Shake Reduction Switched Off When Panning

An article in a magazine that I was reading recently suggested that Pentax owners should switch the SR off when panning as "it will often try to correct your intentional sideways movement."

I hadn't thought of this - has anyone else got any opinions as to whether this advice should be followed?

Rob

Generally speaking, any image stabilisation system should be switched off if you are photograping a moving subject.

SR/IS/VR and all the other names for it, are there to counteract camera movement, and can do nothing to stop subject movement.

There are some systems that claim to be able to detect the panning motion and therefore only counteract the up/down/forward/backward movement (eg Nikon's in lens VR system has two modes, active and normal) but I can't say I've noticed much of a difference between them.

Practice panning and get your shutter speed as high as possible!

A friend of mine has a Canon 50D and he has the 2 panning modes as you describe, I'm waiting to see some results.

I would still consider using SR when using a slower shutter speed such as 1/350 or 1/125 for prop blur for example.

I don't think the SR system has 'modes' though?

The scenario you describe will not be helped by having SR on, only an appropriately slow shutter speed and good panning technique will get what you are after.

I spend a lot of time photographing aircraft in Wales, and everybody without exception has VR/IS/SR turned off when panning the aircraft.

Only the shutter speed is varied depending on whether it's a prop or jet aircraft.