If you drink coffee like it’s your lifeblood, then you’re probably a jittery photographer. So when the Fujifilm XH2 and the Fujifilm XH2s were announced, you were perhaps elated about the image stabilization. In the past few years, lots of photographers and YouTubers have picked up cameras for the first time. Unfortunately, they don’t know much about stabilizing their cameras, so they rely on the technology inside of them. But what’s also very important is how much image stabilization there is. In meetings, the company claimed seven stops of IBIS–in-body image stabilization. But they omitted a key detail.
So, what’s the scoop? Well, we’ve tried for weeks to get Fujifilm to answer questions about what lenses receive the full benefits of seven stops of image stabilization. However, Fujifilm stated they no longer publish this information for each lens. That’s pretty disturbing. Canon has been transparent about what lenses would receive up to eight stops of image stabilization before. And other companies have been transparent too.
Nothing annoys me more than when a company doesn’t explain something that’s critical to its usage. Unfortunately, Japanese camera manufacturers do this a lot, along with various smoke and mirror tactics. I mean, how do companies say there a product offers weather resistance and then not cover it in their warranty?
Here’s what we can do to help. Long-time readers know we’ve reviewed nearly every Fujifilm X mount lens. And we’ve compiled those into this handy guide for you to check out. We’re going to go through the lenses that we think are receiving up to seven stops of IBIS and the ones that we don’t think are.
What We Think Could Receive 7 Stops of IBIS
The following lenses are the ones we think might be getting the full boost. The reason for this has to do with their focal lengths or the fact that they’ve got image stabilization built into them.
If you’re interested in purchasing one of these lenses, you can find them here. We may receive a commission payment as a result.
- Fujifilm 14mm f2.8 (I mean, come on, it’s so wide.)
- Tamron 18-300mm VC (It’s got its own vibration control built in.)
- Fujifilm 80mm f2.8 OIS (This has optical image stabilization built in.)
- Fujifilm 200mm f2 OIS (This has optical image stabilization built in, but even that’s a big ask since the slowest equivalent shutter speed you should shoot it at is 1/300th, considering the reciprocal rule of shutter speeds.)
- 18-55mm f2.8-4 OIS (This has optical image stabilization built-in.)
- 18-135mm OIS (This has optical image stabilization built-in.)
- 50-140mm f2.8 OIS (This has optical image stabilization built-in.)
- 55-200mm OIS (This has optical image stabilization built-in.)
- 70-300mm OIS (This has optical image stabilization built-in.)
- 100-400mm OIS (This has optical image stabilization built-in.)
- 150-600mm OIS (This has optical image stabilization built-in.)
- 18-120mm f4 OIS (This has optical image stabilization built-in.)
Remember, this is just our prediction. We’re not going around and doing some crazy lab tests; you can rely on other websites for that. What we’re doing here is guessing. When shooting street photography with the XH2, it’s possible to get camera shake in certain instances. I’m an experienced photographer, and can hold a camera more steadily than other testers we’ve had on the site. The Phoblographer’s current Reviews Team is required to handhold a camera for a few seconds and get a blur-free shot. So again, we’ve got experience with this.
Why is this worth writing an article about? Because brands should be transparent and hold themselves to the claims they make. If a politician openly says they’ll support a bill that will bring a lot of funding to your neighborhood but then votes against it, I’d want to hold them accountable. If Google says your incognito windows aren’t being looked at by them and lie about it, I’d want to hold them accountable. If someone claims to sell you Wagyu beef, but it’s just USDA Grade A, shouldn’t they be held accountable?
Photography may be your hobby, and the companies that cater to passionate photographers should be held to their claims. If photography is your job, they it’s even more crucial they should be held to their claims.
