Guide · free tool included
Optical stabilisation moves the lens or sensor, electronic stabilisation moves the picture inside a bigger frame, and software fixes the clip afterwards. What each one is good at, and why phones combine them.
Software stabilisation after the fact, in your browser, on top of whatever the camera did. Nothing is uploaded.Pick a clip your phone’s stabilisation didn’t quite fix.
Works with MP4MOVWebMMKVand more
Stabilised on your device. Nothing is uploaded.
OIS (optical image stabilisation) physically moves a lens element, or on some cameras the sensor, to counter small hand movements while each frame is exposed, so it reduces blur without losing any of the picture. EIS (electronic image stabilisation) records a slightly larger area than the finished video and shifts the frame around inside it from one frame to the next, so it can smooth bigger movements like walking, at the cost of some field of view. Most phones use both at once.
Software stabilisation is a third kind: it works on a clip after it has been recorded, by measuring the movement from the picture itself. It is what you need when the camera’s own stabilisation was off, wasn’t strong enough, or the camera had none. The stabiliser at the top of this page is that kind, and runs in your browser.
OIS works automatically on cameras that have it. Help it by holding the phone with both hands, elbows in, and by keeping a steady stance rather than walking while you film.
Keep the camera’s electronic stabilisation switched on: Enhanced Stabilization on an iPhone, Video stabilisation on a Samsung Galaxy, Standard stabilisation on a Pixel.
For running or riding, switch to the camera’s strongest mode: Action mode on an iPhone, Super steady on a Galaxy, Active on a Pixel. They trade some picture for steadiness: Action mode, for example, records at up to 2.8K.
If a clip still bounces, steady it in software. Open it at the top of this page, pick the card under How was it filmed? that matches, compare, then press Export video and confirm in the sheet that opens.
A tiny gyroscope in the camera senses each wobble, and motors move a lens element, or the whole sensor in “sensor-shift” designs, the opposite way, so the image stays put on the sensor while the frame is exposed. Apple describes it in exactly those terms for the iPhone.
EIS records a little more than the final frame and, using the phone’s motion sensors, picks a slightly different window of the picture for each frame so the view stays steady. It runs while you record, so the clip is saved already steadied.
Software stabilisers, from the ones in video editors to the one on this page, take a finished clip, follow details in the picture from frame to frame to work out how the camera moved, plan a smoother path, and move each frame onto it. Some desktop tools, such as Gyroflow, read gyroscope data that certain cameras record instead.
| OIS | EIS | Software, after recording | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How it measures movement | Gyroscope in the camera | Motion sensors in the phone | Tracking details in the picture (or recorded gyro data) |
| How it corrects | Moves a lens element or the sensor | Shifts a crop window each frame | Moves, rotates and zooms each frame |
| Best at | Fast, small tremor; blur | Walking bounce, sway | Anything already recorded, with your choice of result |
| Cost | None to the picture | Some field of view or resolution | Some crop or filled edges; re-encoding |
| Reduces motion blur | Yes, during exposure | No | No |
| Adjustable afterwards | No | No | Yes |
Rather than a model name, look for two things: OIS on the main camera, and a strong EIS mode for action. Almost every recent flagship has both. Beyond that, how steady your footage is depends far more on how you hold the phone and whether you turn the strong mode on for movement. Anything that still slips through can be fixed afterwards in software.
They do different jobs. OIS keeps each frame sharp by cancelling small, fast tremor without any crop; EIS smooths the bigger, slower movement of walking by cropping. For video, the best results come from both together, which is what most phones do.
It narrows the view, because it uses a margin around the frame to absorb movement, and the strongest modes also lower the resolution, as Action mode does at 2.8K. The picture itself isn’t otherwise degraded.
Another name for electronic or software stabilisation: steadying the video by moving and cropping the picture digitally rather than by moving any optics. It can happen in the camera while recording, or afterwards in an app or a browser tool like this one.
Often not, for everyday clips. Software helps when you filmed without the strong mode, when walking or running bounce got through, or when you want a tripod-still shot the camera couldn’t give you.
Only OIS reduces blur, and only while recording. EIS and software stabilisation steady the movement between frames but leave any blur inside each frame as it is.
Yes. It relies on tiny moving parts, and Apple warns that long exposure to strong vibration, such as a phone mounted on a high-power motorcycle, can degrade it. A damaged OIS can make the picture shake even when the phone is still.