Pro Video - How to turn off ‘image stabilization’

[J Yeung]

Hi all!

Brand new to the ecosystem. I’m a professional camera technician and have been tasked with filming a job exclusively on the new S25 Ultra.
I usually work with professional cameras from Arri and Sony and understand that there is no comparison to a phone. 

In testing, we have gotten most of what we need from the phone from a production standpoint except one thing. It looks like the camera has some form of Image Stabilization even if it’s all turned ‘off’ in the settings and ‘Camera Assistant’ app.

Try for yourselves. In ‘Pro Video’, pan or tilt the phone, and see the image slowly lag behind and catch up. This is infuriating in a filmmaking perspective. We loose all sense of precision.

Please let me know we’ve missed a secret option deep in a menu? Please.

Thanks in advance!

[BandOfBrothers]

I havent personally tried the Expert Raw App from the Galaxy Store @J Yeung but it might be a route to try. 

If the settings are not available then Samsung cannot have made that option you ask about available. 

It is something you can post about in the following thread so the Team here can forward it up the chain. 

https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/mobile-apps-services/the-suggestions-amp-ideas-thread-for-softwa...

May I suggest to perform a forum search as you may find already existing threads with help and advice within. 

If i can be of any further help please don't hesitate to ask  😎 

[arianwen27]

You can disable electronic stabilisation but you cannot turn OIS off. You can't fully turn all stabilisation off, though with just OIS working, your image isn't cropped or warped, though the device is still trying to stabilise in hardware

[Reylob]

Hi @J Yeung 

I assume that you get that behaviour even when Video Stabilisation is toggle off. Have you tried different resolutions and FPS? Some of the options are disable depending on resolution and FPS. You might also like to turn off Auto FPS.

I appreciate how frustrated it should be from your perspective, but coming from professional cameras, it will be hard not to.

The phone is just a few weeks old and Camera App always needs some fixing and optimisation. You should submit some feedback from the Members App. Most people on this forum would not have your background in filming, so it will be hard to provide some meaningful help.

By the way, I tried taking some videos with S24 Ultra and could not see it. You might like to take a video showing the issue and post it here.

[J Yeung]

I believe Expert RAW App is photos only, but I'll check it out thanks for the tip!

I did a cursory search already and hadn't found anything obvious.

I'll post on that thread so hopefully the devs can fix this for someone else in the future!

Thanks

[J Yeung]

Okay good to know. It's just weird because when we try to film with a 'Pro' App (Such as BlackMagic Camera) there is absolutely no OIS or Electronic Stabilization artifacts.
As if those features can be turned off on the API level, just not natively.

And for those asking; the 'Pro' Apps don't have the 'LOG' mode, which is why we are doing the job with the native camera app, even though a 'Pro' App like Black Magic Camera is much preferred.

[J Yeung]

Hi!

Yes every obvious 'On/Off' toggle is off.

This behaviour persists in 8K, 4K modes. All FPS. Auto FPS is off.

Thanks for the suggestion! Will submit a feature request in the forum and directly. We are enjoying the phone, and it feels like Samsung is going after the 'Pro' market like Apple is. For sure some growing pains.

Good to know about S24, maybe it's an S25 issue? Brand new phone and all.

Thank you!

[arianwen27]

Mhm, there's two ways to use android cameras. Direct or with device processing. On samsung devices specifically, direct access limits resolution, frame rate and even some of the cameras. Since you're getting the raw feed, there's not much enhancement from the phones DSP, so it acts like a standard quality camera.

If you use the more popular processed method, you get all the features the phone provides and all the cameras. This is kinda just putting a skin on the default camera app.

Raw access does offer stabilisation as open camera has it. Though it seems black magic camera is doing something to disable it

[J Yeung]

Hi all,

So I got confirmation from Samsung that even when you turn OFF Image stabilization, that is only VDIS (Video Digital Image Stabilization), and NOT the OIS (Optical Image stabilization).

This is as of One UI 7.0, Android Version 15.

I was told the ability to turn of OIS completely would be considered for the pro-market.

Our use case : 

[Pinyo]

Dear J Yeung!

Did you find any solution to this problem? I have the same problem on my S25 Ultra, and it's kind of infuriating!

When I use Pro Video (normal as well) on 4K60 or 8K the screen is wobbly. It looks like a heavy rolling shutter on cameras which are not made for video. It's always there when the stabilization is off. If I turn it on it's all good, but then the problem is, it's zoomed in for make it more stable... idk do I lose image quality by stabilization, I hope not. But my field of view is definitely worse...and I want to use the device to make some nice Real Estate videos which I can put up on social media. Mixed with some refreshing, funny elements. So for some time I would stick with this setup before switching to a pro videographer setup.

Interesting thing, is if I use the Blacmagic camera app, there it works perfectly fine!!! IDK what they are doing, but they do it definitely better. I think it's totally software problem since on other app is not an issue...maybe if the would open up the LOG file we could use other apps? Or maybe solve the problem.

Other interesting thing is I bought an S25 base model for my wife, and on her phone there is zero problem on 4k60 even in LOG. OIS on/off, doesn't matter.

This really makes me wonder, why did I pay that much money for my Ultra...

Please could you describe what did you mean by Samsungs response to you? I don't understand what is "it's for pro market". (I think a not wobbly 4k60p wouldn't be a pro market thing, just a normal user need...)

Or if you found a solution I would be really happy to hear about!

Thank you for your response in advance!

Yours,

Zsolt