Why does my Nikon D5100 make extra mirror and shutter noises in Live View?
Asked 4/20/2020
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2 answers
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On my Nikon D5100, entering Live View locks the mirror up and shows the scene on the rear screen. But when I press the shutter, the screen turns off and I hear several sounds, as if the mirror drops, the shutter cycles, and then the mirror goes back up again.
If the sensor is already receiving light for Live View, why can't the camera just record the image silently like a mirrorless camera or video mode? What mechanical steps are happening here, and is there any way to reduce or avoid them?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
6y ago
2 Answers
10
On a DSLR, when you use the viewfinder, the mirror is lowered, and a secondary mirror reflects some of the light to phase-based AF and exposure sensors at the bottom of the camera. These are accurate and fast.
When you use live view, the AF is contrast-based AF (the camera lens hunts until it find a position that maximizes contrast). This is slow (in your camera, likely much too slow for a moving object) and not too accurate.
So, when you take the picture, it can make sense to shortly lower the mirror again to use the faster and more accurate phase-AF sensors (and possibly the exposure sensors).
More recent cameras can have a better AF that uses the main sensor alone (for instance, the Canon cameras have "dual pixel" sensors that act as phase-based AF sensors), and may not need to switch to the external sensors.
Originally by user75947. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user75947
6y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
This is normal for many DSLRs, including the D5100. In Live View, the camera uses the main sensor to generate a video-style feed, which is not the same state used for a full-resolution still photo. To take the picture, the camera typically has to reset the sensor and cycle the shutter so it can start a proper still exposure.
On Nikon entry-level DSLRs, the mirror mechanism is also tied to other functions such as aperture actuation, so the mirror may need to cycle as part of taking the shot. That’s why you hear multiple sounds and see the screen go dark briefly.
Also, Live View on these cameras uses slower contrast-detect autofocus from the main sensor. Some DSLRs may briefly return to their normal still-photography state to handle focus or exposure tasks before capturing the frame.
Mirrorless cameras are designed around constant sensor readout for both preview and capture, so they can avoid much of this behavior. On the D5100, you generally can’t make it fully silent in Live View; it’s a limitation of the DSLR design.
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