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Topic: question on IS motor (Read 6291 times)
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emanresu
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After I got myself a 70-300mm IS USM lens, I started to question about the IS motor on my kit lens. The IS on the 70-300 is very powerful, which feels almost like a gyroscope spinning inside. But on the Rebel kit len (18-55mm), I never could tell if the IS is working or not because I never hear any noise from the IS. Is the IS on the kit lens supposed to make any sound? Thanks.
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Bob Atkins
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There are several different IS systems, some are louder than others. If your kit lens is IS (i.e. it says IS on the lens) you should be be able to tell if it's working by the fact that it does stabilize the image. This will be a lot more visible at 55mm than 18mm. If you put your ear to the lens you'll probably be able to hear it.
There are non IS versions of the kit lens of course. They don't say "IS" on them!
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emanresu
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Hi Bob, my kit lens has the IS switch on it, so I am 100% sure it is an IS kit lens. It is dead quiet, and I don't feel any whirling. With the 70-300, even if I don't hear the motor noise, I can feel it kicking in with the hand holding the lens. Before I got the 70-300, I almost ridiculed articles that suggest to disable IS to save battery power. I will do some test shots with more care, but what's the possibility of the IS motor being bad?
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Bob Atkins
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I have read some reports that suggest that the IS on the 18-55is is very quiet. if you don't quite know what you are listening for you may not recognize the noises it makes.
IS could be bad, but I suspect that it's just very quiet! The lastest versions use a new IS mechanism (introduced in August 2007) which is different in construction from that used in the 70-300 and uses lighter weight parts. It's also used in the EF-S 55-250.
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« Last Edit: April 03, 2010, 10:18:15 PM by Bob Atkins »
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emanresu
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You are right, Bob! It is indeed very quiet, but is certainly functioning. It took me a while to verify that. Made the mistake of taking pictures of small text indoor with a flash, but then even without IS it was quite sharp. Finally I went outside and the difference was very obvious.
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