In-situ study of deformation behaviour and mechanisms occurring during early stages of deformation is of a great practical importance. Low stacking fault energy materials, as is the case of AISI 304L, show non-linear deformation characteristics way below the bulk yield point. Shockley partial dislocations, formation of stacking faults respectively, resulting in creation of shear bands and ε-martensite transformation are the mechanisms occurring in the low strains in the studied steel. Acoustic emission and infrared thermography have been used in this study to investigate the deformation kinetics at the low strain stages of slow strain rate tensile tests. Acoustic emission cumulative energy together with the tracking of specimen maximum temperature have been found to be very useful in-situ techniques both supplementing each other in the sense of the sensitivity to different mechanisms. Mechanical, acoustic emission and infrared thermography results are discussed in detail with respect to potential occurred mechanism.