EIS vs OIS: Which Stabilization Is Better and Why?

When it comes to photography and videography, keeping your hands stable when capturing a scene is of utmost importance. Otherwise, you may end up with a blurred image or a jittery video. While we can do our best to stay still, we are humans at the end of the day so we might end up moving ever so slightly. To counter such movements when capturing, cameras use different methods of stabilization. The two primary methods popular in both dedicated cameras and smartphones are Optical Image Stabilization and Electronic Image Stabilization.

OIS relies on moving the camera lens itself to compensate for any external movements. EIS on the other hand, relies on software algorithms to negate shakes and jitters. While both are effective methods of stabilization, you may often wonder which one has the upper hand. That’s exactly what we’ll try to answer with the help of this EIS vs OIS comparison in the world of phone camera stabilization.

What Is Image Stabilization

Let’s say you’re at a music concert and you want to record a video of the performer. In such a situation, you’re standing or sitting at a fixed location and holding your phone’s camera to record the performance. In such situations, your phone will mostly remain stable since you’re not moving around. The result is a fairly stable video.

On the other hand, let’s consider a situation where you’re walking and your kid is walking in front of you. You may want to pull out your phone and record a moment with your child. In this situation, you’re not stable since you’re walking. Hence, the scenario is not the same as the one in the concert where you’re stationary. So, the video you shoot might be shaky.

However, nobody likes seeing shaky videos. They’re generally of bad quality and won’t fetch you any likes on social media. To tackle this issue, smartphone manufacturers bundle in features like EIS and OIS. While they’re certainly no magic spell that can eliminate shakes from videos, they do an excellent job of making your photos and videos look more appealing.

Now you may be wondering — if both of them do the same job, then why can’t we have just EIS or OIS? Why are there two different ways of stabilizing photos and videos? And if they’re different, which is the more effective one? Let’s delve deeper into both technologies to see which of the two is the best for image stabilization.

What Is EIS?

Electronic Image Stabilization or EIS is primarily used to stabilize videos. It uses a series of algorithms to determine shakes and jitters in a video. It then eliminates these jitters with the magic of software. EIS works by cropping into a video — thereby cutting out the shakes and jerks at the corners of the frame. If you have a smartphone with EIS, try going into the video mode by enabling EIS and then by disabling it. You will notice a change in the field of view in both instances.

Then there are a series of algorithms the video is passed through before being processed by the ISP to remove shakes and jitters.

Several phones nowadays even offer a ‘super-steady mode‘ — similar to the ‘Action mode‘ on iPhone devices when recording videos. Essentially, this mode uses EIS to crop into the frame and eliminate shakes at the edges — hence creating an illusion of a stabler video. These modes generally default to recording videos using the ultra-wide camera so there’s a larger frame to deal with. The bigger the frame, the higher the area to crop in and reduce jitters.

Since EIS is completely software-based, you may encounter some issues at times. For example, you may find the edges of a video having a wavy appearance when running or moving around a lot when recording a video. But, when you look at the large scheme of things, EIS is an excellent feature that makes videos recorded on your phone more enjoyable and less distracting.

What Is AIS?

AIS or AI-Image Stabilization is an extension of EIS. The moniker was used by brands like Huawei and Honor to market their EIS algorithm that used AI to detect stutters and shakes in a video to remove them.

What Is OIS?

Unlike EIS which relies entirely on software to stabilize videos, Optical Image Stabilization, or OIS uses dedicated hardware components to achieve a similar result. OIS uses a floating camera lens that’s placed on top of the sensor with the help of magnets. This is done to allow the lens to move freely in multiple axes.

When you move or shake your phone in a certain direction, the gyroscope on your phone sends a signal to the lens to move an equivalent distance — but in the opposite direction. So, if you move your phone slightly to the left when clicking a photo, the lens moves slightly to the right to compensate for that movement. This cancels out the shake/jitter and you end up with a stable shot.

Since the lens is free to move around, you may observe that in smartphones with OIS, shaking the phone vigorously results in a sound. This sound is nothing but the lens moving around to compensate for the shakes.

The Use of OIS in Low Light Photography

While EIS is primarily helpful in stabilizing videos, OIS ensures your frame remains stable when capturing a photo. This is especially true in low-light situations where your phone needs to be still to capture images with a lower shutter speed.

When taking photos at night, your smartphone needs to capture more light to brighten up the scene. This is done by reducing the shutter speed. In short, your phone needs to be held still for a longer time at night compared to taking a photo in broad daylight. OIS helps ensure your phone remains still for a longer duration by countering micro-jitters made by your hand movements.

Most modern-day smartphones also have a dedicated night mode to shoot low-light photos. This night mode uses stacking algorithms to click multiple photos with different exposure levels. Thus, to click multiple photos, you need to hold your phone still for a long duration. Again, this is where OIS comes into play.

Sensor-Shift Stabilization

When talking about OIS, it’s also worth mentioning a type of stabilization Apple uses on the latest iPhones — Sensor-Shift Stabilization. This is an extension of what we find on DSLRs or other full-fledged cameras and is more commonly known as IBIS or In-Body Image Stabilization.

Unlike OIS where the lens above the sensor moves to compensate for movements, the camera sensor itself moves to cancel out shakes and jitters in Sensor-Shift Stabilization. This is an even more sophisticated way of stabilizing photos and videos. But, it hasn’t picked up much since Sensor-Shift Stabilization requires more physical space and involves more engineering complexities compared to OIS.

EIS vs OIS: Key Differences

It’s important to note that OIS plays a major role in ensuring your photos don’t appear blurry or shaky — especially at night. With zoom and telephoto cameras becoming more and more popular on recent smartphones, OIS plays a big role in ensuring the zoomed-in preview from these cameras is stable. This helps in framing your shot and clicking a stable image. Without OIS, it would be extremely difficult to click a 5X or 10X photo using a phone.

The role of EIS is often underestimated with most consumers believing OIS is responsible for stable videos. While OIS does contribute towards making videos stable, it’s EIS that does most of the heavy lifting. In fact, the combination of OIS and EIS working in tandem is the best combination you can find on a smartphone.

Another key difference between the two protocols is image quality. Since EIS crops into a video, it results in a slight deterioration of image quality. There’s no such drawback with OIS.

EIS vs OIS: Which Stabilization Is Best for You?

At this point, it must be clear to you that there’s no ‘better’ form of stabilization as such. Both EIS and OIS are useful in their own ways. Needless to say, having both of them on your smartphone is a bonus since you’re assured the best of both worlds. If we still have to pick a ‘winner’, OIS is the one we’d go for since it uses hardware to reduce shakes when taking photos — especially in low-light scenes.

That’s exactly why OIS is reserved for slightly more premium phones. EIS, on the other hand, is now a part of most mid-range phones too since it doesn’t require dedicated hardware. But it has its benefits as it offers much better stabilization for videos. So if you’re an aspiring photographer or content creator, ensure your next smartphone has OIS, EIS, or both since they will help you take better photos and videos.