I came to the conclusion that Image Stabilization stops are blatantly overextimated. At least for Fuji camera and lenses.
recently some lenses are advertized as having 6 stops IS. See the XF16-80 for example.
Fuji H2S boasts up to 7 stops !!!
Is it realistic ? To me it is not, it's far, very far away from the reality.
Let's take a 35mm FL , a very common and appreciated kind of lens.
The FullFrame equivalent is about 50, so the golden rule is : use a shutter speed at least 1/50. To stay on a safe side let's say : use at least 1/100sec
Now , 1 stop advantage gives 1/50, 2 stops 1/25, 3 stops 1/12, 4 stops 1/6 , 5 stops 1/3, 6 stops 1/1.5 second. Crazy. Impossible !
Is there anybody in the world able to shoot hand-free at about 1sec shutter speed ??? Not even a sniper, IMO.
Is any of you able to go out and shoot confidently at that crazy shutter speed ??
Of course many will say : that shutter speed is not necessary, and I agree, but that's beyond the point. The point is : is that possible ? Who can really do it ? who can shoot safely all the times (or at least the majority of the times) at about 1 or 1/2 second ??
And this leads me to a conclusion : the advertized Stabilization stops are totally deceiving, a blatant marketing hype, and a great exageration. I wonder how they are allowed to do it !