Fujifilm X-H2 and Electronic Shutter

goodbokeh wrote:

Truman Prevatt wrote:

goodbokeh wrote:

Sgt_Strider wrote:

From what I gather so far, it seems like the e-shutter is nowhere close to being as fast as the X-H2S so rolling shutter will be a problem. However, I'm now reading that some people still intend to buy this camera for shooting movies? Whoa? Am I missing something here? After using an e-shutter, I hesitate to go back to the mechanical shutter for fear of shutter shock despite the supposed improvement Fujifilm made. What do you guys think? I really wish DPR and everyone else will go in-depth about the e-shutter in their eventual review.

You may be conflating two concepts: E-shutter that is used for all videos and mechanical shutter shock for still photos. Most modern Fuji cameras have an alternative shutter setting (to full mechanical shutter) called E-Front Curtain Shutter. It is often set as the factory default and can be combined with full mechanical at higher shutter speeds for IQ benefits where shutter shock is not a problem.

E-Front Curtain Shutter has been adopted by most camera companies: Sony, Canon, Nikon, Fuji, Panasonic (Lumix), Olympus and others. It has proven to be very effective at substantially reducing shutter shock. It has done a great job on my 102MP Fuji 100S. Of course the only way to 100% eliminate shutter shock is with an electronic shutter. Without a stacked sensor (like the X-H2S, Sony A1, Nikon Z9 have) electronic shutters are slow in scanning and reduced DR, making them compromised with imaging defects often undesirable for still photos and also for video as you point out.

It's a known and well documented fact that Electronic first curtain produces rendering artifacts.

Here is an example.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KnE1MEJ_2g

There are plenty of other documented examples.

EFC was a good idea but when it escaped into the wild - it was shown to have problems. All shutters where the total sensor is not exposed instantaneously can and will in certain situations produce artifacts. The solution is all the sensor be exposed instantaneously. On the mechanical side a in lens leaf shutter is the solution. On the electronic side a global electronic shutter is the solution.

The issue with in lens leaf shutters it makes lenses expensive which is why focal plane shutters were invented. For electronic shutters - well it would require an instantaneously read out of the sensor. Back in the day, MicroSoft developed and touted an OS the called NT. It did everything for everyone and eliminated the gross hackability of Windows. Promises, promises,..., it was so late and so bad NT became to be known as Not There. I never made it of course.

A global shutter is the Holy Grail of digital photography. Some very, very expensive military cameras have global shutters for a premium price. Some industrial security cameras have a global shutter but their size is pretty limited - not FF or APSC sizes. Not as expensive as the military versions but a heck of a lot more expensive than what the consumer would want to pay.

So the promise of global shutters to end the issues of mechanical shutters and electronic shutters and worse their half and half off-spring known as the EFC in consumer cameras is like the MicroSoft promise of a good robust OS, NT - Not There yet.

Truman, yes the pie in the sky Global Shutter has been talked about for years and years and is irrelevant today and for years to come. Leaf shutters have their own drawbacks.

In the here and now you do own an X-Pro3. One of the shutter options for that camera is "E-Front Curtain + Mechanical" where the mechanical shutter takes over at 1/2000 sec. That setting is meant to deal with both shutter shock and bokeh artifacts and inaccurate exposure of a pure electronic front curtain setting.

"E-Front Curtain + Mechanical": Shutter shock minimized, good bokeh and exposure accuracy maximized in this imperfect world of no Global Shutter.

Yes I do own a XPro3. I also own a XH1 which my wife stole. At first I set them to EFC+mechanical+E. After the first indications of issues surfaced which I believe was a Nikon or Canon - I started researching the issue. What I found was it is not one camera - it is the EFC shutter design across the board. It also can be seen in shutter speeds well below 1/2000. I have changed my default settings to M+E. I am much more pleased with the results. The big drawback with the lens shutter is speed. It maxes out much lower than a focal plane shutter. A global shutter will arrive at some point but it is a ways off.

I am a bokeh snob. I don't want cats eyes or onion rings. One of the things the the EFC does is to turn what should be nice round fuzzy gaussian shaped bokeh balls into balls with sharp cut off. When I noticed this I started researching the issue.

There are plenty of YouTubes showing this but of course none of them really understand why. There is a simple physical reason.

https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/116682/why-does-electronic-first-curtain-shutter-affect-rendering-of-blurred-background

The key is to get the read out fast enough so that it is as fast as the mechanical slip scan of the sensor and then the ES will not produce any more rolling shutter than the mechanical shutter.  Nikon seems to think they have it in the Z9.  The flash sync speed of the XH2S is comparable to that of the Z9 and is the same for ES and MS so the XH2S may be there.  If that is the case - then no need for EFS.

If you like EFS - fine by me.  I, however, don't like otherwise nice fuzzy bokeh balls cut off in sharp edges.