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Darmok N Jalad

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Sep 26, 2017
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It's something I haven't really messed with that much, but I've been reading a little bit about the 3 different shutter modes that many cameras (mirrorless) have--mechanical, electronic, and e-curtain.

I've only really run as a mechanical shutter shooter to this point, but I'm seeing that there may be benefits to the 3 different types depending on the situation. Rather than a poll, I'd like to open the floor on what everyone uses, when, and why. Feel free to weigh in!
 
I had to go look at my cameras to see what they were set to.... suppose that goes someway to answering the question.

Mechanical mainly though one of them switches to electronic above 1/8000th of a second - suppose that is a physical movement limitation

Also, electronic shutter for silent shooting at events.
 
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Personally, I use either a mechanical focal plane shutter or a leaf shutter. The leaf shutter is within the lens and operates like an iris opening and closing. The result is low vibration, near silence and no limitations to flash sync speed (other than the duration of the flash itself). On the downside they make lenses more expensive to produce and the maximum shutter speed can be fairly slow.

I use flash a lot in studio and daylight and my subjects are usually cars or products with highly reflective surfaces. I therefore need to have good control of ambient light. Having high flash sync speeds allows me to do this.

I don't have much experience of electronic shutters but would love to explore the creative possibilities of the way they can distort fast moving subjects.
 
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I wouldn't be surprised if -- in time -- "mechanical" shutters fade into the fog of camera history as optical viewfinders are doing right now...
 
I wouldn't be surprised if -- in time -- "mechanical" shutters fade into the fog of camera history as optical viewfinders are doing right now...

Getting a fast enough sensor readout to make electronic shutters work well in a wider set of use cases will be extremely challenging.
 
I wonder when Global shutters or something like that will become the norm for digital cameras. Lots of R&D on it just now but probably 5-10 years away? Maybe, who knows? It will be a massive development when it comes.
 
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On my Sony, technically, they are all electronic and the one I don't use is e-curtain. It has more specialized uses that I just don't think of it. Primary is the electronically controlled focal plane which is the equivalent of manual which gives the feedback, thump. Silent, which is totally silent, is used at concerts and when trying not to distract the subject, such as kids. The only problem with silent is forgetting to switch it back, then wondering why the camera won't take a picture as you didn't hear the thump. Have similar problem with certain lens with the AF/MF switch and discover, typically when looking at full screen in post, that out focus as forgot to change back to AF, or worse apparently shifted on its own because I don't recall any situation where I shifted to MF during the shoot.
 
It depends on the camera I'm using. With my Olympus E-M1 Mk2, which has a sensor readout speed of around 1/60, it's fast enough that I can use the electronic shutter for most things. I only switch to the mechanical shutter (which operates in a electronic first-curtain mode most of the type, changing to full mechanical above certain shutter speeds) if I'm shooting something that is very fast, or occasionally when there's fluorescent lighting and I'm worried about banding. I've read on Sony forums that people worry about electronic shutter impacts on bokeh, but I don't know the specifics about it. I haven't noticed any difference between mechanical and electronic shutter, though. Otherwise, I appreciate the silent shooting in so many ways. It saves on wear and tear for the mechanical shutter. It doesn't wake my young children up when I do sleeping baby photos, and at family parties it's great for candid photos. People can't easily tell whether I'm taking video or a photo, so they're initially always on guard and then ease up. Lastly, because I love Olympus' f/1.2 primes and often shoot wide open, being able to expose at 1/32000 means I'm not dealing with overexposure issues in normal lighting.

My other camera is a Fujifilm GFX 50S. It has a sensor readout speed of around 1/4, meaning that even slight motion (such as if shooting handheld) leads to that "jello" effect. Full electronic exposure is essentially useless. Instead, I use electronic first curtain all the time, which switches to full mechanical above certain shutter speeds. It's more responsive than full mechanical in most cases.

The holy grail of mirrorless camera exposures, the global electronic shutter, will make sensor readout speed issues a thing of the past. I suspect once we have that, mechanical shutters will only be included on select cameras.
 
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A9’s electronical shutter is required to achieve 20 FPS, going more than 1/8000, and getting no blackout (as far as I understand).
 
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