I just have to not forget to turn on and off! I'm sure I will.

Stephen,

We cover the start and end of the pan by not taking that camera live until its in steady motion and then cutting to the next (stationary cam) before the stopping the cam.

We do have problems with 'breathing' during zooms, but not really with pans. Stephan, maybe you can help me with this one. We use some slow zooms on a live cam to provide some movement to some really boring segments. We have more problem with 'breathing' when zooming out than when zooming in. Why?

Patrick,

I have seen this myself, usually when widening out the shot. My guess is, and it is a guess, the auto focus system is based on differences in contrast. It will assess what to place in focus on the most prominent area in view. As you're widening the shot you are introducing new information into the shot, so the lense will reevaluate the focus fields more often, or at least, with more options as the view becomes wider.

steve

I thought I'd add:

I don't know if anyone has seen the XL2 release footage, but in it there is a short of a helicopter's view of manhattan.

When we shot that, the helicopters outside camera steady cam was designed for heavier cameras, so would not work with the XL2. The DP locked the steadycam and shot the whole thing with in lense stabilizer.

steve

Steve,

As a helicopter pilot, if the XL2 lens OIS dampened out all the vibration from a helicopter, then its proved its capability. Vibrations and random lurches in a helicopter are the norm and not the exception. Once again I'm reminded that I own a camera with much more capability than I possess. I know its the other way around for some of you XL2 owners, but I'm continually amazed by the camera capabilities.

We just finished a documentary (60 minutes/PAL) in 25P (XL2 of course) - and I can actually confirm the "stuttering" effect concerning 25P and the image stabilization (OIS).

When the camera motion is very unsteady (handheld, walking) the following happens: small movements are evened out by the OIS, resulting in clean images with very little motion blur.

If the camera movement is too big, the OIS doesn't provide stabilization any more - suddenly you've got images with very strong motion blur. (we shot some scenes 25P with 1/25 shutter due to low light)

So in the end the overall image really does look kind of "stuttering" when uneven camera motion happens. (it doesn't flicker or anything - the strength of the motion blur is just in-/decreasing more sudden. Nevertheless, I still prefer to use the OIS even in these kinds of shots.)