I've noticed the last two nights while shooting at dark, I'm getting out of focus and ghosting images with longer shutter speeds. I did an indoor test and everything seemed sharp. Here's an image.


Any ideas? This was shot with a tripod and remote shutter release on asphalt.

You could try turning the IS off for long exposures - or buy a new tripod...

Were you using mirror lockup? Was the lens mounted or the body? Was there any wind? Is your IS turned off?

My first guess would be camera movement of some sort.

I tend to think that your ghosting issue comes from the IS.

I have a rather sturdy tripod, and no, the IS was not off, but the manual says this IS can be used with a tripod. The lens was mounted, with a collar plate. I was not using mirror lock up as I ahve seen no real difference when using it before. No wind.

I'm wondering if something has failed in the lens that could be making it ghost like that when IS is on used on a tripod? I'll take more tomorrow night with IS off.

I don't think that your lens is defective at all. When hand-holding and pressing the shutter button for a few seconds, sometimes you can see a lateral drifting caused by the IS system. This also happens on tripods. I remember that it was discussed here on the forums (question was whether the IS turned itself off when tripod mounted or something similar). I must add that it happens pretty often with older lenses like the 100-400 (with this lens you're supposed to switch IS off when tripod-mounted) but have also experienced a couple of times with newer lenses like the 70-200 f/4 IS.

I think you have to hold the shutter at half press position (using the remote) for long enough to give the IS chance to realise that it's on a tripod - maybe 1/2 to 1 second?

Tonight I tested the same scene at approximately the same range and focal length, and got identical results with IS on and off, except tonight there was no problem.

The example I used above was not in complete focus because the sample wasn't the focus point. Same thing tonight, which isn't a problem because we were looking at the ghosting.

The first image is the scene itself.





Last one is IS OFF

I'd say that with the older IS system, you'll get drifting pretty often but with newer systems like your 70-200 f/2.8, it should not be the rule. Actually, when the IS starts to drift, you can see it in the viewfinder.

Don't use IS with exposures longer than a second or so, or you'll get the problem you see due to drifting. IS isn't needed on multi-second exposures anyway.