Canon 300 f4L IS, ISO 640, f4 @ 1/160There’s not a lot of light but there’s even less subjects to shoot. So the squirrels are getting fat on the seeds and nuts…

Under these lighting conditions, I have to contend with long shutter speeds despite a high ISO. The 300mm lens has Image Stabilisation (IS) and I make use of it, hoping that it will compensate for the slow shutters. I’m using a beanbag but sometimes it feels like I’m making the rig shake just by holding my finger on the trigger. Thus, use IS. There’s just one problem. For those of you not familiar with Canon’s IS technique, it was introduced in 1995. The 300mm f4L lens that I’m using was one of the first ones to benefit from it, but since then Canon has of course refined the technology and these days it’s a lot smarter and quieter than it used to be. For example, my 24-105mm f4L has IS which can be left on even when it’s mounted on a tripod, because the IS mechanism can detect it and it won’t try to stabilise when the rig is steady as it is. And there’s my problem. The old IS in the 300mm is pretty dumb so it will work hard – even when the rig is steadied on a beanbag and held down by hand…!

This is where you tell me that I should’ve known better. I could’ve gotten sharper squirrel images all along by trusting my beanbag and hands and switching off the IS.

Luckily it’s not like the old squirrel images are completely ruined, I mean do have some standards and the shaky pictures can only end up in the bin. But compare the old IS images with these new non-IS images I took today… DUH!