[sirmzereigMix]

My buddy is looking into buying a new camera, and he wants one with some form of image stabilization. I am trying to help him find one, and I notice that Panasonic cameras, some Canons, some Sony’s have IS in the form of a mechanical or some sort of solution that moves the lens around or something that compensates for shake. The Fujifilm cameras just boost the ISO to get a clearer picture. (All of these solutions are for indoor pictures w/o flash).

I was wondering which is better, and which P&S compact camera is the best out there with this type of feature?

[Fdhwzctl]

My buddy is looking into buying a new camera, and he wants one with some form of image stabilization. I am trying to help him find one, and I notice that Panasonic cameras, some Canons, some Sony’s have IS in the form of a mechanical or some sort of solution that moves the lens around or something that compensates for shake. The Fujifilm cameras just boost the ISO to get a clearer picture. (All of these solutions are for indoor pictures w/o flash).

I was wondering which is better, and which P&S compact camera is the best out there with this type of feature?

Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

"Boosting" ISO on a digital camera (increasing sensitivity) can add noise and make the shot appear over grainy - however the advantage is that you get better exposed shots in poor lighting and can keep the shutter speed fast to catch moving subjects.

IS simply allows a longer shutter speed by either over sampling the image or by physcially allowing the sensor to move has your hands wobble. However this only helps with shaky hands, not if your subject is moving, AFAIK.

[Boveosteors]

Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

"Boosting" ISO on a digital camera (increasing sensitivity) can add noise and make the shot appear over grainy - however the advantage is that you get better exposed shots in poor lighting and can keep the shutter speed fast to catch moving subjects.

IS simply allows a longer shutter speed by either over sampling the image or by physcially allowing the sensor to move has your hands wobble. However this only helps with shaky hands, not if your subject is moving, AFAIK.

Yup. thats correct. IS does nothing for a moving target - but is great on static targets. I can shoot down to 1/5 second consistenly with my Canon IS lens.

Also, I don't consider ISO boosting to be an image stabilisation "feature" - or at least not something that should be advertised as such. I mean, I can boost the ISO with my Canon cameras in order to get a faster shutter speed - but it degrades the image quality, as you get more noise at higher ISO.

The only things I consider to be image stabilisation are either lens with inbuilt image stabilisation technology, or certain makes of camera that have this technology build into the camera body itself. Boosting the ISO is something that any half-decent digital camera can do, and is nothing special.

[giDdfezP]

Yup. thats correct. IS does nothing for a moving target - but is great on static targets. I can shoot down to 1/5 second consistenly with my Canon IS lens.

Also, I don't consider ISO boosting to be an image stabilisation "feature" - or at least not something that should be advertised as such. I mean, I can boost the ISO with my Canon cameras in order to get a faster shutter speed - but it degrades the image quality, as you get more noise at higher ISO.

The only things I consider to be image stabilisation are either lens with inbuilt image stabilisation technology, or certain makes of camera that have this technology build into the camera body itself. Boosting the ISO is something that any half-decent digital camera can do, and is nothing special.

While you are correct that just about any digital camera lets you boost ISO, but not every digital camera looks nice with a boosted ISO. But what the OP is saying, is that he could get the Fuji, which has amazing ISO performance, instead of optical stabilization. I think that will work as well if not better.
Optical stabilization will basically allow you to use about 2-3stops slower shutter speed without getting motion blur. Using ISO400 instead of ISO100 will give you 3 stops more light gathering capability. ISO400 on the Fuji is very comparable to ISO100 on an IS panasonic/canon camera. Thus you can say that they are pretty equal in terms of low light shooting capability.

[Blotassefesek]

Friend has a Olympus Evolt-500, up to ISO 400 it's great, you put the "ISO BOOST" on, then crank the ISO to 1600 and it's VERY grainy. Great camera with kit lenses and low ISO, but the ISO BOOST is worthless, degrades the image quality way too much.

I played around with P&S Canon cameras that have IS and I think I would rather have IS in a camera/lens rather than one that can't have quality pictures with ISO Boost...

[kilibry]

While you are correct that just about any digital camera lets you boost ISO, but not every digital camera looks nice with a boosted ISO. But what the OP is saying, is that he could get the Fuji, which has amazing ISO performance, instead of optical stabilization. I think that will work as well if not better.
Optical stabilization will basically allow you to use about 2-3stops slower shutter speed without getting motion blur. Using ISO400 instead of ISO100 will give you 3 stops more light gathering capability. ISO400 on the Fuji is very comparable to ISO100 on an IS panasonic/canon camera. Thus you can say that they are pretty equal in terms of low light shooting capability.

I believe there is a Panasonic camera with ISO1600 and IS.

[kHy87gPC]

I believe there is a Panasonic camera with ISO1600 and IS.

Yeap, the FZ7 and FZ30 but these two camera have noise problem even at low iso . Anyways Fuji F30 is probably the best compact camera that has high iso. The iso3200 picture actually pretty good. Go here for some sample.

[samanthalueus]

Optical stabilization will basically allow you to use about 2-3stops slower shutter speed without getting motion blur. Using ISO400 instead of ISO100 will give you 3 stops more light gathering capability. ISO400 on the Fuji is very comparable to ISO100 on an IS panasonic/canon camera. Thus you can say that they are pretty equal in terms of low light shooting capability.

Maybe it's just the way I read you post, but f/stop is apeture, not shutter speed. IS does not affect the f/stop directly, although indirectly theoretically you can have several stops higher and lower the shutter speed as you say. I know its a bit picky, but it's an important distinction.

IMO, IS should be used in "free hand" situations in just less than optimum light when you don't want to sacrifice DOF. Tt should also be used when a flash is inappropriate or un-useable anyway.

Using more sensitive ISO settings can actually have creative uses even when not entirely necessary and should generally be used in low level light (like dusk) so you get even exposure. At least that is how I would apply the two technologies.

As for ISO quality, I 100% agree with you - the Fuji ISO settings are fairly incredible right up to 1600 - especially on the S9500.

[mplawssix]

Yeap, the FZ7 and FZ30 but these two camera have noise problem even at low iso . Anyways Fuji F30 is probably the best compact camera that has high iso. The iso3200 picture actually pretty good. Go here for some sample.

WOW impressive. The F30 at ISO800 looks as good as the FZ7/FZ30 at ISO50!!
That's WAAAYYY better than having optical IS.

Maybe it's just the way I read you post, but f/stop is apeture, not shutter speed. IS does not affect the f/stop directly, although indirectly theoretically you can have several stops higher and lower the shutter speed as you say. I know its a bit picky, but it's an important distinction.

IMO, IS should be used in "free hand" situations in just less than optimum light when you don't want to sacrifice DOF. Tt should also be used when a flash is inappropriate or un-useable anyway.

Using more sensitive ISO settings can actually have creative uses even when not entirely necessary and should generally be used in low level light (like dusk) so you get even exposure. At least that is how I would apply the two technologies.

As for ISO quality, I 100% agree with you - the Fuji ISO settings are fairly incredible right up to 1600 - especially on the S9500. Yes stops does refer to F/stops, but you can say it's equivalent to 3 stops, etc, as each stop means twice the light. So ISO50 to ISO100 is equivalent to 1 stop. Or 1/30 to 1/120 is equivalent to 2 stops. That's what I mean by stops.

[Anatolii]

I have being using a Fuji S5600 today which has the ISO boost thing to stop my hands buggering pictures.

It does work quite well to be honest but then i have nothing to compare it to.

[Noxassope]

I have being using a Fuji S5600 today which has the ISO boost thing to stop my hands buggering pictures.

It does work quite well to be honest but then i have nothing to compare it to.

If you want to shoot without flash, freehand, depending on the zoom, you should have a shutter speed around between 1/60 and 1/125

If it drops below 1/60 on a wide angle or 1/125 on a telephoto shot, increase the ISO 1 stop.

That's a very general rule, depending on how steady your hands are, if you're tracking an object or not etc etc.

[lopushok]

If you want to shoot without flash, freehand, depending on the zoom, you should have a shutter speed around between 1/60 and 1/125

If it drops below 1/60 on a wide angle or 1/125 on a telephoto shot, increase the ISO 1 stop.

That's a very general rule, depending on how steady your hands are, if you're tracking an object or not etc etc.

[yes]

That's just what i was about to say. I pressed the button and then all that happened.

If i have got any of that right i think;

Im guessing shutter speed is a menu option somewhere and "increase the ISO 1 stop" means up it from 64 to 100 or so on.

[help]

[VioletttaJosetta]

[yes]

That's just what i was about to say. I pressed the button and then all that happened.

If i have got any of that right i think;

Im guessing shutter speed is a menu option somewhere and "increase the ISO 1 stop" means up it from 64 to 100 or so on.

[help]

Instead of picking a higher ISO to increase the shutter speed (which will add to noise), an alternative (on camera that have this function) is to adjust to a higher (lower number) F.stop. This will reduce the amount of the scene thats in focus, but will give a higher shutter speed.

On DSLR's (or compact cameras that allow an F.stop adjustment) - you basically have a triangle to think about - which is F.stop, ISO and shutter speed.

[wrenjmerg]

Instead of picking a higher ISO to increase the shutter speed (which will add to noise), an alternative (on camera that have this function) is to adjust to a higher (lower number) F.stop. This will reduce the amount of the scene thats in focus, but will give a higher shutter speed.

On DSLR's (or compact cameras that allow an F.stop adjustment) - you basically have a triangle to think about - which is F.stop, ISO and shutter speed.

Absolutely, yes. What I said firstly assumes you either are at the maximum end of your apeture width (f/2.8 on the fuji) or you really don't want to sacrifice DOF at all.

On the Fuji, ISO 64 is the most sensitive. ISO 100 is about 2/3 stop increase (unique to the fuji) then 200/400 etc. For f/stop control as Chris suggests (which I agree is better in most cases) sinply set the camera to Apeture Priority (which is "A" on the Fuji) and use the arrow keys to adjust the f/stop. On wide angle the minimum f/stop is f/2.8 and on full telephoto this is f/3.1). The display will also show you the camera's selected shutter speed at this ISO. Also if you have point exposure control, make sure you point the camera at what you want it to expose for and engage exposure lock - all very possible on you camera.

As a point of note, the fuji deals with noise quite well - it's all a question of what you want to achieve.

IMO, understanding shutter speed, apeture and ISO is the 1st step to getting pictures looking the way you really want them to. If you allow the camera to make these decisions for you, it will adjust each itself but you could end up with a noisy image or one that lacks DOF when that is not what you wanted to achieve.

Anyway - welcome to photography...

[chechokancho]

Instead of picking a higher ISO to increase the shutter speed (which will add to noise), an alternative (on camera that have this function) is to adjust to a higher (lower number) F.stop. This will reduce the amount of the scene thats in focus, but will give a higher shutter speed.

On DSLR's (or compact cameras that allow an F.stop adjustment) - you basically have a triangle to think about - which is F.stop, ISO and shutter speed. You also will need to take into consideration when figured your depth of field (what ends up being in focus in your shot) the size of the imaging sensor. A crop factor is also basically a depth of field factor.... the smaller the sensor the less control you will have to limit your depth of field. This however can turn to the photographers advantage when using a pro-sumer/small sensor camera model by allowing them to shoot wide open or close to (low numerical F value) and still have much greater depth of field range compared to a camera with a larger sensor.

A 1/2.5" sensor (common in most moder point@shoots/prosumers of 6mpixels or less atm) has a diagonal measurement of 7.182mm's while the smallest dslr sensor, the sensor used in all 4 Olympus and the Panasonic bodies measures in at 22.5mm for the diagonal. This would mean that a camera model using a 1/2.5" sensor would have a little over 3 times the depth of field when dirrectly compared at the same f-stop value. Now thats just a 4/3" sensor which is also 1/4 the size of a full frame sensor (36mm x 24mm).

This is also why almost every consumer/prosumer camera only offers a highest numerical f-stop of F8. This F8 value would be just above F24 on an 4/3" camera system when calculating comparable depth of field... or just over F48 on a full 35mm frame sensor (36mm x 24mm) camera.

Looking at it in another way a shot taken at say F2.7 on a Canon S3 would have about the same DOF as an F8 shot taken on an Olympus or Panasonic DSLR, or an F16 ( ! ) shot taken with any of the full 35mm frame (36mm x 24mm) sensor bodied cameras.