The goal of this paper is to use FFT imaging techniques to measure in-plane resonances of MEMS devices from blurred microphotographs where the presence of resonance is not visually discernable. A method is presented for measuring the high-frequency (in the 10s–100s of kHz range) response characteristics of MEMS devices using only standard optical microscope cameras (15–30 Hz frame rate) and applying Fourier analysis of camera images of periodic patterns on the oscillating devices. In the frequency domain, in-plane blurring acts as a low pass filter, attenuating all frequency components, but preferentially attenuating the higher order harmonics. A theoretical formula for the blur-induced attenuation of the harmonics of Fourier series components is derived and it is shown that it follows a Bessel curve. The theoretical predictions were verified experimentally using a series of camera microphotographs of three different variations of an electro-thermally driven pad suspended on springs. The predicted attenuations of harmonics were observed and verified. The analysis of the measured attenuation was able to (1) determine in-plane resonant frequencies, (2) measure submicron motions and (3) characterize the nonlinear dynamics (modeled by the Duffing equation). The amplitude uncertainty of the FFT method for detecting in-plane resonant peaks at 75 kHz and 3.5 V was found to be ±0.027 µm using a single image and ±0.011 µm using an average of 10 images.