NX30 electronic shutter

Nakiphoto wrote:

Is the NX30's electronic shutter silent? I've got to really like the silent electronic shutter on the V1. It's not a deal breaker if it hasn't, just keen to know....

As an aside; does the NX1000 have a silent shutter option? Thanks!

Most large sensor cameras use a focal plane shutter, this consists of two shutter curtains, a first/leading and a second/trailing curtain. They call them curtains because they go over the top of the sensor like a curtain slides in front of a window.

The NX30 does not have a rolling (like V1) or global "electronic shutter", it has an "electronic first curtain" shutter. Meaning, the first curtain is electronic (optionally), but the trailing curtain is mechanical.

So technically, the first curtain is silent, but the second curtain makes a shutter noise. You get about half the shutter noise with this setup vs mechanical first and second curtains. You can optionally enable a synthetic noise for the first curtain, since it can be disturbing for longer exposures that the camera doesn't make a noise until it is done with the photo.

The main benefits to the electronic first curtain are that it has much shorter shutter lag then a mechanical first curtain and the leading/first curtain doesn't introduce vibration into the image so you get less "shutter blur" (See Olympus and Sony issues with this).

Less shutter lag means the camera starts exposing the image quicker after you press the shutter release (good for capturing action shots in focus, first shot off is always in focus and subject hasn't moved much once the shutter starts opening). Only the NX20 and NX30 have electronic first curtains, but how Samsung implements the shutter, the others are still very quiet and don't have much lag.

Eric