what is mirror lockup?

I read about using mirror lock up on some earlier posts......what is it and how do i use it to take photographs? thanks

when you use mirror lockup you press the shutter and the mirror goes up. press the shutter again to begin your exposure. this is to avoid camera shake due to the mirror slap.

For Canon, mirror lock up is a two stage affair. With the first push of shutter button the mirror flips up. With the second push the shutter fires and the mirror comes back down. The reason for this is that the mirror causes the camera to vibrate. This is especially noticeable for long exposures, where vibration of the camera results in the picture not being as sharp as it would be if the camera was still.

In order to use mirror lockup you put your camera on a tripod, set custom function 12 (most EOS cameras) to 1 and attach a remote release to the camera. Compose the picture and focus carefully. Press the shutter button on the remote once. The mirror flips up and the viewfinder goes black. Wait a few seconds for camera vibration to calm down. Press the shutter button on the remote a second time to take the picture.

This technique should be used if you want to push your camera and lens to get the ultimate sharpness they are capable of. Obviously it cannot be used for a moving subject or hand held because you cannot follow the subject while the mirror is up.

thanks.....i need a remote now!

http://luminous-landscape.com …-series/mirror-lock.shtml

This is good tutorial.

If you don't have a remote, just set it to mirror lock up and timer. It'll give you a 2sec delay after you press it - as in, the mirror comes up, 2 seconds, then it exposes. It's pretty slick.

dou_b_14 wrote in post #2374296
thanks.....i need a remote now!

If you don't have one, I'd get a tripod before the remote. As said before me, you can always use MLU and self timer. You don't always need a remote, but a tripod is pretty useful.

Andrew.

And if you are using AEB with MLU then you have to press the shutter six times per shot. Urgh.

Michael.

Yep with a wired remote that stumped me for a second !I was taking a waterfall pic but it is not so bad .

dou_b_14 wrote in post #2374220
I read about using mirror lock up on some earlier posts......what is it and how do i use it to take photographs? thanks

Mirror lock up in THEORY is something you set while out taking low light or landscape pictures so that duringlong exposures (anything longer than 30th sex really) there is no loss of image quality due tothe tiny but possibly significant camera shake caused by the shutter opening

Mirror lock up in PRACTICE is another thing altogether.

- here's a typical scenario:it's winter, and cold. Very cold. You want some shots of the sun as it sets over an interesting scene, you have out your polarizer filter on to get saturated colours and to keep away reflections off that interesting water feature etc. You are taking gloves off to change the filter, on to change the length of the tripod legs, off to press the shutter because you can't feel it properly through your gloves, on adjust the cold camera and so on. Same with your glasses, on to check out the scene, off to look through the VF , on to look at the camera top settings, n to adjust the tripod ball head, and so on. All the while your hat keeps getting in the way of your glasses and of looking throug the VF but you need it because its very cold. Also your eyes are watering because the breeze, although slight, is cold too, so you have to take your gloes off to wipe yoiur eye under the glassdes and so on it goes

Now then to mirror lock up: lets see, glasses back on, check, glove back off, check wipe eye, checkadjust camera away from position it took you ages to set up beacuse you can't see the LCD clearly at that angle, check, press menu button,check, take other glove off to use "set' wheel', check, scroll down menu to custom functions, check, wipe watering eye again, check, select custom function 12, check, press 'set' button, check, turn scroll whell so it reads disable, check ( you hope because your eye is watery again), half press shutter button to get out of menus, check, now then what were you doing? Oh yes, composing a picture, but the sun is setting rapidly, never mind - compose the picture, gloves back on, adjust the polariser, take a reading, everything solid on the tripod? check, hmm but won't you press the shutter a bit hard with the gloves on? That might cause camera shake, the very thing you were trying to avoid with the mirror lock up, I know! What's needed is mirror lock up with self timer... so set the self timer, ahh, can't see top of camera at that angle on tripod, ..so change composition again, set self timer..recompose, everything set? check press shutter button..here goes, yes self timer is on, ..still on....what's going on? press shutter again as nothing seems to be happening after about 8 secs, move camera to see what's wrong, snap! Damn! Can't have set the mirror lock up properly which means the self timer set itself to the default 10sec wait instead of the 2 sec wait when set with miorror lock up. OK lets doi that again - quickly! the sun is nearly set! Hurredly: glasses back on, check, glove back off, check wipe eye, checkadjust camera away from position it took you ages to set up beacuse you can't see the LCD clearly at that angle, check, press menu button,check, take other glove off to use "set' wheel', check, scroll down menu to custom functions, check, wipe watering eye again, check, select custom function 12, check, press 'set' button, check, turn scroll whell so it reads disable, check ( having double wiped eye beforehand this time to make sure), half press shutter button to get out of menus, check,now then what were you doing? Oh yes, trying to take a picture, but the sun is setting rapidly, never mind - compose the picture, gloves back on, adjust the polariser, take a reading, everything solid on the tripod? check, AT LAST you compose the shot set the polariser, check exposure and take the shot

All that faffing about means you have missed the sun just catching the tops of the grasses in the field and you are now going to have to bracket widely to later merge to HDR - ALL FOR THE SAKE OF A **##ING MIRROR LOCK UP BUTTON!

So in theory the mirror lock up custom function is there to enable those idiots with perfect eyesight who want to take landscape pictures in anything but the full midday sun in warm climates, to minimise their camera shake.

In practice it is only for people who know in advance that this is what they will need to do, and have preset the whole schaboodle to the 'Custom' setting on their 5D's mode dial

Methinks thee complains too much.

Most of your steps are redundant if you prepared your camera and lens properly before you went outside and decided what you were trying to do before you started playing with your camera on site.

The real decision is whether or not maximizing the sharpness of your image is important to you.

What we really need is a P&S camera with IS that has big buttons so it can be operated by children, us old guys and winter photographers with their mitts on.

:p

ScottE wrote in post #2376393
Methinks thee complains too much.

Most of your steps are redundant if you prepared your camera and lens properly before you went outside and decided what you were trying to do before you started playing with your camera on site.

The real decision is whether or not maximizing the sharpness of your image is important to you.

What we really need is a P&S camera with IS that has big buttons so it can be operated by children, us old guys and winter photographers with their mitts on.

:p

yeah yeah , its great when everything can be palanned in advance but when your on Taxi duty for the family and any number of others things and you just manage to escape to grab some shots afore the sun sets then the fact remains that the lack of mirror lock up button is a right royal P.I.T.A.