I’ve never been a staunch advocate of In Body Image Stabilization (IBIS). For the 25+ years that I’ve been creating photographs, only in the last four or five years have I even owned a camera with IBIS, and it has had only a minimal effect on my photography. So I’ve had a take it or leave it attitude towards it—nice to have sometimes, but far from essential. Nowadays, most of my cameras have built-in stabilization, including my X-E5, X-T5, X100VI, GFX100S II, X-T4 ES, Ricoh GR IV, and more. I still have many without IBIS, including an X-E4, X-T30, X100V, and some others. Yes, I own way too many cameras.
For the most part, the inclusion or exclusion of stabilization hasn’t had any significant impact on my photography. I’m not much of a videographer; if I were, I’d want IBIS—in fact, my wife is a videographer, and IBIS is essential for her. With that said, I know of several people who have done amazing video work on non-stabilized cameras. If I used long telephoto lenses, I’d want IBIS. I used to own the Fujinon 100-400mm, but I rarely used it, so I sold it—for that lens, IBIS can be helpful. The longer the lens, the more camera shake is exaggerated, and the more important IBIS is for handheld photography; the wider the lens, the less you need the camera to be stabilized.
The picture above is nothing special, but, at 1/3 second, I do believe it is the longest I’ve successfully handheld a non-IBIS camera. The leaf shutter in the X100V certainly helped, but mostly I just utilized good techniques, including bracing myself and slowly exhaling as I lightly pressed the shutter release button, which was set on a two-second self-timer. It took several tries to get one sharp result. It was more work than that particular picture was worth, but it does demonstrate that the lack of IBIS isn’t necessarily a major deal.
Aside from that, I could always carry a tripod with me. Even a monopod will potentially offer the stabilization necessary for slow shutter speeds, but a tripod ensures the camera is perfectly still and I’ll get a sharp picture. Before I had cameras with IBIS, I would usually use a tripod for any shutter speed as long as or longer than half the reciprocal focal length of the lens. For example, with a 50mm lens, I can, with good techniques, get a sharp photo as slow as 1/30; anything slower than that needs a tripod. Even in that example, using 1/30th shutter speed with the 50mm lens is definitely pushing the envelope of what I can do, and it might depend on how much coffee I’ve had that day. If the lens is wider, the shutter speed can be slower. For a 12mm lens, 1/8 might not need a tripod, but 1/6 probably does.
I hate carrying tripods. Especially when traveling, or if I have to hike somewhere, the last thing I want is a tripod. When I was younger, carrying a tripod was less of a big deal (and I’m sure they were heavier back then, too), but now that I’m in my mid-40’s, it’s annoying, and I’d rather avoid it. That’s where IBIS comes in handy. I can go slower and not think twice about it. I don’t have to utilize crazy techniques. I can leave the tripod at home, and just enjoy photography—the camera will take care of my shakiness.
So even though I’m not a big IBIS advocate, and it’s still a feature that 99% of the time I see as nonessential for me, it can certainly be quite handy. It was definitely nice to have on my recent trip to The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where I utilized it a number of times for flowing streams and waterfall pictures. I don’t think that every camera needs to have IBIS; however, when I’m packing my camera bag for an adventure, if I think I might be shooting in low-light situations or want a slow shutter speed for effect, you better believe that at least one of my bodies will be stabilized. Having at least one camera with IBIS is good to have.
This post….you argued and derided a bunch of us a while back for pointing out that IBIS was very important for a variety of reasons, ranging from the ones you mention here (tripod, long shots, videography, etc) to ones you did not such as age and the increasing inability to hold your hands perfectly steady, disabilities, quicker reaction times to emerging situations, etc.
I’m glad it is now valuable since you personally found a use for it. I think it’s too bad you were so rude to others when they tried to kindly explain to you why it was useful and important to them a couple years ago.
Long time, no see.
I went back and reread every comment that you wrote and any response that I had to them. I don’t think we talked about IBIS even once. I found comments about other things (classic dials vs pasm, for example). Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe we ever had a discussion about this particular topic.
I have said many times in the past that IBIS is not essential for most photographers and situations. Videographers is another story, and that’s not a new revelation, I’ve been saying that for years. For still photography, IBIS is nice to have sometimes but its benefit is often overstated for the majority of people (there are always exceptions). I wrote an article about this when the GFX100RF was announced (but you didn’t comment on that… it’s been three years since your last comment). Prior to the X100VI release, I discussed why I would have preferred IBIS not to be included on that model. Anyway, IBIS hasn’t existed for most of photography, and people managed without it just fine. Sometimes, though, it is a nice feature to have, and I’m glad that I have at least one camera (many now, actually) with IBIS for those occasional (but still rare) instances when it helps me (like in the Great Smoky Mountains). I do get frustrated when people insist that a camera must have it or else it’s garbage, because there are benefits for excluding IBIS: size, weight, price, and battery life. There are pluses and minuses for everything. There are reasons why I like my X-E5 more than my X-E4, and reasons why I like my X-E4 more than my X-E5. I’m getting off track here….
There were some trolls around a couple of years ago, and I may have been “rude” to them (although I would definitely reject the premise that they were “kindly”). I’m not sure if that’s what you are referring to or not. Either way, welcome back. We’re all still learning and (hopefully) growing, certainly myself included in that. It sounds like I offended you at some point, and for that I’m sorry. That’s part of the business of expressing one’s opinion: they’re bound to offend someone.
I guess I would also like further clarification of who “us” is since you and I never had that conversation. Are you including yourself in a group you were never a part of? Or is this an admission to using multiple pseudonyms? Or what else could you mean by that?
My job involves taking detailed shots of aircraft controls and mechanicals. There is often no space for a tripod or monopod. This also means it is hard to add light and the shots can not have any glare (no flash). IBIS has always been helpful for me. Early this year I bought the XS20 and a lens with stabilization built into it. The difference it has made is incredible. There have been very few photos I needed to retake because of blur from the camera moving during the shot.
IBIS is especially helpful to some photographers, no doubt about it.
Makes the camera better overall. I did not need keyless entry on my car but in the winter when I have several layers on and my keys happen to be 1 or 2 layers in and I have things in my hand, it;s handy. Right now I need AI to fix what just wrote so it;s cohesive. It was so much better when we lived in caves. No taxes, that is life 🙂
Well, I generally agree. I think a big difference is that keyless entry doesn’t change much the size, weight, cost, and fuel efficiency to the car (probably increases the costs just a hair). If keyless entry made the car 2% larger, 5% heavier, 10% more expensive, and 7% less gas milage, there would probably be a lot less vehicles with it, and a lot more people would be perfectly ok with that. Perhaps that is a better understanding.
If a camera maker in 2025 doesn’t want to include IBIS on certain models to minimize size, weight, price, and battery exhaustion, that’s a very fair thing for them to do. Since there are real tradeoffs, having some models with IBIS (for those who want/need it) and some without IBIS (for those that don’t prioritize it) makes a lot of sense. It doesn’t need to be a standard feature on every camera.