RustyBug wrote:
Where IBIS comes into play is the ability to skip the tripod in a lot of scenarios ... but, true long exposure, IBIS doesn't do anything for ya.
Rusty this is not to you but in general here on these GFX Q4 threads.
I keep wanting to bow out of this IBIS discussion because I get accused of repeating myself. Honestly, there is zero I can learn from any of you about IBIS or IBIS in combination with OIS in GFX shooting for my work. I already know everything I need to know about it and some of you are so far off base here that I think you are actually deluding yourselves.
But there might be something you can learn from me, because I shot the 50 s and r for a long time before IBIS came to GFX, and I know how to struggle and get by without it (monopod, or higher ISO that you really want or wider aperture than you might really want). Been there. Dome that. Repeatedly and for far too long.
Now in 2025? I take stabilization as a given and I have experimented with IBIS and IBIS + OIS since the day the first GFX 100 hit the street and 14 GF lenses....
But I keep reading these observations that are just not accurate or nowhere near the full story on MF IBIS with GFX or Hassy cameras.
IBIS is not just about tripod avoidance. It provides much more stability and cleaner crisp viewing at full res with no pixels blurred because of vibration or shake in a wide variety of situations when you would otherwise lose that res and crispness for sure - especially small details at full res - the thing GFX and Hassy are famous for with this sensor.
IBIS is great even at normal shooting speeds way past 1/125 depending on the focal length and situation. If I'm shooting the 100-200 at 200 or the 250 you better bet that you would need 1/5x speed (maybe even faster and wide open) if you were foolish enough to turn off the OIS switch. And these supposed speed limits for needing IBIS with the normal 35-70 range I keep reading here on these threads are wrong and I hope new GFX shooters are not learning from them.
And it also depends on what you mean by long exposure. I can get absolute tripod-like stability at one-third second handheld at 20-28mm with the 20-35 in darker situations at F4 and ISO around 1000 or so (maybe 1600). That would be absolutely impossible without stabilization by a factor of 5.
I can get shots handheld that are absolutely clean and brilliant stability-wise at speeds and apertures that were literally an impossible dream prior to GFX IBIS. Getting IBIS literally revolutionized (and saved) MF digital photography and Fuji went 5 years backwards by leaving it (or OIS) off the GFX Q4.
If that absolute truth irritates some of you, so be it. Maybe it will sink in someday when you learn what I learned 5 years ago and have experienced every day since.
That doesn't mean you should not buy the camera or that you have to have IBIS. I shot for decades without it. And yes, there are ways to work around not having stability while shooting GFX. But there are shots you will not get handheld without it, and it will help immensely even in normal daylight shooting at base ISO.
I shouldn't have to be giving these lectures in 2025, especially since you are hard pressed to buy a camera in 2025 without stabilization (unless you buy the GFX Q4). 😁
OK - I repeated myself on some of that so forgive me. But so do you guys! And I bet somebody argues with these absolute facts I just laid out again, which means I will be back with another repetition of the reality which should help the Great Unwashed Masses out there that will be shooting GFX for the first time with the GFX Q4. . I'm kidding.... Sort of.
Mar 23, 2025 at 01:39 PM
Previous versions of Greg7579's message #16779021 « Fujifilm GFX100RF Discussion and Image Thread »
. I'm kidding.... Sort of.