How much does a camera vibrate due to your finger pressing the shutter or the mirror flipping? Camera Technica decided to conduct a test by strapping a laser pointer to the hot shoe of a Canon 7D. They then filmed the red dot on a far wall against some text while shooting normally (i.e. pressing the shutter with a finger), using a remote shutter release, and finally with a remote shutter as well as mirror-lockup.
You might be surprised at how much movement the camera experiences even if the shutter is pressed carefully. Lesson learned: for the sharpest possible photos, use a tripod, a remote shutter release, and the mirror-lockup feature on your camera.
- Manually pressing the shutter button is by far the most significant cause of vibration during image capture.
- In order for mirror lock-up to be worthwhile, the camera must be on a tripod with remote shutter attached.
- Mirror vibration can be significant in some circumstances. For slow shutter speeds, significant degradations in image quality were noted.
- For fast shutter speeds, mirror vibrations seem to have negligible impact.
- For some newer cameras, live-view mode may be a better alternative to mirror lock-up. By definition, the mirror will already be locked up to enable a live view of the light hitting the sensor.