I have spent a fair amount of time on low-light photography using tripod and have found my personal style in capturing details with short DOF – the EF 70-200/2.8IS and the EF 180/3.5 Macro which are my main companions in this field. Some samples of the picture style I strive to achieve can be found at https://pbase.com/jakobe/abandoned_distillery [180 macro mainly] and https://pbase.com/jakobe/they_left_and_locked [70-200 mainly]

Although I initially used a cable release, I found that the 2 second delay was far less awkward and produced equal results - at least according to my personal judgement.

Although I have shot for years with this kind of setup, I haven’t bothered using the mirror lockup feature on a regular basis as it is so cumbersome to switch it in and out. However, I recently decided to turn it on a longer session. I was really puzzled by the results – motion blur due to camera shake increased. Usually I consider about 9 of 10 as keepers of the shots with short DOF using these two lenses, but in my first real-life MLU experience this ratio probably dropped to 7 of 10.

I decided to make a simple test by taking some test shots on a rasterized map and guess what – I managed to reproduce this motion blur problem. MLU, no MLU and a FLASH sample as reference.

I have a really sturdy Manfrotto tripod with a tough 468RC4 ball head and I always attach these lenses with the tripod ring. Is there some kind of "after shock" where these large lenses do not settle within the two seconds?

This somewhat surprises me. Anyone with the same experience?