Image stabilization (IS) is a family of techniques that reduce blurring associated with the motion of a camera or other imaging device during exposure.

Generally, it compensates for pan and tilt (angular movement, equivalent to yaw and pitch) of the imaging device, though electronic image stabilization can also compensate for rotation about the optical axis (roll). It is mainly used in high-end image-stabilized binoculars, still and video cameras, astronomical telescopes, and also smartphones. With still cameras, camera shake is a particular problem at slow shutter speeds or with long focal length lenses (telephoto or zoom). With video cameras, camera shake causes visible frame-to-frame jitter in the recorded video. In astronomy, the problem of lens shake is added to variation in the atmosphere, which changes the apparent positions of objects over time.

In photography, image stabilization can facilitate shutter speeds 2 to 5.5 stops slower (exposures 4 to 30 times longer), and even slower effective speeds have been reported.

A rule of thumb to determine the slowest shutter speed possible for hand-holding without noticeable blur due to camera shake is to take the reciprocal of the 35 mm equivalent focal length of the lens, also known as the "1/mm rule". For example, at a focal length of 125 mm on a 35 mm camera, vibration or camera shake could affect sharpness if the shutter speed is slower than 1⁄125 second. As a result of the 2-to-4.5-stops slower shutter speeds allowed by IS, an image taken at 1⁄125 second speed with an ordinary lens could be taken at 1⁄15 or 1⁄8 second with an IS-equipped lens and produce almost the same quality. The sharpness obtainable at a given speed can increase dramatically. When calculating the effective focal length, it is important to take into account the image format a camera uses. For example, many digital SLR cameras use an image sensor that is 2⁄3, 5⁄8, or 1⁄2 the size of a 35 mm film frame. This means that the 35 mm frame is 1.5, 1.6, or 2 times the size of the digital sensor. The latter values are referred to as the crop factor, field-of-view crop factor, focal-length multiplier, or format factor. On a 2× crop factor camera, for instance, a 50 mm lens produces the same field of view as a 100 mm lens used on a 35 mm film camera, and can typically be handheld at 1⁄100 second.

However, image stabilization does not prevent motion blur caused by the movement of the subject or by extreme movements of the camera. Image stabilization is only designed for and capable of reducing blur that results from normal, minute shaking of a lens due to hand-held shooting. Some lenses and camera bodies include a secondary panning mode or a more aggressive 'active mode', both described in greater detail below under optical image stabilization.

Astrophotography makes much use of long-exposure photography, which requires the camera to be fixed in place. However, fastening it to the Earth is not enough, since the Earth rotates. The Pentax K-5 and K-r, when equipped with the O-GPS1 GPS accessory for position data, can use their sensor-shift capability to reduce the resulting star trails.

Stabilization can be applied in the lens, the camera body or both. Each method has distinctive advantages and disadvantages.

An optical image stabilizer (OIS, IS, or OS) is a mechanism used in still or video cameras that stabilizes the recorded image by varying the optical path to the sensor. This technology is implemented in the lens itself, as distinct from in-body image stabilization (IBIS), which operates by moving the sensor as the final element in the optical path. The key element of all optical stabilization systems is that they stabilize the image projected on the sensor before the sensor converts the image into digital information. IBIS can have up to 5 axis of movement: X, Y, Roll, Yaw, and Pitch. IBIS has the added advantage of working with all lenses.