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Mirror Lockup countdown not working on 5DmkIII


MikeBenna

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Hi all, has anyone else had problems with the mirror lockup countdown not working? For me, I set it to 1 second and it sometimes does a 10 second delay (same as my exposure time) and other times if does -2,-1,0 (ie 2 second delay but displaying negative numbers).

 

It's hard to really explain what it looks like, but please watch this video to see with mirror lockup set to 1s and shutter set to 10s:

 

For those of you wondering WHY I want the mirror delay, it's because some of my shots are fairly short (<1s) and I'm going for maximum sharpness. The point of my post is not whether I need mirror lockup, rather just that an existing feature is not behaving as expected.

 

I'd really like something much shorter than two seconds, for example a .5s delay. Just enough to remove most of the mirror vibration but not enough to really slow down the time between shots, but that's a feature request instead of a bug report. :)

 

Has anyone else experienced this problem and do you have suggestions for what to do about it?

 

BYE 3.1.7 on Win10/64 (same experience before and after the anniversary update). Logs attached.


 

Mike
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After posting this I believe that I have an explanation of what is going on. It may be working, but is not behaving nicely.

 

When shooting non-bulb exposures with a mirror lock delay, BYE is starting the exposure and the antivibration time at the same time. I can hear the mirror flip up, Then, while the mirror lock delay is active, the progresss timer flickers between the anti-vibration time and the exposure counter time. I can see both of them counting. I believe that the value displayed by BYE is an approximate time because the exposure is actually being timed by the camera. After a second or 2 I can hear the shutter open. This is when the exposure actually starts. Finally at the end I can hear the shutter close, followed closely by the mirror flipping back down. The EXIF data for the exposure shows that it was a full 10 seconds. That is why I think that it is working. The issues are in the BYE user interface.

 

Hopefully Guylain can get that sorted out and that the Canon SDK supports operating the camera in sync with the U/I.

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It is correct that for "Non-Bulb" Timed Exposures, the CAMERA is in Control of the Exposure Timing (BYE is simply waiting to be told that the Exposure is Done and the Image is Ready for Download).

 

For Bulb Exposures, it is BYE in Control of the Exposure Timing.

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When shooting non-bulb exposures with a mirror lock delay, BYE is starting the exposure and the antivibration time at the same time. I can hear the mirror flip up, Then, while the mirror lock delay is active, the progresss timer flickers between the anti-vibration time and the exposure counter time. I can see both of them counting. [...] After a second or 2 I can hear the shutter open. This is when the exposure actually starts. Finally at the end I can hear the shutter close, followed closely by the mirror flipping back down. The EXIF data for the exposure shows that it was a full 10 seconds. That is why I think that it is working. The issues are in the BYE user interface.

Astroman133, That's consistent with what I'm seeing and does sound like a plausible explanation of the bug, however "working" might be a stretch... in this case I wanted 1 second of anti-vibration and 10 seconds of exposure, but I actually got 10 seconds of anti-vibration (9 too many) and 10 seconds exposure. That leaves more time gaps between exposures more than desired. I'd actually like just a 1/2 second anti-vibration since I suspect that takes care of over 95% of the camera shake. As you say, let's wait until Guylain can look at the code. :)

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... I wanted 1 second of anti-vibration and 10 seconds of exposure, but I actually got 10 seconds of anti-vibration (9 too many) and 10 seconds exposure.

 

Please ensure that you have LENR (Long Exposure Noise Reduction) turned OFF in your Camera.

 

LENR causes the In-Camera production of a "Dark" of the same Length as the "Light" Exposure being taken.

 

From your description:

It sounds like you could be seeing: 1sec of Mirror Lockup, then 10sec of Light Exposure, then 10sec of LENR.  

And that you are mistaking the Shutter-sound at End-of-Light-Exposure as "Start of Imaging".

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LENR is not something I considered... that was a good thought. I just checked and it is indeed OFF and has been off the entire time. I decided to record the audio so I could more precisely catch the timing of what the camera is doing (independent of the visuals in the UI). I set a 1 second mirror delay and 10 second exposure in the camera (not bulb). Here is what I get:

 

Mirror up to shutter: 3.8s (2.8s longer than expected)
Shutter to mirror down: 10.0s (exactly as expected)
Mirror down to next mirror up: 6.2s (I wish it were faster but probably nothing can be done here)
 
 
Mike
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Mirror up to shutter: 3.8s (2.8s longer than expected)

Shutter to mirror down: 10.0s (exactly as expected)
Mirror down to next mirror up: 6.2s (I wish it were faster but probably nothing can be done here)

The timings that you are reporting (almost) make sense.

 

1) Mirror Up - There are a few additional "Setup Commands" which BYE must push through the SDK to the Camera (and wait for SDK Confirmation).  Look to the BYE Log File (not the On-Screen Log display) for clues of these.

2) Shutter - Timing looks Good

3) Post-Exposure Cleanup - this Timing includes the Download of the Image(s) (for Exposures under 30sec the Download AND EXIF Processing occur In-Line are the Default - you can Disable the EXIF Processing but lose the Temperature Filename Indicator).

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Is this using TV or BULB images?  I ask because I see the display/countdown flickering in your youtube video and this is a sign of events misfiring.

 

Try with Tv and BULB and let me know if your get the same behavior.

 

Regards,

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Welcome back!

 

This is from the logs that were used to capture the video: 

2016-08-03 16:20:56,889 [20] DEBUG - TAKE PICTURE ::: Shutter(MANUAL) Cable(CameraUSB) Av(f/4) Duration(10.0) Iso(1600) Quality(IMAGE_RAW) Mirror(1) SaveTo(PC)

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Okay, this seems to be a bug for the 5D MkIII in either BYE or the actual SDK, probably BYE.  I'll try to look into it.  I'm not sure why this model behaves differently than other models.  This is usually is simple toggle on/off command.  Maybe it is a timing issue.  I'll look it but with a 5D Mk III on hand it could prove difficult to troubleshoot.

 

Regards

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After posting this I believe that I have an explanation of what is going on. It may be working, but is not behaving nicely.

 

When shooting non-bulb exposures with a mirror lock delay, BYE is starting the exposure and the antivibration time at the same time. I can hear the mirror flip up, Then, while the mirror lock delay is active, the progresss timer flickers between the anti-vibration time and the exposure counter time. I can see both of them counting. I believe that the value displayed by BYE is an approximate time because the exposure is actually being timed by the camera. After a second or 2 I can hear the shutter open. This is when the exposure actually starts. Finally at the end I can hear the shutter close, followed closely by the mirror flipping back down. The EXIF data for the exposure shows that it was a full 10 seconds. That is why I think that it is working. The issues are in the BYE user interface.

 

Hopefully Guylain can get that sorted out and that the Canon SDK supports operating the camera in sync with the U/I.

 

Yes, I have noticed exactly the same behaviour with my EOS 60D. The display when you use mirror-lock in MANUAL mode, kind of flickers between the anti-vibration time and the exposure counter time. It works out OK in the end, it is just that the display is confusing.

In BULB mode, the display does show what you expect perfeclty, namely: First you see the count-down of the antivibration time, and then the count-up of the exposure time

 

What I have noticed too is that you can first put the camera manually in Live View (pressing the button in the camera, once connected to BYE), and then take your sets of imaging exposures commanded from BYE (in MANUAL or BULB). The mirror will always be up during the whole process!

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I don't normally use the mirror lock delay, but tried to duplicate your issue and saw inconsistent behavior.

 

Using my T5i and BYE 3.1.7 I tried running a capture plan 3 or 4 times with groups of 3 exposures of 10 seconds each and a mirror lock value of 1 and an exposure of BULB and a Duration of 10 seconds. I always got the delay counting up from -2, even with a 1 second mirror lock delay followed by a 10 second exposure and then it repeated. This is what I expected.

 

However, when I tried a non-Bulb exposure of 10 seconds the behavior was as you saw. I believe that this is a bug, or perhaps an attempt to do something that the SDK does not support...That is to lock up the mirror in advance when the exposure is timed by the camera. Unfortunately that is exactly the behavior that is important to you.

 

Perhaps Guylain can figure out what is going on when he returns from his vacation.

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