image stabilization in V1

[Piotr Wozniacki]

I'm having some doubts about the OIS effectivity in my unit. When I watch the picture with the camera hooked up via component to my HD monitor, I cannot see much difference between the Hard, Standard and Soft settings of Steadyshot function. Similarly, the OIS should be turned off when using tripod - but I cannot see any obvious difference whether it is on or off!

What is a quick, most obvious way to check whether it's functioning properly? What kind of camera movement is it supposed to dump most effectively?

Also, is there a way to stabilize in Vegas 7.0?

[Paul Frederick]

It is fairly subtle, however handhold the camera, zoom all the way in and turn it on and off. You should it see it kick in. I usually keep my in the normal position as oppossed to Hard and soft.

When on a tripod and panning, I've left it on before and with the V1, I see some major camera "jerks" in the image as it sort of catches up. It's quite drastic and may even be a malfunction on my unit. During a pan with it on, it'll all of a sudden "jump" like you were just bumped holding the camera. It's happened a few times while I was shooting a hockey game, maybe the high contrast scene had something to do with it.

Anyway, I always shut it off on a tripod.

[Boyd Ostroff]

Originally Posted by Piotr Wozniacki

I cannot see much difference between the Hard, Standard and Soft settings of Steadyshot function. Similarly, the OIS should be turned off when using tripod - but I cannot see any obvious difference whether it is on or off!

I have a Z1, not an V1, but I can't see much difference in hard, standard or soft Steadyshot either; this has been discussed before in the Z1 forum.

As for tripods, I turn steadyshot on when filming performances from the rear of the house, about 100 feet from the stage. When I zoom in the full way I see a definite improvement with steadyshot on. If I turn it off then I see lots of minor camera vibration. This is even more noticeable when I add my 1.6x teleconvertor. That lens gives the Z1 a 35mm equivalent of 640mm, and since the V1 has a longer zoom I think it would be similar to full zoom without the convertor.

The small smooth movements on a tripod for my performance shooting almost never create any problems with confusing the steadyshot. So try shooting some footage at full zoom on a tripod with and without steadyshot, you should see a difference.

[John Huebbe]

Originally Posted by Piotr Wozniacki

What is a quick, most obvious way to check whether it's functioning properly?

I just used my 2 V1's on a shoot 2 weekends ago. The steadyshot came in handy. When I was at full zoom, if I didn't have SteadyShot on, just the slightest bump or nudge would cause the picture to jump around a bit. But, with it on, there was nothing, very smooth video.

Originally Posted by Paul Frederick

I see some major camera "jerks" in the image as it sort of catches up.

I too had this happen to me. At first I thought my camera was broken, but I later found out that it was the way I was using the camera. It seemed to "jerk" when I did a fast pan and then came to a stop. When I set it to Soft, it did a better job.

[Piotr Wozniacki]

OK, so I got my Sony wa converter at last! Nice looking (very "pro", with this huge lens hood:)), but only .8x and still a considerable barrel distorsion! Oh well...Should the new 0.65x century have an option of mounting this lens hood, I'd gladly pay the extra bucks!

But back to the topic: out of the 4 OIS settings, my guess is that the one named WIDE CONV is so configured tha it doesn't try to compensate for barrel distorsion, increasing when an edge is moving from the image center to its side - am I right? And, has onyone spotted any difference between this and the NORMAL setting, when using a wa converter?