As part of a thread on the photography forum on image stabilisation, particularly IBIS (in-body image stabilisation) I had a play about with 2 camera bodies and 3 lenses. The 2 bodies were the Canon 5D IV, which has no IBIS, and the Canon R5II, which has IBIS. The 3 lenses were teh EF 200 mm f2.8 L II, which has no IS, the EF 70-200 mm f2.8 L IS II, which has image stabilisation, and the RF 200-800 f6.3-9 IS, which has image stabilisation. All 3 are compatible with the R5II, but the RF 200-800 is only compatible with the R5II. The difference between the 2 IS lenses is that the EF one has limited ‘teamwork’ with the RF5II, while the RF lens has full ‘teamwork’ with the R5II.
I set up a still life in the kitchen and lit it with one of my fly-tying lamps.
I went for what’s expected of camera and lens pairing, IS-wise, rather than switching things on and off on the same kit.
Following the guidelines of the forum thread, shots purely hand-held, free standing. The brief was longer than 100 mm focal length. I went with 200 mm. That traditionally says, for hand-holding, use a shutter speed of at least 1/200 sec (if no IS available). To test the different combinations, I chose 1/40 sec.
All images shot in RAW. All taken from approx 2.2 m away. Autofocus on the writing on the pepper mill. All taken at 200 mm, f6.3, 1/40 sec, auto ISO, 0EV. Basic batch processing of the 5 RAWs together in ACR. No noise reduction or sharpening, as per the forum brief.
The 5 images:
1) Least IS – ie, none at all: Canon 5D IV plus EF 200 mm f2.8 L II.
2) Add lens IS: 5D IV plus EF 70-200 mm f2.8 L IS II.
3) Take off lens IS and replace with camera IBIS: R5II plus EF 200 mm f2.8 L II.
4) Add EF lens IS to RF IBIS: R5II plus EF 70-200 mm f2.8 L IS II.
5) The full 9 yards – RF lens IS, combined with RF IBIS: R5II plus RF 200-800 f6.3-9 IS.
I gave myself 6 attempts for each, cherry picking the sharpest, so I levelled-out as much of my own shakiness as possible.
The results…
Image 1: Canon 5D IV plus EF 200 mm f2.8 L II
Image 2: 5D IV plus EF 70-200 mm f2.8 L IS II
Image 3: R5II plus EF 200 mm f2.8 L II
Image 4: R5II plus EF 70-200 mm f2.8 L IS II
Image 5: R5II plus RF 200-800 f6.3-9 IS
Results…
There is no doubt which is the wobbliest – Image 1 – the one with no image stabilisation. It then takes a bit of studying to sort out the others. I think the best of them is Image 5, the one with both RF lens IS in conjunction with IBIS, so perhaps no surprises there either, given what we are told by Canon. However, after that there is not much to choose between the remaining 3. My eye put them in the order of:
2nd: Image 3: R5II plus EF 200.
3rd: Image 4: R5II plus 70-200 IS.
4th: Image 2: 5D IV plus EF 70-200 IS.
If that is how they really were, it puts the result with the non-IS 200 mm ahead of the 70-200 IS. There could be other reasons at play – prime v zoom and weight to hand-hold. (The 70-200 IS zoom is twice the weight of the 200 prime.) Perhaps if I had another 50 tries, the order would reverse. And anyway, there is very little in it, which would suggest that the IBIS is doing the heavy lifting.
The other thing that I noted was the strong showing by the RF 200-800 when up against 2 top notch L lenses in the EF 200 and 70-200. (And it’s the heaviest of the lot to hand hold!) That might be down to working together with the IBIS, but any way it’s pleasing to see as I move towards RF and away from EF…
It begs the next questions:
What would the results be at 1/20 sec, or even 1/10 sec?
What can the R5II/RF 200-800 mm combo be pushed to at 800 mm?