Image Stabilisation
Olympus cameras are known for their amazing IBIS (In Body Image Stabilisation) since the OM-D/Pen series cameras I think it was which is when I first got to experience it back in late 2012 with the OM-D EM-5 and the 12-50mm lens.
This was an upgrade from the Olympus e-420 which had no IBIS relying on IS in lenses of which I never had any which itself was an upgrade from the Olympus C-770 Ultra Zoom (which I still have and still works with a whopping 4mp) and this time with no image stabilisation at all!
I now have the OM-D EM1 MKII which is amazing even though it's tech is already getting old with a release date of late 2016 and the stabilisation on this body is incredible allowing me to capture crisp images with very low shutter speeds (into the seconds if I'm careful) without the need of a tripod.
So since 2012 I've been using great IBIS and as a result almost never use a tripod for my photography until I get into the seconds territory and I'm just use to it, I feel that this enables me to get the photos I can when seconds count between a great photo and a good one when conditions change rapidly.
Over the weekend I was chasing some fantastic rain clouds and as usual didn't have a tripod with me as it would slow me down and there was plenty of light to keep shutter speeds above 1 second and with the IBIS I wouldn't see any camera shake.
After sunset, hand held 0.8 sec exposure with IBIS on
From what I can see the image above is one of the last photos I believe I captured handheld with a slow exposure that had IBIS turned on.
Back to the rain clouds over the weekend, as I was saying I headed out with no tripod to get some weather photos with no worries about camera shake thanks to the IBIS. All was going well and the quick review of images on the camera whilst out getting photos looked good.
Capture looks ok when viewed small, try viewing larger and look at the details especially in the corners.
When I was reviewing at the photos in Lightroom there was a common theme, the edges and most of the middle areas of most photos were not that sharp and I was thinking how can this newer camera, the EM-1 MKII be taking worse photos than my old EM-5.
It's now that it hit me, check the IBIS settings!, and guess what, they were off! Not sure how I did this or for how long it was off (I did show someone the camera and a lot of settings were changed, this could have been one of them and I never noticed), could be longer than the railway image above and I've just not taken a photo with a slow enough shutter to experience this.
Anyway so I turned it back on then took a photo of the room I'm in at night with lights on with a slow shutter speed (less than 1/5 sec) and perfect all good again!
OM-D EM1 MKII with 7-14mm 2.8 Pro used for photos above and my mostly used combo.