fast motion recording mode.

https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/p....mc_id=C126149

[Mathew Williams]

Hi Barry, that's fantastic news! Thanks for sharing.

Matt