A good substitute for mirror lock-up and aperture pre-fire, with
no annoying beeping, AND that gives you and not the self timer
control over exactly when the shutter is tripped is to add
vibration-absorbing weight to the camera and lens. This works,
and here's how I?ve done it and how you can do it too! <G>
Go to your friendly neighborhood gun store, one that sells
reloading supplies and equipment, and buy 10 or so pounds of No. 5
or 6 lead shot, the stuff shotgun shells are loaded with. There
are many different sizes of shot, and the higher the number, the
smaller the individual shot. I wouldn't get anything smaller than
7 or larger than 4. No. 4 is approaching BB size and won't work
as well as the smaller stuff, and anything smaller than No. 7
escapes too easily.
Find or make a small cloth sack, approximately eight or nine
inches in length and three or four inches in diameter. Fill it
about two-thirds full with the shot and sew it closed. Don't
stuff it like a sausage; it needs room to flow within the confines
of the bag so it can drape itself over whatever you lay it on. I
use a couple of nylon Coleman stuff sacks, which can be found in
the camping supplies section of Target or Wal-Mart, etc., and
certainly at any place that sells camping equipment, and most
likely where you bought the shot in the first place. The sack
with the shot is inserted upside down into an identical sack, also
best sewn shut. This stuff is small, round, heavy and flows
almost like water and needs to be corralled securely or it will
try to get away.
This sack, depending on size and how much shot you filled it with,
is going to now weigh six or eight pounds -- after all, this is
lead -- so it's not a gimmick likely to be a favorite of
backpackers, but for those of us who haul our stuff around in a
car, truck or covered wagon, it's one accessory guaranteed to work
as advertised, last for years, never need new batteries, and can
hold down your tablecloth on a windy day. To use, lay the sack
longways on the camera and lens, with the midpoint about where the
lens and camera meet, but don't cover the viewfinder if you still
want to see what you're going to shoot. Of course, this assumes
you're using a decent tripod, one that is rated to accommodate a
minimum of 15 pounds.
The results are maybe not quite the equivalent of mirror lock-up
and diaphragm pre-fire, but the improvement with long lenses at
shutter speeds of 1/60 and slower is definitely visible. I've
made shots with and without, and under only modest magnification,
the difference is plain to see. And again, the best part is that
you still see what you?re shooting in the viewfinder and you have
control over exactly when the shutter is tripped.
Those without access to, or who have some unnatural aversion to,
gun stores can use sand, but it's much less satisfactory, being
lighter, resulting in far more bulk for the same weight, and it's
really untidy, tending to leak out no matter how carefully you sew
it up. And I sure wouldn't want sand dripping on my Olys and
Zuikos.
Walt Wayman
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