{"id":45287,"date":"2018-06-18T23:10:23","date_gmt":"2018-06-19T03:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/?p=45287"},"modified":"2018-12-15T14:38:32","modified_gmt":"2018-12-15T18:38:32","slug":"mirrorless-cameras-silent-shutter-electronic-shutter-vs-mechanical-shutter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/mirrorless-cameras-silent-shutter-electronic-shutter-vs-mechanical-shutter\/","title":{"rendered":"Silent Shutter \/ Electronic shutter vs mechanical shutter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Silent Shutter \/ Electronic shutter vs mechanical shutter<\/h1>\n

I \u201caccidentally\u201d bought a new camera recently. I had no real intent to. This is going to be a long story … or a short review. The story starts when I dropped the small camera Fuji X-T20<\/a>\u00a0(affiliate<\/em>) that I use on a gimbal. While it was still in for repairs, so I went in to my local camera store, to see what I could rent for a gig that upcoming weekend.<\/p>\n

I idly asked to see the new Fuji X-H1<\/a>\u00a0(affiliate<\/em>)\u00a0… and the moment I tripped the shutter, I knew this was the camera I had been looking for. It has the quietest mechanical shutter that I\u2019ve ever heard. Super-quiet shutter sound – only the slightest of \u201csnick\u201d sounds. And if I wanted an actual silent shutter, it offers an electronic shutter like other mirrorless cameras.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mechanical shutters vs\u00a0Electronic shutters<\/h2>\n

Mechanical shutters come in two types – leaf shutters (more commonly found in medium format cameras), and focal plane shutters (which we commonly find in 35mm film cameras and DSLRs. The focal plane shutter which everyone is familiar with, has two curtains which physically open and close to expose the sensor to light. The time difference<\/strong> between the first (front) shutter opening, and the second (rear) curtain closing, determines the shutter speed.<\/p>\n

Mechanical shutters, by their very nature, make some kind of sound. Add to this the sound of the mirror flipping up and down with DSLR cameras, and you have even more noise when you trip the shutter. This combined sound can be lessened somewhat with DSLRs when they delay the mirror returning down. This is what happens with the Quiet mode on DSLRs. It\u2019s slightly quieter, but not silent.<\/p>\n

For a truly silent shutter, an electronic shutter is needed. An electronic shutter reads the data from the sensor, line by line. No mechanical shutter involved – but the time taken for the data to be read, (which varies from design to design), can cause problems under certain conditions. You can get “rolling shutter” – for example wiper blades become bendy. Or when the camera moves at certain speeds, the subject can become “wobbly”.<\/p>\n

The real problem with electronic shutters appears when you get banding in your photos when shooting in with certain types of artificial lighting. Some artificial lighting isn’t quite continuous, but pulses (usually at the frequency of the AC power.) Then you get<\/p>\n

Here are two examples from a wedding that I photographed, where I tested the\u00a0Sony A7R III<\/a>\u00a0 (B&H<\/em><\/a> \/ Amazon<\/em><\/a>) for a few frames to see how the silent \/ electronic shutter would work out. Not so well, in this situation.<\/p>\n

The banding is quite horrendous.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here is another photo taken directly afterwards, using the mechanical shutter.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Both images were taken at 1\/200 @ f\/2 @ 3200 ISO<\/p>\n

The banding may have been reduced at slower shutter speeds. I wasn’t going to experiment any further during the wedding, and continued with my workhorse cameras – the Nikon D5 and D810.<\/p>\n

This banding \u00a0is nearly impossible to fix in post-production. The appearance of the banding depends on a few things though:<\/p>\n