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Best Practices to Avoid GX8/100-400 Shutter Shock

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BillSprague

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I have the camera and lens. I won't be returning or selling it anytime soon. Given recent discussions, I'll assume shutter shock will affect my images. My interest at this point is to determine the best way to minimize it.

I'm pleasantly surprised that it is possible for me to hand hold an 800mm equivalent lens at all!

Is the best practice as simple as using electronic shutter for everything that isn't moving fast? Then for fast trains, wild horses or hummingbirds, set manual shutter, ISO to around 1600, wide f-stop and shutter speed as high as possible? I've not tried it, but am tempted to take the camera and lens for a walk with it on iA!

Apologies if this is well answered in another thread and thanks for the help.
 
BillSprague said:
I have the camera and lens. I won't be returning or selling it anytime soon. Given recent discussions, I'll assume shutter shock will affect my images. My interest at this point is to determine the best way to minimize it.

I'm pleasantly surprised that it is possible for me to hand hold an 800mm equivalent lens at all!

Is the best practice as simple as using electronic shutter for everything that isn't moving fast? Then for fast trains, wild horses or hummingbirds, set manual shutter, ISO to around 1600, wide f-stop and shutter speed as high as possible? I've not tried it, but am tempted to take the camera and lens for a walk with it on iA!

Apologies if this is well answered in another thread and thanks for the help.
Click to expand...
 
Ranlee said:
Yes, for stationary subjects use the e-shutter unless your shutter speed is above 1/1000. I know that at 1/1200SS mechanical I do not see any shock. As for ISO I have C3 -1,2,3 programmed exactly the same except with ISO ceilings of 800, 1600 and then 3200 respectively. Normally I use the 800 ceiling mode but can then quickly bump that up with one turn of the dial. I haven't tried iA because I don't like more than one focus box and I like the smallest possible short of pinpoint.
Click to expand...
 
BillSprague said:
Ranlee said:
Yes, for stationary subjects use the e-shutter unless your shutter speed is above 1/1000. I know that at 1/1200SS mechanical I do not see any shock. As for ISO I have C3 -1,2,3 programmed exactly the same except with ISO ceilings of 800, 1600 and then 3200 respectively. Normally I use the 800 ceiling mode but can then quickly bump that up with one turn of the dial. I haven't tried iA because I don't like more than one focus box and I like the smallest possible short of pinpoint.

--
Randy
Click to expand...
Thank you for the confirmation Randy.

Yesterday I tried the GX8 Auto Shutter. When a 14-140 is attached, it is obvious when the camera picks electronic shutter. With the 100-400 attached, it didn't appear to ever select electronic.

In a sense, something moving fast, might normally need a high shutter speed anyway. So switching to mechanical wouldn't be limiting.

I've not yet set up my memory slots because I've not yet isolated the perfect purpose. When I had a GX7, I did. But, then I would forget the unique purpose of each and never used them.

--
Bill Sprague
Click to expand...
I hear you regarding the memory slots. The more complicated I made them (and the more different) the less I used them or as you say remembered them. The purely ISO arrangement works for me because even I can remember that much. :-) I got caught earlier this year with camera left on ISO 6400 ( I was doing some testing) and ended up shooting (but not realizing it) at that 6400 in a hurried situation resulting in a much dirtier shot than it needed to be. I kicked myself because it was a shot of a resident owl in my woods that I been trying to get for a number of years. Very elusive that bugger. I did get the shot but it could have been much better. I'm thinking of posting it in a new thread soon.

Oh, correction for my original post - with C3, 1,2,3 it doesn't require a turn of the dial but a touch of the LCD to change between the 3. Almost as easy.

--
Randy
 
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i have this great combination and keep them together. my oly m1 attaches to my other lenses.

dual-IS is the most underrated feature i've heard of in photography equipment. only a couple people at my last class knew anything bout it; even the m4/3 owners.

being new to m4/3 and shooting DSLR for over 30 years, i'm not sure exactly what shutter shock is but think it's like mirror slap on a DSLR where a mechanical movement slamming into another object causes a vibration. with mirror vibration, i didn't notice anything unless i was shooting under 1/60. anytime i shot longer than that, i'd try to get a tripod and use mirror lockup.

is shutter shock like that and if so, wouldn't shooting at a high shutter speed avoid the vibration effects?

after finding out about shutter shock, i set one of my m43 (m1 i think) to electronic and tried to shoot a long exposure on a macro shot. at first, i couldn't figure out why my manual shutter wouldn't go lower than 1/8" (i think). i have to shoot slower than this with a mechanical shutter mode? what about bulb exposure?

getting back to the subject, i've never noticed any blurry pictures with my gx8 and 100-40 but at 400, i could have had a little sharper. i'll have to do a test to see if i notice the difference between mechanical and electronic shutter with both the oly m1 and gx8.
 
darrinlingle said:
i have this great combination and keep them together. my oly m1 attaches to my other lenses.

dual-IS is the most underrated feature i've heard of in photography equipment. only a couple people at my last class knew anything bout it; even the m4/3 owners.

being new to m4/3 and shooting DSLR for over 30 years, i'm not sure exactly what shutter shock is but think it's like mirror slap on a DSLR where a mechanical movement slamming into another object causes a vibration. with mirror vibration, i didn't notice anything unless i was shooting under 1/60. anytime i shot longer than that, i'd try to get a tripod and use mirror lockup.

is shutter shock like that and if so, wouldn't shooting at a high shutter speed avoid the vibration effects?

after finding out about shutter shock, i set one of my m43 (m1 i think) to electronic and tried to shoot a long exposure on a macro shot. at first, i couldn't figure out why my manual shutter wouldn't go lower than 1/8" (i think). i have to shoot slower than this with a mechanical shutter mode? what about bulb exposure?

getting back to the subject, i've never noticed any blurry pictures with my gx8 and 100-40 but at 400, i could have had a little sharper. i'll have to do a test to see if i notice the difference between mechanical and electronic shutter with both the oly m1 and gx8.
Click to expand...
 
Impulses said:
darrinlingle said:
i have this great combination and keep them together. my oly m1 attaches to my other lenses.

dual-IS is the most underrated feature i've heard of in photography equipment. only a couple people at my last class knew anything bout it; even the m4/3 owners.

being new to m4/3 and shooting DSLR for over 30 years, i'm not sure exactly what shutter shock is but think it's like mirror slap on a DSLR where a mechanical movement slamming into another object causes a vibration. with mirror vibration, i didn't notice anything unless i was shooting under 1/60. anytime i shot longer than that, i'd try to get a tripod and use mirror lockup.

is shutter shock like that and if so, wouldn't shooting at a high shutter speed avoid the vibration effects?

after finding out about shutter shock, i set one of my m43 (m1 i think) to electronic and tried to shoot a long exposure on a macro shot. at first, i couldn't figure out why my manual shutter wouldn't go lower than 1/8" (i think). i have to shoot slower than this with a mechanical shutter mode? what about bulb exposure?

getting back to the subject, i've never noticed any blurry pictures with my gx8 and 100-40 but at 400, i could have had a little sharper. i'll have to do a test to see if i notice the difference between mechanical and electronic shutter with both the oly m1 and gx8.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Ranlee said:
......... I also know my GX8 and 100-400 combo is also prone to SS. I didn't test at every SS but I know it was not visible at 1/1200 and I expect at somewhat slower speeds also but I could not attest to that.
Click to expand...
 
Impulses said:
Recent thread to get you started if you wanna do some more reading:

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/58164686
Click to expand...
Impulses,

Thanks for responding to my question. Your link is to the long topic that inspired me to start this one. That topic makes it clear the 100-400 can contribute to shutter shock but most of the posters in that topic are using Olympus bodies. And, the topic is about testing procedures more than practical shooting. Hence, I thought it might be useful to determine practical working habits to minimize, reduce or even eliminate shutter shock effects when using the GX8 with the 100-400.

I am not questioning the existence of shutter shock. I'm trying to determine some best practices.
 
Let me clarify a bit further. I use the e-shutter 95% of the time with my GX8 and the 100-400. One thing to remember is that even moving subjects do not necessarily distort to a image ruining point using the e-shutter. Here are 2 very similar pictures from my gallery both with e-shutter (in fact all in my gallery are I believe).











The second is obviously more affected than the first and I expect its because of the actual wing movements relationship to the plane of the sensor. Someone may correct my assumption but I think the more parallel the movement is to the sensor the more distortion.

--
Randy
 
Bill I won't go into why now, but sometimes switching the stabilization off will give a far sharper image, I have no idea why
 
Ranlee said:
Let me clarify a bit further. I use the e-shutter 95% of the time with my GX8 and the 100-400. One thing to remember is that even moving subjects do not necessarily distort to a image ruining point using the e-shutter. Here are 2 very similar pictures from my gallery both with e-shutter (in fact all in my gallery are I believe).





The second is obviously more affected than the first and I expect its because of the actual wing movements relationship to the plane of the sensor. Someone may correct my assumption but I think the more parallel the movement is to the sensor the more distortion.

--
Randy
Click to expand...
the second one looks very unnatural but kind of cool. it's like a special effect, like the unnatural look of a slow shutter speed waterfall.

--
Darrin Lingle, Colorado
 
BillSprague said:
Impulses said:
Recent thread to get you started if you wanna do some more reading:

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/58164686
Click to expand...
Impulses,

Thanks for responding to my question. Your link is to the long topic that inspired me to start this one. That topic makes it clear the 100-400 can contribute to shutter shock but most of the posters in that topic are using Olympus bodies. And, the topic is about testing procedures more than practical shooting. Hence, I thought it might be useful to determine practical working habits to minimize, reduce or even eliminate shutter shock effects when using the GX8 with the 100-400.

I am not questioning the existence of shutter shock. I'm trying to determine some best practices.
Click to expand...
 
Ummm are there even evidence of shutter shock to begin with? Where did this assumption come from? This will become and epidemic because of rumors.
 
situman1 said:
Ummm are there even evidence of shutter shock to begin with? Where did this assumption come from? This will become and epidemic because of rumors.
Click to expand...
It seems to be a potential issue with all longer lenses

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www.dpreview.com
 
go check out the Camera Project's video from when Panasonic released the V2.0 firmware. they explain the new Auto shutter mode added and how it woks:
 
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