I recently noticed that when I'm shooting with telephoto lenses (100-200mm) the mirror shakes the camera enough that the photos tend to be a little blurry with shutter speeds between 1" to 1/80 even if I'm using tripod. If I use mirror lockup or live view this doesn't happen.
I need to use even longer focal lengths (200-800mm) with this body in a few weeks with shutter speeds around 1/50 to 1/100 and I don't have enough batteries to constantly use live view.
Do you have any tips how I could shoot without the mirror shock? Getting a battery grip might help but for some reason the availability of MB-D16 is really bad in Finland.
Can I ask what you'll be shooting at 800mm and 1/50-1/100?
If you don't want to use mirror lock up or live view, your next best bet is shutter delay mode and a remote. You can set it to 3 sec or so and that should be good. It will raise the mirror, wait 3 seconds, then fire the shutter.
You don't need to use live view to use mirror lock up, you can just use the MUP setting on your top dial. First press of the shutter raises the mirror, second takes the shot. Best used with a remote.
You could also buy/rent more batteries if this is an important job and you'd rather use live view.
I can't imagine shooting 1 second on a tripod with any lens without using mirror lock-up. You are on a rigid mount, unlike holding it and your body absorbing the mirror bounce, so of course you will get soft images.
CanadaMark wrote:
Can I ask what you'll be shooting at 800mm and 1/50-1/100?
If you don't want to use mirror lock up or live view, your next best bet is shutter delay mode and a remote. You can set it to 3 sec or so and that should be good. It will raise the mirror, wait 3 seconds, then fire the shutter.
You don't need to use live view to use mirror lock up, you can just use the MUP setting on your top dial. First press of the shutter raises the mirror, second takes the shot. Best used with a remote.
You could also buy/rent more batteries if this is an important job and you'd rather use live view. ...Show more →
Sure. I'm going to attend a wildlife watching/photography session in a few weeks where we wait in hides and take pictures of bears. I have my own AF-S 70-200/2.8G VR2 and I have rented AF-S 400/2.8G VR2 and TC 2.0x for that occasion since the bears might not be that close to our hide. The bears usually appear between 10pm to 6am and the required values for exposure are around ISO3200, f/5.6 and 1/100 - 1/50. f/5.6 is of course the worst case scenario when I need to use TC 2.0x with 400/2.8. Of course I will try to use faster shutter speeds if the bears come closer.
The hides are equiped with rigid mounts you can attach your lens. I have very little experience with super telephoto lenses since I do mainly portraits and event photography. This is just something I wanted to try for a change
Mirror-lock-up is not an ideal way since then you can't see what you are shooting and the subjects will move a bit (hopefully not too much).
Norm Shapiro wrote:
I can't imagine shooting 1 second on a tripod with any lens without using mirror lock-up. You are on a rigid mount, unlike holding it and your body absorbing the mirror bounce, so of course you will get soft images.
There might also be bean bags or something similar used for support. Maybe that would be a better solution with VR?
Regardless of body, technique matters quite a bit when trying to stabilize a long lens. It's not just a matter of the tripod -- it's also important to dampen the lens/body at those troublesome shutter speeds. I think Moose Peterson has a blog entry about this -- it's essentially about resting your left arm over the back of the lens to help absorb some of the shutter vibration. It takes practice, but it makes a big difference.
The D750 is certainly not the lowest-vibration shutter in the world, but I agree with the other posters that it is perfectly normal to need mirror lock-up under these conditions.
CanadaMark wrote:
If you don't want to use mirror lock up or live view, your next best bet is shutter delay mode and a remote. You can set it to 3 sec or so and that should be good. It will raise the mirror, wait 3 seconds, then fire the shutter
Yes, absolutely. Love that this is available on the D750, rather than actually having to fire the shutter multiple times as on the D700. And you don't even need the 3 seconds. Depending on focal length and shutter speed, I find even the 1 second mode often makes enough of a difference to be worth the effort.
