Digital Advent Calendar 2010 - Day 14

Mirror Lock Up through Live View (LV)

Today’s tip is a more an advanced tip for digital SLR users which I discovered perchance when photographing this year’s fireworks display at Clickimin.

I was frapping around in the guts of my camera settings trying to work out how to use ‘mirror lock up’ to minimise the chance of camera vibration when making long exposures of the fireworks.  It suddenly dawned on me that if I switched to ‘Live View’ on my digital SLR the mirror would lock up allowing me to compose my image using the camera’s LCD.  The photograph above was made using this method and I’m pleased at how it turned out.  Now, not all digital SLRs have the Live View feature but if your camera does then you might find this tip useful.

-Ben