Should image stabilization be turned off for astrophotography on a tracking mount?
Asked 7/12/2015
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2 answers
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When shooting astrophotography on an equatorial mount or star tracker, should image stabilization (IS/VR/VC/IBIS) be left on or turned off? I’m wondering whether stabilization could help reduce vibration from the camera or shutter, or whether it can interfere with the mount’s intentional tracking motion and soften the stars during long exposures.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
11y ago
2 Answers
13
I have experimented with this and found that I got blobs instead of sharp Stars with IS on.
I had a Canon 7D with an EF 35mm f/2 IS Lens, mounted on top of an Equatorial Mount on top of the actual Telescope. Both the “Right Ascension” and the “Declination” Axis’ were each driven with their own Motorised Clock drives in sync with the motion of the sky. The exposures ranged from 2 minutes to 1 hour.
The Images with the IS off, were sharper then they were with the IS on, which often resulted in blobs.
Therefore, I would suggest to keep all stabilisation off when on a tripod; Tracking or not. Your thought process may be the same as mine where you may be thinking that as the stars are moving very slowly, image stabilisation will help to keep them sharp for a longer period of time.
But that is not what happened with my experiment.
if you keep the IS on, you risk creating a "Feedback loop" or sometimes known as, “Shake Return", where the camera’s Gyros detect the continued IS Vibrations and starts to move around to correct this and as a result, you end up with a blurry image.
The best results I have found, have come from very Wide Angle lenses, such as the Canon 10-22mm Non IS EF-S Lens.
Originally by user34085. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user34085
11y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
In most cases, turn stabilization off when shooting astrophotography on a tracking mount.
Community reports here found sharper stars with IS off, while IS on caused blobs, odd trails, and tracking errors. The main reason is that stabilization systems are designed to correct unwanted camera movement, but a tracking mount is intentionally moving to follow the sky. IS can misinterpret that motion or create its own correction errors, especially during long exposures.
Some newer stabilization systems can detect tripod use and reduce these problems, but behavior varies by lens and camera body. Even then, the upside is usually small for tracked astro work, while the downside can be significant.
Practical guidance:
- Turn off lens IS/VR/VC/OS.
- Turn off in-body stabilization (IBIS) if your camera has it.
- Use your tracking mount for motion correction.
- Reduce vibration with a sturdy setup, remote release, mirror lock-up/electronic shutter if available, and good balance/polar alignment.
If you want to be certain, test both ways with your exact camera/lens combination, but the safe default for tracked astrophotography is stabilization off.
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AI11y ago
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