[nicholasbelluk]

Hi there,

I'm new to the Pentax line and the whole in-body shake reduction thing, so I was just wondering:

Is the SR turned off when you start filming, or does it affect video and make it jerky when you're panning?

Thanks!

[Adam]

You can turn it on and off via the menu. On the k5 and k7 it's mechanical, other cameras just have electronic stabilization.

[nicholasbelluk]

Awesome. Thanks!

[Ayoh]

You can turn it on and off via the menu. On the k5 and k7 it's mechanical, other cameras just have electronic stabilization.

Also on the k5 and k7 it works well, on the other cameras it does not and is borderline useless. Better turn it off on the K3.

[Adam]

Also on the k5 and k7 it works well, on the other cameras it does not and is borderline useless. Better turn it off on the K3.

You can't beat a stabilized lenses for video! And even that can't beat a fixed camera on a tripod

[TomGarn]

Sorry to say, but this is the sad truth about mechanical sensor SR in K-7 as well I guess in K-5 and K-5II
You can use the old SR for photos very well .... but for videos you may use it only with ugly side-effects
that will rather tell you to put it off - mostly.

If you do an interview or just a steady shot you may use SR to reduce your physical micro-shakings.
But as soon as you move the camera in a panning way the SR cannot controle the movement anymore
Only if you do very, very soft movements the sensor SR can eventually be used while panning - if you do care.

And it is logical when you really think about it: The sensor moves into the opposite direction to neutralize
the loss of tranquility - out of the balanced target - when you move away and pan somewhere else. The sensor
is drawn to the limits / to the farest corner ...
When you stop your pan - the SR now has to return to it's usual central position - but this looks very ugly and
cannot be used. You can only cut off this last counter-movement - if you dare - but mostly this is only possible in
quick cuts for modern and dramatic scenes, etc.

When you try to do smooth and calm impressions the SR cannot be used successfully unless you just do direct
and still shots only ... I admit this was a pain for me to realise and I do hope the modern Movie-SR does better,
which is added since the K-30 and K-01 ... The new K-3 got it too.
(But don't forget: Movie-SR got certain negative side-effects too)

I have done a test with active SR on my K-7
Part 1 - It can be used
Part 2 - shows what cannot be used at all.

You Tube

You Tube

[paranoia23]

if u slow down before you stop it is easy to avoid this "backdrop"

[TomGarn]

That will be some sort of a training
to develop the inner bounce-memory.
This Brainware-SR can be a hard one,
and you have to unlearn the ways how you
used to pan for all your life. But it may be possible
to somehow adapt to the timing of the returning sensor,
and merrily merrily row row your boat ~ gently down the stream ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[kenyee]

Wow...that really doesn't look too useful from that video. When you stop, the SR moves the sensor so it jumps back.

[TomGarn]

Wow...that really doesn't look too useful from that video.
When you stop, the SR moves the sensor so it jumps back.

Yes, you took the time and awareness to watch that closely now ...

I wondered ... but the others may have called that "Yello" sometimes ?
But rarely I heard them describe it the way I saw it on my K-7.
Maybe because usually people who want to do some peaceful landscape
videoshooting will use a tripod anyway - then of course they do turn off the SR.

And in moving freely in a documentary way, they can't see this sensor-roll-back
while panning because shooting freehanded with SR on - they just can't separate
their own moving shakyness ... from what the SR is badly doing to the picture ... ?

Even while watching my video here, very few cared for this effect, maybe only K-7
got this problem ... and K-5 and K-5II don't share that so badly ... ?

[kadajawi]

It is not jello. Jello is when the lower part of the video moves seperately from the upper part... The upper part remains stable, the lower wobbles around.

The pan back can be noticed sometimes in my video, and sometimes not. I think it is worst when you try to do a pan on a tripod. Then turn it off. But when I walk and pan and move around it really is rarely noticable. And that is without trying to avoid it! Maybe Pentax already improved their algorithms with the K-5?

Also, Pentax could easily fix it by letting the camera detect pans and act accordingly in those cases, like trying to keep the sensor centered in that axis, adjusting only for jerky speed differences, and within limits. As soon as you stop the sensor won't have to move back. Or it could correct everything, but stop when you stop, without going back. Then of course there isn't much movement left to one side... But the videographer could easily move back a bit then. Perhaps a small overlay on the screen would be good to show where the sensor is and what the boundaries are.

In any case, for me the panning thing is a minor issue that should be present and the same in any other form of SR, if it is not, that is because they have a different algorithm to stabilize... and those algorithms may be applied to mechanical SR as well.

Also, the K-5 stabilization works well enough to at least compete with a shoulder mount rig when walking, probably better than that, if you don't run you can get almost glidecam'ish footage with some practise. At least something you can send through the warp stabilizer without making it look bad.

[paranoia23]

"jello" means shaking and wobbeling effects... mostly visible in the corners.

[TomGarn]

SR again ?
It worked quite well. But of course SR on tripod usually is not a good idea !

I tried this small report on a new crossroad done with a badly shown left-turning.
I put my K-7 with SR on my old tripod to release the shakings of my car. I put a
polarising filter on my Tamron to filter those few reflections - and also the days
are very grey too overhere right now - so you can see the ISO noise come in ...

You Tube

You Tube

[paranoia23]

try that with the software SR

[lister6520]

I have succesfully used mechanical SR on the K-r with an 800mm cat lens hand held. It helps even on a tripod as even a good tripod in anything more than a light breeze will vibrate enough to show up at 800mm. The SR does a great job of eliminating those vibrations almost entirely.

I cannot say the same for new 'movie-SR' though - it seems to stabilise some parts of the image while at the same time making other parts vibrate more. Apart from that, even the stabilised portion of the image goes very soft as soon as there are vibrations to compensate for. Its like the movement is transoformed into softness instead of being eliminated.

The K-3 movie-SR is also weird in that instead of compensating for camera movement it compensates for movements within the image. It would 'think' that it is locking in on the background (and hence would be compensating for camera movements) but it often gets it wrong and instead locks onto something that is moving with very ugly results.

I did a 'scientific' test of this - you can see it at the 12th post in this thread:
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/172-pentax-k-3/243661-first-k-3-videos-tonight.html



I don't use video a lot but the few times I do is usually with a very long focal length, and more often than not handheld. Unfortunately in such situations the K-3 is almost useless but fortunately I kept the K-r and that saves the day if I know beforehand that I will be needing it.