Usm camera what is it

To be effective, a ring-type USM motor needs to meet certain requirements. It must be powerful enough to drive the focusing lens group quickly and easily at low speed, so as to avoid the need for a gear system to reduce the speed.

It must exhibit high levels of holding power, so that once the motor is switched off, the focusing lens group is held in place without any further input needed. It should be simple to manufacture, and should start and stop quickly to ensure the best focus response. It should also be as quiet as possible in use. In addition to these features, ring-type motors are also highly efficient and have low power consumption to maximise the camera battery life.

Being ring-shaped, they are ideal for fitting within the lens barrel. The ring-type USM is actually very simple in operation. It is composed of a rotor and a stator — an elastic body with a piezoelectric ceramic voltage element attached to it.

Applying an AC current with a resonant frequency around 30kHz to the stator creates vibrations that cause the rotor to rotate continuously. The frequency of 30kHz is in the ultrasonic range, and this is where the USM motors derive their name. The piezoelectric element generates ultrasonic waves which, a bit like ocean waves propelling a surfer, cause the rotor to create a rotational force that moves the focusing group.

Switching the current between two different phases changes the direction of the ultrasonic waves. Consequently, the focusing group can be made to move in different directions, giving control over the direction, speed and degree of focus adjustment.

Unlike the ring USM, where the stator and rotor are separate parts, in the Micro USM design the rotor, stator and drive gear are combined into one unit roughly half the weight of a ring-type USM motor.

While the more powerful ring-type USM is designed to fit in the circular barrel of a lens, making it ideal for use in large professional zoom lenses, the Micro USM motor was created to fit in a wide range of lenses without being restricted to the size of the lens barrel. Micro motors are also cheaper to produce, making them more suitable for use in consumer lenses where cost is an issue. There are four piezoelectric layers, each constructed from two alternating phase piezoelectric elements.

Applying an AC current to only the A-phase causes the stator to vibrate left and right. If current is applied to the B-phase, the stator will rotor forwards and backwards. When current is applied to both the A-phase and the B-phase, the resulting motion is rotational as the tip of the stator moves, for example, left, back, right, forward, left, back, right, forward.

This rotational force is applied to the main drive gear, which in turn is used to drive the gears of the focusing mechanism. It functions in a very similar way, but the length of the unit has been greatly reduced to allow it to be used in ultra-compact zoom lenses. The reduction in size has been achieved by reconfiguring the rotor and stator so that, instead of the two being aligned in a row, part of the stator is placed inside the rotor.

This required the creation of a new format of vibration, so that the resonant frequency of the piezoelectric elements was not too high, resulting in insufficient vibrational amplitude. The next focusing motor technology developed was a little different. First introduced in , STM lenses are good for stills but they're great for video because the STM stepper motor produces smooth, quiet focusing movement.

A stepper motor uses DC direct current passing through multiple coils organised into groups. Supplying current to the groups in a sequence rotates the motor one step at a time. More groups enable more precise steps or movements to be made. When compact size is paramount, Canon uses gear type STM technology. This uses helical gears to drive the focus without taking up much space. Larger lenses use a lead-screw type STM system.

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Expert services to keep your equipment working perfectly, enhance its imaging performance or repair it. On the other hand, IS stands for Image Stabilization. Although there are different implementations of this feature, its aim is to eliminate or at least reduce the amount of blurring that occurs due to the motion of the camera, or the hand that is holding it.

No matter how still you try to keep your hands, there would always be some amount of shake that causes slight blurring. This becomes even more acute the farther you zoom out. IS combats this by constantly moving the lens element inside to compensate for the motion and reduce the blurring that it causes. As you may have already deduced, IS can greatly enhance the photo you shoot when the camera is on your hand.

USM does not directly affect the image quality but is great to have if you are constantly shooting moving subjects. The silence of USM lenses is also very desirable when shooting animals in the wild so that they do not get spooked. Although the same technology is employed by other camera manufacturers, it is known under different acronyms. IS is a general term and most camera manufacturers use it to indicate that their cameras have image stabilization. Summary: 1. USM is part of the autofocus mechanism while IS minimizes camera shake 2.