Mirror Lock Up (again)

[rvmeder]

I’m using BYE 3.2.0 with a Canon Rebel SL2 (a/k/a 200D outside the United States).  I have been generally very pleased with BYE and have achieved what I think are pretty good results for someone that is new to astrophotography.

Before I go further, as a long time serious amateur photographer, I understand and agree with the Admin’s position that mirror lock-up is essentially meaningless for a long exposure of a very dim object.  However, for what I have been doing, the “sweet spot” has been several hundred 15-20 second exposures at ISO 800 - 1600.  Any vibration in this regime is an image killer.  I’ve found that it takes 10 seconds for everything to damp out after the mirror “flops” up when using a heavy lens (Sigma 120-400).  The only way I’ve found to accomplish this is to have the software cycle the mirror up between every exposure.  For a 300 image sequence, this adds 3,000 seconds to the work flow.  I’d rather use that time gathering another 100 images on a good seeing night.

With that background, is there something I’ve missed?  Is there a “lock-up and leave locked-up” (like the mechanical lock on my old FTb) setting I’ve missed?  If not, will Canon’s CODEC support it and could you incorporate it in a later release?

Thanks in advance.

[astroman133]

You should pose your need as a request for enhancement in the Feature Suggestion Box Forum, or add to an existing post.

It seems as though the mount assembly is pretty unstable if a camera with a heavy lens takes 10 seconds to settle as a result of the mirror flipping up.

Have you considered a mirrorless camera? like the M6 Mk II?

[admin]

40 minutes ago, rvmeder said:

With that background, is there something I’ve missed?  Is there a “lock-up and leave locked-up” (like the mechanical lock on my old FTb) setting I’ve missed?  If not, will Canon’s CODEC support it and could you incorporate it in a later release?

Sadly, this is not physically possible with Canon's DSLR.  BYE can only do what (1) is physically possible by the native camera firmware, and (2) can only call commands that Canon has exposed in their SDK (Software Development Kit).  I'm not aware of anything that satisfies these requirements.

You best bet maybe to invest into mirrorless camera, Canon has a few models now and some are/may be reasonably priced.

[rvmeder]

Thanks for the reply.  As I said, I didn’t know if Canon supported that or not.  I was hoping they did as the software for their own remote app does when remote shooting.

Yes, I’m very aware of their mirrorless camera bodies, but since I’m new to this, I wanted to explore what could be done with what I have on hand first.

As to the point made about the mount’s stability: it is a very popular equatorial mount which I won’t throw under the bus by naming them.   10 seconds is what I settled on in frustration - I’ll run some test images to see what a good minimum would be.

I appreciate the quick response.

[astroman133]

I may be wrong, but if the EOS Utility can raise the mirror and keep it raised for multiple exposures then it seems as though the SDK supports that capability. In that case then perhaps there is a way for BYE to implement similar capability.

[admin]

It's a false sense of capability.

The only way to lift the mirror in advance of taking a picture is to trigger live view mirror up. Sure that works, but it's not a true mirror-up command.  It enables live view, even if you do not download the stream of images, it activates all sort of other 'invisible' in-camera electronics and that electronics (now active) will generate heat, may introduce amp glow, and may even introduce light leakage.  It's not a one for one.

Regards,

[s3igell]

3 hours ago, rvmeder said:

As to the point made about the mount’s stability: it is a very popular equatorial mount which I won’t throw under the bus by naming them.   10 seconds is what I settled on in frustration - I’ll run some test images to see what a good minimum would be.

Go ahead and Name the Mount.  It's a Good Bet that one of us "Regulars" has experience with that Mount, and can possibly give Hints as to how to Improve its Performance.