Electronic shutter: advantages and disadvantages

I got an E-M10II a couple of days ago and have been checking it out. Today I tried out the new electronic shutter. My E-M10 and E-M5 don't have it so it was my first time to use one. I know that the E-M5II has it and some Panasonic bodies also have it though. From what I recall reading in the last few months here are the advantages and disadvantages. If you have a correction or you have something to add then please do so.

Advantages:

• totally silent
• no shutter shock (Olympus has anti-shock 0 for mechanical shutters also)
• no mechanical wear and tear
• higher shutter speeds possible

Disadvantages:

• can cause banding when there is fluorescent lighting
• can cause rolling shutter problem for rapidly moving subjects
• GH4 and some other Panasonic bodies switch to 10-bits with electronic shutter, but 12-bits for mechanical shutter -- GX7 uses 12-bits for both

Does the E-M10II use 12-bits for both the electronic shutter and the mechanical shutter?

Actually, I am sort of neutral on the totally silent advantage. For my shooting, the OM-D mechanical shutters seem quiet enough. I see that people who shoot theater and similar things would really welcome totally silent operation though. So much easier and cheaper than using one of those camera blimps. For street photography I have never seen where total silence was important. I have done a lot of it over the years using DSLRs that were much noisier than my E-M10 and E-M5 and had absolutely no problems. Also, on the street there is usually enough ambient noise that almost no one hears a shutter, especially the quiet one in the E-M5. I suppose upskirt photographers though highly value a totally silent shutter, but is m4/3 really the best choice for that type of photography anyway?

Henry Richardson wrote:

I got an E-M10II a couple of days ago and have been checking it out. Today I tried out the new electronic shutter. My E-M10 and E-M5 don't have it so it was my first time to use one. I know that the E-M5II has it and some Panasonic bodies also have it though. From what I recall reading in the last few months here are the advantages and disadvantages. If you have a correction or you have something to add then please do so.

Advantages:

• totally silent
• no shutter shock (Olympus has anti-shock 0 for mechanical shutters also)
• no mechanical wear and tear
• higher shutter speeds possible

Disadvantages:

• can cause banding when there is fluorescent lighting
• can cause rolling shutter problem for rapidly moving subjects
• GH4 and some other Panasonic bodies switch to 10-bits with electronic shutter, but 12-bits for mechanical shutter -- GX7 uses 12-bits for both

Does the E-M10II use 12-bits for both the electronic shutter and the mechanical shutter?

Actually, I am sort of neutral on the totally silent advantage. For my shooting, the OM-D mechanical shutters seem quiet enough. I see that people who shoot theater and similar things would really welcome totally silent operation though. So much easier and cheaper than using one of those camera blimps. For street photography I have never seen where total silence was important. I have done a lot of it over the years using DSLRs that were much noisier than my E-M10 and E-M5 and had absolutely no problems. Also, on the street there is usually enough ambient noise that almost no one hears a shutter, especially the quiet one in the E-M5. I suppose upskirt photographers though highly value a totally silent shutter, but is m4/3 really the best choice for that type of photography anyway?

You has listed the pros and cons of e-shutter already. Just wish to say if the readout speed could be fast enough, the rolling shutter effect could be minimized.

Had no info on EM10.2, but some e-shutter info on various panny here.

It should also be noted that you can't use a flash with the eshutter either. The slow sensor speed means a flash won't illuminate the whole frame the whole time.

Henry Richardson wrote:

I got an E-M10II a couple of days ago and have been checking it out. Today I tried out the new electronic shutter. My E-M10 and E-M5 don't have it so it was my first time to use one. I know that the E-M5II has it and some Panasonic bodies also have it though. From what I recall reading in the last few months here are the advantages and disadvantages. If you have a correction or you have something to add then please do so.

Advantages:

• totally silent
• no shutter shock (Olympus has anti-shock 0 for mechanical shutters also)
• no mechanical wear and tear
• higher shutter speeds possible

Disadvantages:

• can cause banding when there is fluorescent lighting
• can cause rolling shutter problem for rapidly moving subjects
• GH4 and some other Panasonic bodies switch to 10-bits with electronic shutter, but 12-bits for mechanical shutter -- GX7 uses 12-bits for both

Does the E-M10II use 12-bits for both the electronic shutter and the mechanical shutter?

Actually, I am sort of neutral on the totally silent advantage. For my shooting, the OM-D mechanical shutters seem quiet enough. I see that people who shoot theater and similar things would really welcome totally silent operation though. So much easier and cheaper than using one of those camera blimps. For street photography I have never seen where total silence was important. I have done a lot of it over the years using DSLRs that were much noisier than my E-M10 and E-M5 and had absolutely no problems. Also, on the street there is usually enough ambient noise that almost no one hears a shutter, especially the quiet one in the E-M5. I suppose upskirt photographers though highly value a totally silent shutter, but is m4/3 really the best choice for that type of photography anyway?

This seems like a good summary. And, you're right about some mechanical shutters being quiet enough for most circumstances. I'll just note where silent shutter has been helpful for me.

• In churches. Traveling in Europe I photographed the interiors of several churches where you could hear a pin drop.
• In corporate meetings. As a pro event shooter, I've sometimes found myself in crowded conference rooms where a dozen or two folks were discussing important business matters. Typical format with a big table or doughnut in the middle of just-big-enough room, and everyone no more than 5' from a wall, which means I was never more than 3' from somebody. The clackety-clack of even a quiet shutter would have drawn attention and probably made someone uncomfortable.

I think the big advantage is:  No mechanical shock.

That is one of the things that have troubled me since I came to m43. Our camera shutters wear two times faster than DSLRs. So, if a shutter is rated to say 50,000 actuations, it might not even reach half of it, since it must travel twice per frame.

One feature I have always feared it would wear the shutter heavily is timelapse. The E-M10 II comes to cure all this.

Panasonic do have a head start on this. I had E-Shutter with my G5, couple of years ago. Really loved that feature, and I'm missing it on my E-M10.

What really bugs me, is that such a feature can't be too difficult to implement with a firmware upgrade. I mean, my E-M10 already uses E-Shutter for Live Composite.

Still hoping

Hoping all the pana MFT cameras will be equipped with EFCS just like EM5II & EM10II.

Henry Richardson wrote:

I got an E-M10II a couple of days ago and have been checking it out. Today I tried out the new electronic shutter. My E-M10 and E-M5 don't have it so it was my first time to use one. I know that the E-M5II has it and some Panasonic bodies also have it though. From what I recall reading in the last few months here are the advantages and disadvantages. If you have a correction or you have something to add then please do so.

Advantages:

• totally silent
• no shutter shock (Olympus has anti-shock 0 for mechanical shutters also)
• no mechanical wear and tear
• higher shutter speeds possible

Disadvantages:

• can cause banding when there is fluorescent lighting
• can cause rolling shutter problem for rapidly moving subjects
• GH4 and some other Panasonic bodies switch to 10-bits with electronic shutter, but 12-bits for mechanical shutter -- GX7 uses 12-bits for both

Does the E-M10II use 12-bits for both the electronic shutter and the mechanical shutter?

Actually, I am sort of neutral on the totally silent advantage. For my shooting, the OM-D mechanical shutters seem quiet enough. I see that people who shoot theater and similar things would really welcome totally silent operation though. So much easier and cheaper than using one of those camera blimps. For street photography I have never seen where total silence was important. I have done a lot of it over the years using DSLRs that were much noisier than my E-M10 and E-M5 and had absolutely no problems. Also, on the street there is usually enough ambient noise that almost no one hears a shutter, especially the quiet one in the E-M5. I suppose upskirt photographers though highly value a totally silent shutter, but is m4/3 really the best choice for that type of photography anyway?

For the Panasonic bodies, some of them use 10 bits to increase the readout speed and reduce rolling shutter. My GM1 does this. However, the only difference is in dynamic range-- you won't notice a difference unless you are pushing the shadows by several stops.

Olympus seems to have a a different implementation that increases noise across the board. Using the e-shutter gives you the noise equivalent of 1 stop higher ISO.

Henry Richardson wrote:

I got an E-M10II a couple of days ago and have been checking it out. Today I tried out the new electronic shutter. My E-M10 and E-M5 don't have it so it was my first time to use one. I know that the E-M5II has it and some Panasonic bodies also have it though. From what I recall reading in the last few months here are the advantages and disadvantages. If you have a correction or you have something to add then please do so.

Advantages:

• totally silent
• no shutter shock (Olympus has anti-shock 0 for mechanical shutters also)
• no mechanical wear and tear
• higher shutter speeds possible

Disadvantages:

• can cause banding when there is fluorescent lighting
• can cause rolling shutter problem for rapidly moving subjects
• GH4 and some other Panasonic bodies switch to 10-bits with electronic shutter, but 12-bits for mechanical shutter -- GX7 uses 12-bits for both

Does the E-M10II use 12-bits for both the electronic shutter and the mechanical shutter?

Actually, I am sort of neutral on the totally silent advantage. For my shooting, the OM-D mechanical shutters seem quiet enough. I see that people who shoot theater and similar things would really welcome totally silent operation though. So much easier and cheaper than using one of those camera blimps. For street photography I have never seen where total silence was important. I have done a lot of it over the years using DSLRs that were much noisier than my E-M10 and E-M5 and had absolutely no problems. Also, on the street there is usually enough ambient noise that almost no one hears a shutter, especially the quiet one in the E-M5. I suppose upskirt photographers though highly value a totally silent shutter, but is m4/3 really the best choice for that type of photography anyway?

My Nikon V1's electronic shutter is very handy for shooting my small children. They don't react to the noise and I can take advantage of the fast, no shake FPS to maximize my odds of getting shots of them actually smiling and looking in the correct direction.

The electronic shutter is one of the few reasons I kept it after largely replacing it with my EM10.

Henry Richardson wrote:

Disadvantages:

• can cause banding when there is fluorescent lighting
• can cause rolling shutter problem for rapidly moving subjects
• GH4 and some other Panasonic bodies switch to 10-bits with electronic shutter, but 12-bits for mechanical shutter -- GX7 uses 12-bits for both

• The shutter speed with the electronic shutter is limited on some bodies (for example, to 1 second or less on the GM1/GM5).