Shutter release, Remote Release & Mirror Lockup + Remote Release

[TrustDust]

Hi Everyone,

I am reasonably new to proper DSLR shooting having used my old Powershot G2 until very recently. Wanting to see the real difference between the various shutter release methods I decided to take a few pictures (non scientific) and thought I'd just share the result with other beginners like me.

In anycase I decided to use my plastic fantastic 50mm for this experiment. The lens was about 45cm from the subject so any movement/shake would have less of an impact than would've been the case if I was further away. I used a heavy tripod and did autofocus in the beginning and then set the lens to manual focus. I took the pictures in the order below.

As I said this is really not a scientific way of showing/proving anything but I wanted to use something real life subject as comparison (100% crop).

1. Normal Shutter release
2. Remote Shutter Release
3. Remote Shutter Release WITH Mirror Lockup

There is a small difference between 1&2 and then a significant difference between both 1 and 2 compared to 3.

After this mini experiment I understand why it is/can be important to use remote releases and also mirror lockup when you shoot static things and want to get things pin sharp and reduce shake. Surely it won't always be possible to use mirror lockup or even remote release but at least I have it clear in the head where this can be used in my shooting in future. It does help to experiment with things like this on your own because it reaffirm important basic stuff.

Now imagine I took the same images outside uncontrolled in the wind, on a fragile tripod, extended center column and shoddy head....

 

[AaronLLockhart]

Hi Everyone,

I am reasonably new to proper DSLR shooting having used my old Powershot G2 until very recently. Wanting to see the real difference between the various shutter release methods I decided to take a few pictures (non scientific) and thought I'd just share the result with other beginners like me.

In anycase I decided to use my plastic fantastic 50mm for this experiment. The lens was about 45cm from the subject so any movement/shake would have less of an impact than would've been the case if I was further away. I used a heavy tripod and did autofocus in the beginning and then set the lens to manual focus. I took the pictures in the order below.

As I said this is really not a scientific way of showing/proving anything but I wanted to use something real life subject as comparison (100% crop).

1. Normal Shutter release
2. Remote Shutter Release
3. Remote Shutter Release WITH Mirror Lockup

There is a small difference between 1&2 and then a significant difference between both 1 and 2 compared to 3.

After this mini experiment I understand why it is/can be important to use remote releases and also mirror lockup when you shoot static things and want to get things pin sharp and reduce shake. Surely it won't always be possible to use mirror lockup or even remote release but at least I have it clear in the head where this can be used in my shooting in future. It does help to experiment with things like this on your own because it reaffirm important basic stuff.

Now imagine I took the same images outside uncontrolled in the wind, on a fragile tripod, extended center column and shoddy head....


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Were you using Manual Focus or Auto for this experiment? I'll tell you what I see, I see one image where your camera nailed focus, and where it missed focus on the other two.

However, if you shot in manual focus, I retract everything I just said,

 

[TrustDust]

Guess I should've made my initial post clearer about focus...

I did autofocus between the finger and the pipe (contrast portion) and then changed it over to manual focus before I started shooting anything just to make sure nothing changes between the images bar the way I shot them. Kinda strange now that I know which image is which I can see clear differences between them (progressively getting sharper).