Canon 1000d PC Contol S/W problem

[BlueAstra]

I notice that if I set mirror lockup or timer exposure on the camera, a warning notice ('mirror lockup set') appears in the PC control window. A little red light appears over the shutter button, and the button itself doesn't function. If I deselect mirror lockup or timer on the camera, the PC control window shutter button works normally. (Bulb exposure used).

Does anyone know if this is normal, or if it is possible to use the PC control with mirror lockup?

You can work around it be selecting liveview, which locks up the mirror during use, but this adds noise as the ccd heats up.

[BlueAstra]

OK I now have the answer from Canon. If you are using PC control via the EOS utility, you cannot enable mirror lockup AND have shutter control from the PC. Useful eh? You can work around this by enabling liveview from the PC, which locks up the mirror during use. However this will heat up the CCD and add noise. And, of course, you can have full control if mirror lock is not enabled.

So, if you want to remote control the camera from the PC, with mirror lockup, etc, you will need to add a hardware remote shutter release to operate the shutter. Probably easier to operate the camera manually and use a remote shutter release.

Shame really, since the programmable shutter control (eg 10 x 30s) was quite useful. But only works if mirror lockup is not enabled.

[Psychobilly]

I would expect the effects of shutter/mirror induced vibration would be pretty small unless you have a very bright object in the frame.

more problematic "sources" of vibration are the effects of wind, people moving around the scope etc.. If you can fire remotely or use the self timer to give a delay to allow you to move away from the scope...

Lunar shots at long focal length and relatively short exposure will benefit the most from using mirror lockup...

Peter...

[themos]

Also, I can't find a way to initiate a burst mode exposure from EOS Utility. Resorted to using a clamp on the shutter button.

[Psychobilly]

Hmmm i'll have a play....it is a right PITA as even with the camera set to continous shooting it only captures and uploads a single frame... the miunimum time interval for the timer mode is 5s probably to give time for the camera to upload the image to the pc...

Peter....