Need help with the mirror up setting?

[FallenFotography]

Well I have been taking photos with my D200 for awhile now and I really dont understand the setting you can use that puts your mirror up before taking the picture making you press the button twice i really dont understand the point of it. Is it for night shots or sports I really dont understand, so does anyone know???

 

[Sw1tchFX]

It's meant for good telephoto technique, and shutter speeds in the 1/2-1/15th area.

The mirror lock-up allows you to reduce vibration which can hurt images from using very long telephoto lenses. For everything else, 1/2-1/15th of a second is where much of the cameras internal vibrations ate clanking around, because you have a mirror that swings up and down. You feel these vibrations every time you shoot a picture. mirror lock up puts the mirror up, so the only thing that's moving is the shutter curtain, which actually produces very little vibration at all.

 

[Garbz]

Ha finally some right information on this topic. When hearing the usual barrage of clueless miss-information some people blabber on about this topic some of the classics are "you need mirror lockup for night photos" or "you can't get a sharp picture without mirror lockup"

Nah as was said 1/2 to about 1/15th depending on the tripod you mount it on is where you want to use this. Mind you the D200 has an internal option to suppress vibrations. Function setting D5 - Exposure Delay Mode, will lock the mirror up for about 1/2 a second before exposing, and it only needs one click of the shutter. Set this if you will be shooting in the mentioned shutter speed range continuously for a while.

 

[Iron Flatline]

Or you get a Rangefinder camera that doesn't have a mirror which needs to be moved for shooting - only the shutter.

 

[Big Mike]

When using Mirror Lock Up, you are trying to reduce the movement of the camera as much as possible. It is pointless to use MLU unless you are already using a tripod and remote release (or self timer).

 

[FallenFotography]

Ok well cool thats really good to know i do shoot long shots of usually mountians so i will try this thanks aot