Quick Tip: Mirror Lock-up

Your SLR camera by definition uses a series of mirrors to allow you to see exactly what your lens sees. When it is time to expose your digital sensor or film (when you click the shutter), the mirror that allows you to view the action through the viewfinder flips up. During this time, the image through the viewfinder is completely black. Instead, the digital sensor or film gets to see what you’ve been seeing, and a latent image is created.

Some people get concerned about the part of the image taking process where the mirror flips up. This process can introduce a strong vibration to the camera body which can affect the sharpness of your final photo. Try it yourself: take a photo with your SLR and be conscious to feel and listen to your camera.

Thankfully for those who are concerned about image quality some SLRs come with a function called mirror lock-up. When mirror lock-up mode is engaged, the image taking process is like this: one first composes the picture they wish to take completely and then usually presses the shutter once to engage lock-up mode. From here, the viewfinder is completely black, as the mirror has flipped or “locked up.” Now, one presses the shutter again to take the photo. When they first press the shutter, the mirror flip process occurs - in effect, this prevents the mirror flip vibrations from occuring when we’re actually capturing the information of our scene onto the digital sensor or film.