Canon keeps improving their IS mechanism

Cannon released a new Image Stabilization mechanism today. Here's a quote from the press release.

"Canon Inc. announced today the development of Hybrid Image Stabilizer (IS), the world’s first* optical Image Stabilizer which compensates for both angular camera shake and shift camera shake. The technology will be incorporated in an interchangeable single lens reflex (SLR) camera lens planned for commercial release before the end of 2009."

So can anyone tell me the difference between angular and shift camera shake? I guess I'll just be happy to know that this new mechanism does image stabilization "better".

Comments

[Paul Grinzi]

John,

as I understand it, shift camera shake is when the camera moves side-to-side or up-down and the lens remains pointing forwards (ie shake in 2 dimensions), whereas angular camera shake is when the camera movement is around the axis of the lens (ie instead or pointing forward, the movement is of the lens' axis. I suppose the two could be compare to the 'tilt'(aka angular) and 'shift' movements of the lens of the same name.

Easier to demo than explain, but I assume this new system deals with shake in all three dimensions in a better way.

[Ron C]

A camera can shake several ways. These are "shift" movement along each axis (you might call this "lateral" movement although some might argue that that isn't strictly the correct term) and "angular" (rotational) movement on each axis. There are obviously 3 axes in 3 dimensions so camera shake can get a little bit complex.
Most camera stabilization systems compensate for left/right and up/down movement. Some can compensate for rotation on 1 axis, the optical axis, although shake there doesn't have to be on that axis but can have a component parallel to it. I don't know of any camera that can compensate for forward/backward shaking or rotational movement on the other 2 axes. You'll have to use a tripod!

[MR]

A camera can shake several ways. These are "shift" movement along each axis (you might call this "lateral" movement although some might argue that that isn't strictly the correct term) and "angular" (rotational) movement on each axis. There are obviously 3 axes in 3 dimensions so camera shake can get a little bit complex.
Most camera stabilization systems compensate for left/right and up/down movement. Some can compensate for rotation on 1 axis, the optical axis, although shake there doesn't have to be on that axis but can have a component parallel to it. I don't know of any camera that can compensate for forward/backward shaking or rotational movement on the other 2 axes. You'll have to use a tripod!