Mechanical and Electronic Shutters

 I posted a photo of a Hummingbird and included the meta data. I showed a shutter speed of 1/12800 seconds. I was questioned that I had that high a shutter speed. I mentioned that I was using electronic shutter. I thought that a mirrorless would be able to allow very high shutter speeds. I was told that their mirrorless was limited to 1/8000 sec.

That confused me that so off to Google to get some results.

"Distortion (also called rolling shutter effect) happens because the camera isn’t able to “scan” the sensor quick enough when fast movements are involved."

Basically the electronic shutter is limited to the camera sensor read time. Some manufactures mirrorless  sensors exhibit  what is called "rolling shutter". This is where image is skewed, weird. Some reviewers warn about the problem using electronic shutter. Like many things you read you may need to dig a little deeper.

One article, Canon, shows the issues, rolling shutter, in their camera. Another states that Olympus OM-D E-M1 ii and a couple others state that there is little to no rolling shutter.

As you consider purchasing a new Mirrorless camera consider the rolling shutter on your specific brand and model. Not all Mirrorless are equal.

In a follow up post another poster mentioned they could not get the Hummingbird wings that sharp. Of course my comment was raise your shutter speed. Easy to say but knowing the posters camera I went searching again. It turns out that their mirrorless is limited to 1/4000s even with the electronic shutter. Wow, many mechanical shutters are limited to 1/8000s. 

The articles are here, Canon, Omsystems/Olympus, Sony and Lumix