Canon M50 face stabilization issue

[Liz_King]

Hello! I own an Eos M50, and have owned it for over 4 years now. Recently, I’ve noticed a strange issue—the camera will track to a subjects face if they’re alone in the frame. It won’t just track focus, it’s as if the stabilization itself is locked to their face, and the frame will move around to keep the face in the same position. I’ve tried turning stabilization on and off, but it hasn’t helped. Is there any fix to this, or is my camera just getting too old? 

[krahe]

I'm not sure exactly how the Image Stabilization in a Canon IS lens works. It might use accelerometers to detect actual movement, but I think more likely it is based on the movement of the image being captured. And I'm sure that the digital IS that the M50 has for video is image based. In image-based IS, you're asking the camera to distinguish between movements caused by camera shake and movements that are actually the subject moving in the view. If the subject is moving and it takes up a large proportion of the frame, I can see where the camera might have a difficult time making that distinction. It might help to answer your question if you can tell us whether what you're reporting is what you see when you're just trying to line up a still shot or if you're actually in the process of recording video. And what lens(es) are you seeing this with?

[Liz_King]

This happens when filming, whether the shot is handheld or using a tripod. It does happen more often when using IS lenses, such as my EF M 22 which is my go to lens. 

[krahe]

Actually, the EF-M 22mm f/2 is not an IS lens. The EF-M zoom lenses are all IS, as is the 28mm macro, but the other EF-M prime lenses don't have IS. You could try turning off Digital IS (in Shooting Settings, pp. 344-345 of the Advanced User Guide if you have that) and see if that makes a difference. Turning off Digital IS will also give you a slightly wider field of view, but might make handheld filming difficult with non-IS lenses.