OIS

OIS, or optical image stabilisation, compensates for camera shake by moving a floating lens element inside the barrel. A gyroscope in the lens detects movement and an actuator shifts the stabilising element to counteract it, keeping the optical path aligned with the sensor during small hand movements. Because OIS is built into the lens, it only works when that specific lens is mounted on the camera. It provides stabilisation independently of whether the camera body has IBIS.

OIS is most commonly found in zoom lenses and telephoto primes, where longer focal lengths magnify shake and stabilisation has the greatest impact on image sharpness. Panasonic produces M43 lenses with OIS under two product names: Mega O.I.S. and Power O.I.S., with Power O.I.S. being the higher-performance variant in more recent lenses. On camera bodies that lack IBIS, an OIS lens provides stabilisation that would otherwise be absent entirely.

For video, OIS reduces the jitter that appears when walking or moving with the camera. Some Panasonic lenses include a video-specific OIS mode that applies a different correction algorithm compared to the stills mode, addressing the smoother but larger movements typical of handheld video. The lens OIS remains active regardless of whether the camera body has its own stabilisation system.

On compatible Panasonic M43 bodies, an OIS lens can operate in Dual IS mode, where the lens OIS and body IBIS communicate and share motion data. In this mode, they divide the correction work across axes rather than both attempting to correct the same movement independently. On OM System or Olympus bodies, OIS lenses function as standard independent optical stabilisation without coordination with the body's IBIS system.