Can I keep my D3200's shutter open?

[pipnina]

The viewfinder in my D3200 serves no purpose to me: I can't use it for AP since the cover is always on it and stars are too dark & small to use it for focussing. In the daytime it's no more use since I wear glasses nd it has extremely short eye relief.

Meanwhile, every shot I take brings that pointless shutter closer to wearing out- it was 2nd hand when I bought it and I've already taken many 100s of photos with it, probably over 1000 by this point, in less than 6 months.

And with that, is there any way to keep the shutter up/unused to prolong the life of the camera and reduce vibrations during AP? Knowledge appreciated!

    ~pip

[JohnPh]

I wouldn't worry too much about it, the shutter life on the d3200 is rated at 100,00 and I'm pretty sure there is no way to leave it open temporarily between shoots.  My main canon camera gets at least 1000+ shots per week put on it!  Mirror lock up will help reduce vibrations during ap

[Benno]

Hi Pip, I agree with johnPh. I use Nikon camera's and take way in excess of 1000 shot in six months so I would not worry about the amount of shutter actuations (as Paul states the D3200 is rated at 100,000 actuations).

As for leaving the shutter curtains open to reduce vibrations, I would not have thought It is the shutter curtain action that will be producing the vibration it is the mirror flipping up at the start of the exposure that is most likely to be causing the vibration.

When I want to reduce vibration, such as when taking macro images, I will use mirror lock up (as suggested by Paul), unfortunately I do not believe the D3200 has this function for taking exposures it only has this function for sensor cleaning.

However if you use live view (which I always find the best option when doing AP), then the mirror will be locked up anyway and should not be causing vibration. 

Best regards,

Benno.

[pipnina]

I wouldn't worry too much about it, the shutter life on the d3200 is rated at 100,00 and I'm pretty sure there is no way to leave it open temporarily between shoots.  My main canon camera gets at least 1000+ shots per week put on it!  Mirror lock up will help reduce vibrations during ap

Hi Pip, I agree with johnPh. I use Nikon camera's and take way in excess of 1000 shot in six months so I would not worry about the amount of shutter actuations (as Paul states the D3200 is rated at 100,000 actuations).

As for leaving the shutter curtains open to reduce vibrations, I would not have thought It is the shutter curtain action that will be producing the vibration it is the mirror flipping up at the start of the exposure that is most likely to be causing the vibration.

When I want to reduce vibration, such as when taking macro images, I will use mirror lock up (as suggested by Paul), unfortunately I do not believe the D3200 has this function for taking exposures it only has this function for sensor cleaning.

However if you use live view (which I always find the best option when doing AP), then the mirror will be locked up anyway and should not be causing vibration. 

Best regards,

Benno.

Ok, thanks guys. I must have been mistaking the shutter noise for the mirror. I didn't know they were seperate!

[ronin]

The shutter will have to move or at least block the incoming light owing to the way the data is read from the chip. Otherwise as the rows/columns are shifted across they will still be collecting light and the light will be from a different section of the image.

As to the number of shutter actions before failure check this site: http://www.olegkikin.com/shutterlife/

Not sure how up to date the data is and I guess that the D3200 is a variant of the D3000.

[happy-kat]

We have a little Kodak which has taken over 40,000 and still going.

Live view may well lock the mirror up but it will make the camera hot.

On the 1100d you get double mirror slap using live view. It bounces it to close live view then flops it back up to take the picture.

[happy-kat]

D3000 is a Nikon product on that link.

Still it has not that much more than the canon 1000d. Give or take around late 30,000 each

[Benno]

We have a little Kodak which has taken over 40,000 and still going.

Live view may well lock the mirror up but it will make the camera hot.

On the 1100d you get double mirror slap using live view. It bounces it to close live view then flops it back up to take the picture.

Leaving live view on will cause the image sensor to heat up, for that reason the Nikon DSLR's close the mirror after a certain time period. As the Nikon D3200 does not have a mirror lock up function for taking exposures ( it only has a lock up function for sensor cleaning), the only way to keep the mirror up is to use live view.

As for the shutter actuations, most camera manufacturers rate the life via accelerated testing. They will continually fire the shutter until it fails using a number of camera's from a batch, the average of these test tends to be declared as the expected shutter life. This does not mean the camera is guaranteed to fire 100,000 times before failing, it could fail after half or double this number.

The double mirror slap on the cannon is interesting (I am in the Nikon camp so have never used a Cannon),

Best regards

Benno.

[happy-kat]

Sounds like whether it is hot sensor or double mirror slap neither are great.

I don't use live view far easier to focus via tablet display for night time use.

My error for some reason thought canon but of course D3200 is Nikon.