If you get a lot of videos from your smartphone for personal use or for YouTube, Instagram, or Facebook, or if you are interested in making vlog videos, using Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) on your smartphone can greatly improve the quality of your videos.
What is OIS?
Optical image stabilization, as the name suggests, is used to stabilize images and produce less blurry images and smoother video.
How does OIS work?
Camera manufacturers use gyroscope systems that detect when there is movement inside the camera. Using a voice coil motor, the gyroscope responds to camera movement in the opposite direction.
So when the phone moves to the left, the gyroscope responds to that movement by moving the camera’s internal mechanical component to the right.
Without a gyroscope, OIS cannot function. The gyroscope collects all data about the position and orientation of the smartphone and then provides the information to the microcontroller.
The microcontroller then uses the gyroscope’s yaw, pitch, and roll data to determine how and in which direction the lens or sensor must move to nullify the camera’s movement, depending on the intensity of the movement.
Along with the gyro, a small electromagnet modifies the angle of the lens or sensor depending on the type of OIS system used.
OIS works by controlling the path of the picture to the image sensor through the lens. This is done by using a gyroscope-like sensor to find the camera’s movement and calculate how the lens should move to respond to vibrations.
In video recording, OIS adjusts the lens position to improve quality, producing less shaky video. If you often take photos and videos, the OIS feature will come in handy.
Types of Image Stabilization
There are three types of image stabilization currently available in smartphone cameras:
- Optical image stabilization
- Electronic image stabilization
- Artificial image stabilization.
Each of these image stabilization methods works differently and is tailored to a specific type of image.
OIS is an image stabilization system that enhances mobile photography by physically moving the lens module or image sensor to counteract slight camera movement to avoid blurry photos.
OIS is useful when you want to take pictures, but especially in low light. But OIS cannot work miracles. Optical image stabilization can only compensate for small camera movements, not large camera shakes.
I wrote this basic knowledge about OIS while referring to the best smartphones with optical image stabilization, which have been quite popular among mobile filmmaking enthusiasts.
Now let’s have a look at the optical image stabilization Smartphones of 2022.
List of best Smartphones with Optical Image Stabilization 2022
1. Sony Xperia 1 II 5G
Sony smartphones rarely impress with their megapixel count, but the camera offers many other highlights for photography enthusiasts. The company’s latest flagship, the Sony Xperia 1 II, confirms this idea. Developed in collaboration with Sony’s expert DLSR camera team, the phone features real-time autofocus and auto-exposure tracking, first introduced in the 2019 Sony Alpha 6400 camera.
The Sony Xperia 1 II continuously shifts the autofocus (AF) point and recalculates the exposure level up to 60 times per second for incredibly fast and accurate focus. Sony also perfected the AI algorithm. Eye AF tracking detects the subject’s eyes and maintains focus.
Optimized for wildlife photography, the company’s proprietary Real-Time Eye AF works great even when animals are moving fast. Needless to say, the Xperia 1 II has all the manual controls you’d expect from a professional camera.
The flagship’s main camera module consists of three Zeiss lenses and one 3D sensor.
Like most Android flagships released this year, the Xperia 1 II is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 processor combined with 8GB of RAM.
If you enjoy outdoor activities and want to take pictures, you can count on this waterproof device with an IP68 rating and Gorilla Glass 6 protection. Overall this sony’s phone is great for those who want an OIS phone.
2. Huawei Mate 20 Pro
Considering the large 6.39-inch screen, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro feels and looks like a true flagship device with a wealth of technology packed into a sleek and relatively compact smartphone.
The cameras are generally great, and there is an excellent ultra-wide camera with an impressive 2.5cm macro mode. The main camera is the best of the three and gives good results in a variety of situations.
As seen on the P20 Pro, the 3x telephoto camera can have a hard time focusing (especially when capturing video). Color saturation also changes frequently when switching between standard and telephoto cameras, but if the camera is adjusted correctly, the results can be very good.
If you look at the Huawei Mate 20 Pro as a state-of-the-art smartphone with a very good standard camera, plus ultra-wide-angle and 3x telephoto camera options as additional options, it is a very versatile smartphone.
However, if you expect the ultra-wide and telephoto cameras to be as good as the main ones, you’re likely to be disappointed.
For dedicated photographers, you can shoot in Pro mode and process raw files yourself to get better images. For everyone else, leaving the camera at its default settings and letting Master AI sort everything out will give you good results.
95% of people who buy this smartphone are very happy with the camera. If you are a picky or serious photographer, you may wish to be a little better.
Overall, the Huawei Mate 20 Pro is a true flagship smartphone with a sleek design, in-screen fingerprint reader, facial recognition, 3D scanning (coming soon), impressive battery life, and extremely good features.
Fast processor, plenty of storage space, and more. The three cameras offer a wide range of shooting possibilities and will impress the majority of people.
Camera features at a glance, Leica triple camera (rear), 20mp f/2.2 ultra-wide lens – 16mm equivalent, 20mp output, 40mp f/1.8 standard lens – 27mm equivalent, 10/40mp output, 8mp f/2.4 telephoto lens – 81mm Equivalent, 10mp Output, OIS, AI IS, 24mp f/2.0 Selfie Camera, Dual Tone LEF Flash, 4K Video, FullHD Video, ISO50-102400, 2.5cm Macro Focus, Super HDR, Personalized Bokeh.
3. OnePlus 9 Pro 5G Unlocked phone
The OnePlus 9 Pro offers a wide range of cameras, along with ultra-wide, wide-angle, and 3.3x telephoto cameras. The optical image stabilization feature makes the smartphone best for photography and videography.
The phone is fast and responsive, has a nice screen, and has great handling with a physical switch to set the noise profile. It’s also a premium smartphone with great value for money, but at a much lower price than other flagships on the market.
The camera features at a glance 48mp f/1.8 wide-angle, 50mp f/2.2 ultra-wide, 8mp f/2.4 telephoto (3.3x telephoto, OIS), 2mp monochrome camera with OIS. 16mp f/2.4 selfie camera. 8K video at 30fps, 4K video at 120fps. 6.7-inch AMOLED screen, dual stereo speakers, in-display fingerprint sensor, 4500mAh battery, fast battery charging.
4. Vivo X51 5G
The Vivo X51 5G is a smartphone that immediately caught the eye. There are an impressive lineup of cameras, ‘gimbals‘, and what they have to offer in terms of lens selection cannot be ignored.
All the built-in cameras are really useful, but it’s rare to find a useful smartphone with the Vivo X51 5G. Low-light performance is good, and as mentioned earlier, choosing the zoom option makes the smartphone more useful.
The ‘gimbal’ technology is impressive and the Super Anti-Shake mode easily creates stable video footage at 1080p. It’s also nice to see new technologies appearing in smartphones, where everything has become a bit more similar these days.
Overall, we love what the X51 has to offer and I think you will too if you are looking for a great optical image stabilization smartphone in 2022.
Camera features at a glance rear – 48MP f/1.6 wide-angle OIS with dual ball suspension mount, PDAF, 13MP f/2.46 50mm portrait camera, PDAF, 2x optical zoom, 8MP f/2.2 120 degree ultra-wide-angle and 2.5 cm macro, 8MP f/3.4 telephoto camera, PDAF, OIS, 5x optical zoom.
5x optical zoom and up to 60x hyper zoom, front camera – 32MP f/2.45 26mm wide-angle, super night mode, Astro mode, pro sports mode, portraits (art portrait, AI makeup, filters, etc.), AR stickers, slow motion, Live Photo, Time Lapse, Video, Supermoon Mode, DOC, Panorama, Pro Mode, 4K Video.
5. Huawei P40 Pro 5G ELS-NX9
Leica fans will be able to get a lot out of the Leica brand imaging system that is part of the Huawei P40 Pro. The 50MP main camera (eg 50 megapixels) uses red, yellow, and blue sub-pixel shaping to allow users to engage in professional-looking photos in very dark situations.
It performs so well that DxOMark is in third place at the time of writing this camera. 50MP main camera with 1/1.28″ sensor, f/1.9 aperture lens, full-pixel OIS, and Octa-PD, and (yes, it has it all)
Ultra wide-angle camera with 40MP 1/1.54 inch ultra-high resolution image sensor and ultra-fast f/1.8 lens. Huawei’s proprietary “field-of-sight” zoom uses AI-refined image data to fill in missing details in photos taken from afar
Low-light enthusiasts will benefit significantly from the P40 Pro’s camera performance. The larger sensor size and optical image stabilization of the main camera help boost the performance of the standard f/1.9 aperture.
This is partly due to the image stabilization feature built into Huawei. But the impressive high-performance 40MP f/1.8 ultra-wide camera is just the beginning.
The 12MP telephoto camera built into the phone comes with 5x optical magnification and 50x digital zoom. In short, it’s easy to see why this has become one of the best smartphone cameras of 2022.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Optical Image Stabilization really necessary?
Smartphones are not ergonomically designed for photography. As a result, it can be tricky to catch, which can lead to shaky shots. The optical image stabilization feature helps with this by preventing your hands from shaking less.
Whenever you take a picture with your mobile camera, an image is taken over some time. With sufficient lighting, the shutter speed should be fast enough to capture sharp pictures without problems.
The problem arises when the lighting is poor. To receive as much light as possible, the camera exposes the sensor to light for a long period. If the camera moves during this time, the shot will come out blurry.
As mentioned earlier, OIS cannot help with a serious camera shake. This requires a camera support system of your choice to keep your phone stable. Tripods of various shapes and sizes are popular investments and for many reasons.
So, optical image stabilization helps you to capture without blurry.
How to enable optical image stabilization on phone?
You can turn image stabilization on and off. Where you can enable and disable it depends on the phone you are using and the camera app you choose.
In some cases, you can enable and disable image stabilization right from the main screen of the Camera app by tapping the relevant button. In other cases, you may need to navigate the camera app’s settings or shooting mode to enable image stabilization.
If you are using a tripod, it is superfluous to use image stabilization. So you can disable it. Doing so can be useful because image stabilization consumes some battery power. Therefore, it is best to use it only when necessary.
