Mirror lock up and timer?

I have read all the previous messages on the lack of mirror lock up on the 300D. I saw someone comment that you can overcome this problem by using the timer, as the mirror lifts a few seconds before exposure, thus enabling the vibrations to die down by the time the shot is taken.

Can a current user confirm that this is what happens? I do tend to do a lot of low light shooting, and with the kit lens being slow, I am likely to stray into the "danger zone" of vibrations. I always tend to use the timer for all my tripod shots anyway, and if I could use it to compensate for lack of MLU, that would be great!

Thanks in advance for your help!

Piotr

I don't have a 300D but since nobody else has replied here's my two cents. The review at luminous landscape talks about mirror slap causing issues for long exposures even when using a tripod:

http://luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/digital-rebel.shtml

I use an old film EOS where you can use a 2 second self timer where the mirror locks up first and then the shutter opens 2 seconds later or else a 10 second timer where the mirror locks up 10 seconds after pressing the shutter release, immediately prior to the shutter opening. You choose which you want. I don't think the 300D has a facility to lock up the mirror on hitting the shutter release button and then opening the shutter when the self timer period has elapsed, if it's anything like the film equivalent.

I think perhaps the previous poster might have been referring to the old trick of using the self timer to reduce camera shake when using the camera on a tripod for long exposures. I'm sure you know the routine, hit the shutter release, timer starts, by the time the shutter opens any shake induced by you operating the shutter release button should be gone. Of course you know that a remote release is a better way to things. Hoepfully someone else can give you an answer based on first hand experience.

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I have not yet gotten my camera but its coming today!!!
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The FAQ is viewable at http://www.marius.org/eos300dfaq.php , and if anyone wants to help contribute to it and maintain it, drop me an email and let me know.

simpleton said:

I have not yet gotten my camera but its coming today!!!
--
The FAQ is viewable at http://www.marius.org/eos300dfaq.php , and if
anyone wants to help contribute to it and maintain it, drop me an
email and let me know.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply Kieran. Well I have been doing a little research on this. There is good news and bad news.

The bad news first. There is no mirror pre-fire when using the self-timer mode on the 300d! The mirror flips up just as it would if you were shooting normally.

Now the good news. I have read a very interesting article on MLU on this website: http://www.photo.net/nature/mlu . The key conclusions are that for shooting with lenses below 100mm, the vibration of the mirror is not a problem. The article also discusses the "danger zones" for focal lenghts and shutter speeds - it makes an interesting read.

One of the tips suggested in response to the article was to hand hold a tripod mounted camera if there is a danger of mirror vibrations. Apparently it was as effective as using a cable release and MLU.

So there you go. Cheered me up a bit! To be honest, I hardly used MLU on my old Sigma SLR, but that was because I hardly used a tripod. The camera was heavy enough!

Piotr

Piotr sounds good, can you check that the link to the article, I get a server error when I try to look at http://www.photo.net/nature/mlu Kieran.

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Now I feel stupid, for once it was really was a server error. The link is working now, so on to reading the article......
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