Digital Camera World - UK (2020-04)

CAMERA COLLEGE

How in-body stabilisation works

What does ‘five-axis’ stabilisation actually mean, and what are the advantages and disadvantages?

Pros and cons

In a camera with IBIS, the sensor

‘floats’, with electromagnets

being used to adjust its position

when vibrations are detected. Sony,

Panasonic and Olympus have been at

the forefront of IBIS development, but

Nikon and Canon have traditionally

used lens-based stabilisation; after all,

in the days of film it was more practical

to move a group of lens elements than

move a roll of 35mm in the camera.

Canon’s new EOS R5 and Nikon’s Z

cameras do feature IBIS, though.

High-end IBIS systems offer

what’s known as five-axis stabilisation,

meaning they can correct for vibrations

in five directions: vertical and horizontal

shifts, and pitch, yaw and roll. Some

cameras can only achieve this with the

help of specific lenses. For example,

the Nikon Z 6 offers five-axis in-camera

Vibration Reduction (VR) with all Nikon

Z-mount lenses along with F-mount

lenses that are equipped with VR,

but only supports three-axis VR for

F-mount lenses that don’t have

built-in stabilisation.

3. Roll


4. Yaw


5. Pitch

VR inside: The Nikon Z 6’s ‘floating’ sensor

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