odklizec
PK
As discussed in another thread, here is the CX4 IS test. Since Ricoh's announcement of the CX4, I was really curious about the improved image stabilization. Ricoh says new IS is capable of 3.7 shutter-speeds! Let's say the camera will measure the shutter speed 1/15. Enabled IS should give you an advantage as if the shutter would be around 1/200! I'm always skeptic about similar claims 
So here is a test I did today (actually, I did it yesterday, but I reworked it today)...
First batch of photos taken at 28mm:
Second batch of photos taken at 300mm:
Test conditions and conclusion:
I took 10 hand-held photos with each camera set to standard settings and with enabled IS. All 100% crops sorted from the most blurry on left, to the least blurry on right.
As you can see above, CX4 consistently shows lowest number of blurry shots both in 28mm and 300mm test. True, the difference is not dramatic in case of 28mm test. But there is a visible improvement in 300mm test. P10 seems does a bit better job than CX3 although both cameras (most probably) share the same IS system. I think it's higher GXR weight that makes the camera a bit better stabilized.
I'm not quite sure about Ricoh's claim about 3 times faster CX4 IS (if compared with CX3 IS). But the claim about overall 3.7 shutter speed advantage seems to be correct. A simple photographic rule says, that the shutter speed for hand-held photography should be at least 1 / effective focal length. In other words, for 300mm focal length you need at least 1/300 to be able to take sharp hand-held shots. This test proved that CX4 zoomed to 300mm is capable of taking sharp or nearly sharp photos even at 1/14 sec, which is, in my humble opinion, pretty impressive.
Now what would be great would be if Ricoh could make the IS silent or nearly silent and finally enable it for video! I think the humming sound produced by the IS mechanism is the reason why IS is not enabled in video recording mode, which is a shame I don't remember any humming sound produced by LX3 IS?
So here is a test I did today (actually, I did it yesterday, but I reworked it today)...First batch of photos taken at 28mm:
Second batch of photos taken at 300mm:
Test conditions and conclusion:
I took 10 hand-held photos with each camera set to standard settings and with enabled IS. All 100% crops sorted from the most blurry on left, to the least blurry on right.
As you can see above, CX4 consistently shows lowest number of blurry shots both in 28mm and 300mm test. True, the difference is not dramatic in case of 28mm test. But there is a visible improvement in 300mm test. P10 seems does a bit better job than CX3 although both cameras (most probably) share the same IS system. I think it's higher GXR weight that makes the camera a bit better stabilized.
I'm not quite sure about Ricoh's claim about 3 times faster CX4 IS (if compared with CX3 IS). But the claim about overall 3.7 shutter speed advantage seems to be correct. A simple photographic rule says, that the shutter speed for hand-held photography should be at least 1 / effective focal length. In other words, for 300mm focal length you need at least 1/300 to be able to take sharp hand-held shots. This test proved that CX4 zoomed to 300mm is capable of taking sharp or nearly sharp photos even at 1/14 sec, which is, in my humble opinion, pretty impressive.
Now what would be great would be if Ricoh could make the IS silent or nearly silent and finally enable it for video! I think the humming sound produced by the IS mechanism is the reason why IS is not enabled in video recording mode, which is a shame
I don't remember any humming sound produced by LX3 IS?
