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Vivo V21 targets selfie-shooters and vloggers with optically stabilised 44-megapixel selfie camera

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VIVO has announced their new V21 series smartphones, two of which (the V21 and V21 5G) feature probably the best selfie camera out there today. It’s an optically stabilised 44-megapixel front camera with an f/2.0 aperture. OIS isn’t new to selfie cameras on smartphones, but it’s the first time we’ve seen it pop up on a front camera for a long time – if we’re not counting the back-to-front flippy camera of the ASUS ZenFone 6. Which we’re not, really.

The camera resides in a little notch at the top of the screen and has two LEDs embedded to act as a flash in dimmer conditions. Unlike many other front-cameras on smartphones, even flagship smartphones, this selfie camera also has real autofocus.

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Fuji recommends to keep OIS turned on even with a tripod for XF 16-80mm f/4 and XF 200mm f/2 lenses

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It’s been a pretty common thing since the early days of Nikon’s VR and  Canon’s IS, that you turn stabilisation off in lenses when using a tripod. As technology has progressed, turning off the stabilisation hasn’t been important. Fuji, though, has long said that IBIS should be turned off in cameras when shooting on a tripod, nothing has really been said about their lenses. At least, not until now.

The folks at Fuji Rumors spotted in the manuals for the Fujinon XF 16-80mm f/4 and Fujinon XF 200mm f/2 lenses that users are specifically advised to keep stabilisation turned on all the time, even when using a tripod.

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What’s the slowest shutter-speed you can shoot hand held?

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Back in 2018, I wrote an article that said that ‘Tripods are not just for landscape photographers, they can be useful tools for all photographers.‘ and I still stand by that.

The other week I was invited over to the UK to help Sigma with a photography event. I was doing a short talk and demo about portrait photography. The question about kit came up and I was asked: “what is the most important bit of kit you carry?” During my answer, I mentioned tripods. This caught a few people off guard. I went on to explain why. I can not remember word for word what I said in London as it was a busy day with lots going on, but this paraphrased quote from the article sums up my thoughts well.

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Canon patents new triple hybrid image stabilisation system for shooting low-light video

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Canon saw a lot of backlash from consumers after it announced the new EOS R and EOS RP mirrorless cameras. Why? Well. amongst other reasons, because they didn’t have any kind of in-body image stabilisation. While Canon has many IS lenses for the EF mount, which are compatible with their mirrorless cameras through the use of an adapter, this just wasn’t enough.

Next came the announcement that future Canon RF mount bodies would have IS, but now it looks like they’re going a little overboard. A new patent published last week shows that Canon isn’t happy with the standard dual-hybrid stabilisation most systems use. Oh no, they’re developing a triple stabilisation system.

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Patent shows Canon’s EOS R stabilisation will be an in-body and in-lens hybrid system

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One notable absence from Canon’s EOS R and EOS RP cameras is any form of in-body image stabilisation. Canon has said they wanted to bring it but didn’t feel it was quite ready, and that it would simply appear when it was. Now a new Japanese patent application (2019-087937) suggests that it is, and offers some clues as to how it works.

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New patent shows how Canon is improving lens stabilisation to reduce image noise

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Well, this is interesting. I knew that most optical image stabilisation systems in lenses used electromagnetic fields in order to try and keep the elements steady. But what I hadn’t considered was how these fields might affect noise on the sensor and in the images. As it turns out, it affects them enough to warrant Canon developing a new system to help reduce it.

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Google’s Pixel 2 combines optical and electronic image stabilisation for rock steady video

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Optical image stabilisation is in high demand on new smartphones today. It beats the heck out of electronic image stabilisation. Google’s new Pixel 2 smartphone, however, features both.

As well as receiving DxOMark’s highest score ever for a smartphone, it appears the Pixel 2’s image quality won’t be wasted by jerky footage. When working in tandem, they produce ridiculously smooth footage, if this sample posted by Google is anything to go by.

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