Just out of curosity....

[Beauxtx1]

How many of y'all lock you're mirror before taking shots and under what circumstances do you do so?

Thanks.

Larry

[Silvernic]

Once or twice while doing some macro shots. Not sure if it did anything, but I could, so I did!

[Steelsun]

I've done it a couple of time on ambient light night shots and testing the 20Ds IR ability (that failed).

[Stephen H]

I've got a Pentax K1000 and a Chinon SLR in Pentax K mount, and neither of them give you the option of locking the mirror.

[kenw]

whenever I'm using a tripod. If the tripod helps, so does MLU.

[johnastovall]

I'm doing more and more when working off the tripod for landscapes and macros. Why not, it gives an edge to sharpness and with the Canon release, I can lock the mirror up, let the virbations die down and then activate the shutter.

[ivgonzalez]

Excuses my ignorance, but what do you use Mirror lock up for? Would it be fore longer exposures than what Manual allows for, 30 seconds?

[johnastovall]

Originally Posted by ivgonzalez

Excuses my ignorance, but what do you use Mirror lock up for? Would it be fore longer exposures than what Manual allows for, 30 seconds?

Not always, when even 1/400 with a long lens landscape. Also when there is a very shallow depth of feild of maybe only a few millimeters.

To get an idea of the vibration a mirror can induce, get a kitchen scale which will take the weight of you camera with weight to spare. Set the auto timer and put the camera on the scale then watch the scale when the mirror goes up.

When shooting off a tripod, why not do everything to maximize the stability of the camera?

[venchka]

I have three SLRs. 2 with mirror lock up and one without. Thanks a lot Canon for deleting the mirror lock up on the Elan IIE. GRRRRRRR!

I use mirror lock up. Sometimes I think I should use it more often.

[Steelsun]

Also It's great to trick someone when doing portraits.

They hear the slap of the mirror going up and they think it's the shutter. Then a few seconds later you can take the real shot and get them more relaxed or goofing off.

[Gordon]

I use MLU when I have the camera on a tripod and I'm not shooting a person.

The effects of mirror slap are worst somewhere around 1/30s to 1s. It seems to be less detrimental to the photo when there is a faster or slower shutter speed.

[Hogleg 44]

On a tripod, in low/medium light, with a looong zoooom!

[Stephen H]

What you use mirror-lock-up for (to answer the question up there)- when you take a shot with an SLR, two things happen. The mirror has to swing up out of the way, and then the shutter has to open and close. Each of those can cause some vibration. Using the MLU prior to taking the shot eliminates that portion of the vibration. The drawback is that you can't see through the viewfinder immediately prior to the shot; once you lock the mirror up, the viewfinder would go black. So for any static subject, it's fine, but something where you have to watch through the viewfinder as you shoot, it wouldn't work as well.

[johnastovall]

Originally Posted by Stephen H

What you use mirror-lock-up for (to answer the question up there)- when you take a shot with an SLR, two things happen. The mirror has to swing up out of the way, and then the shutter has to open and close. Each of those can cause some vibration. Using the MLU prior to taking the shot eliminates that portion of the vibration. The drawback is that you can't see through the viewfinder immediately prior to the shot; once you lock the mirror up, the viewfinder would go black. So for any static subject, it's fine, but something where you have to watch through the viewfinder as you shoot, it wouldn't work as well.

Well, actually if you were using say a Zeiss 21mm you could put one of these in the flash shoe.

[venchka]

A with & without mirror lock up test: