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Electronic shutter: advantages and disadvantages

Started Sep 6, 2015 | Discussions thread
Dave Lively Senior Member • Posts: 1,938
Re: Electronic shutter: advantages and disadvantages
1

What's the sweep time with your camera?  If you do not know you can find out by taking a picture of a fluorescent light with the shutter speed set high enough to cause banding.  The sweep time is the number of bands divided by 2 times the AC frequency.  Or number of bands /120 in the US or other countries with 60 Hz AC.

On my GX7 the sweep time is about 8/120 = 1/15 of a second which is slow enough to cause problems with moving subjects.  If they could get it up to 1/60 or faster it would help a lot but the technology is not there yet.

Despite the slow sweep speed I use the electronic shutter much more often than the mechanical one.  The mechanical shutter in the GX7 is loud and harsh but even if it was quieter I would still prefer the shock free and completely silent electronic shutter.  Whenever I get a new camera one of the first things I do is turn off all the beeps, chirps and other noises.  I consider taking stealthy pictures of people not aware they are being photographed as the main subject an invasion of privacy and never do so intentionally.  But there is so much noise in modern life I do not need my camera adding to it.  Being stealthy has nothing to do with it.

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