Many cameras today, especially mirrorless cameras, let you pick between a mechanical and electronic shutter. Others – including a lot of DSLRs – have a third option called “electronic front curtain shutter” (EFCS) which is a blend between the other two types. Each shutter mechanism has several pros and cons, more than you might have realized. If you pick the wrong one, you could be harming your image quality.
Table of Contents
What Is a Mechanical Shutter?
Today, mechanical shutters are the default shutter mechanisms for still photography. Many older cameras and even some new ones only allow you to take pictures with a mechanical shutter.
Mechanical shutters function using physical “shutter curtains”: two blades with a gap in between. When you take a photo, the blades slide rapidly in front of your camera sensor. Any light that hits the sensor between the blades will appear in your image.
You do not need to do anything special to enable the mechanical shutter on your camera. It is almost certainly enabled by default.
What Is an Electronic Shutter?
Electronic shutters are becoming more and more popular nowadays, but they still are not present in many modern cameras.
In general, electronic shutters work by reading data from your camera sensor line-by-line. A few cinema cameras have something called a “global shutter,” which reads the whole sensor simultaneously rather than line-by-line, but, at least for now, this technology has not found its way to consumer DSLRs and mirrorless cameras.
To enable the electronic shutter, you will need to enter your camera menu. On some cameras, like the Sony A9, it is obvious how to change to the electronic shutter: Camera Settings 2 > Shutter Type > [Electronic Shut.]. However, other cameras hide this option under a “silent shooting” mode. For example, on the Nikon Z6, the only way to enable the electronic shutter is: Photo Shooting Menu > Silent Photography > On.
Again, not all cameras have an electronic shutter option, especially DSLRs.
What Is Electronic Front Curtain Shutter?
Lastly, electronic front curtain shutters are a blend between standard mechanical and electronic shutters. In this case, the first of the two “shutter curtains” is electronic, while the second is the traditional mechanical blade.
Enabling EFCS is easy on most cameras. For example, with the Sony A7 III, you simply go to: Shooting Menu 2 > e-Front Curtain Shut. > On. With the Nikon D810 and D850, go to: Custom Setting Menu > Shooting/display > Electronic front-curtain shutter > ON.
However, on certain cameras – specifically the Nikon D810 and D850 – turning on EFCS sometimes does not do anything. In order for it to work at all on the D810, you need to be in Mirror Up release mode; on the D850, you need to be in Mirror Up, Quiet, or Quiet Continuous release mode. Luckily, most cameras do not have this issue.
We talk about these limitations and more in our article on shutter shock.
Non-Image Quality Differences
Before diving into the factors that impact image quality, let’s take a look at some of the more general pros and cons of these three shutter types.
Fastest Shutter Speed
Which shutter mechanism lets you shoot at the fastest shutter speeds today? In general: Electronic, followed by Mechanical, followed by EFCS.
Electronic shutters on some cameras, such as the Sony A9, let you shoot at extreme shutter speeds like 1/32,000 second. However, not all cameras with electronic shutters will max out so high.
Mechanical shutters generally max out at 1/4000 or 1/8000 second depending on the camera. This is still quite fast – enough for typical needs.
Electronic front curtain shutters are usually the slowest of the group, often maxing out around 1/2000 second. Even on cameras that allow faster EFCS shooting, the manufacturer will often recommend against it due to potential uneven exposures. Although 1/2000 second is fast, it won’t always be enough in bright conditions.
Maximum Frame Rate
Another important point is that different types of shutter may have different maximum frame rates. If this applies to your camera, it’s usually the electronic shutter that can support the greatest number of frames per second. For example, the Nikon V3 can shoot 6 FPS with its mechanical shutter, and a whopping 20 FPS with the electronic shutter. Your camera manual will say if yours is the same way.
Flash Use
Mechanical shutters are generally ideal for use with a flash. On many cameras, you can’t even use the electronic shutter in combination with a flash at all. On the few cameras that do allow it (such as the Nikon 1 V3), it will max out at a slow sync speed (1/60 second in this case).
Flash with electronic front curtain shutter is better; most cameras let you use it without any different restrictions. However, with high-speed sync and external flashes, you’ll often see very visible banding in your images around 1/1000 second. So, with flash, I would stick to the mechanical shutter.
Silent Shooting
For situations when you need the quietest possible camera, you’ll want to go with the electronic shutter. This is no surprise since it has the fewest moving parts. It’s followed by EFCS, then mechanical shutter in terms of volume. However, note that even the electronic shutter may not give you totally silent shooting since other components of the camera (especially aperture and focusing) also make sounds as you take photos.
Other Differences
There are some more minor differences between the three shutter mechanisms, too:
- You will wear out your camera’s shutter curtains more quickly if you exclusively use the mechanical shutter.
- There are differences in response time with each type of shutter (the time between pressing the shutter button and when the camera starts taking the photo). In general, mechanical shutters have a slightly slower response time, although this is not true on every camera.
- At fast shutter speeds (1/2000 and beyond), electronic front-curtain shutter can result in uneven exposures.
- Electronic shutter can prevent you from using certain menu items on some cameras. For example, on the Sony A9, you cannot use long exposure noise reduction or Bulb mode with the electronic shutter. On the Nikon Z cameras, you cannot use long exposure noise reduction.
- On mirrorless cameras, the electronic shutter can eliminate viewfinder blackout (and live view blackout) from shot to shot. This can be useful for continuous shooting, making sure you never lose sight of the scene in front of you.
Next up, let’s take a look at image quality differences for each type of shutter.
Image Quality Tests
Shutter Vibration
The most well-known reason to use EFCS or the electronic shutter is to minimize vibrations – and therefore blurry photos – at certain shutter speeds. Specifically, in the 1/40 to 1/4 second range, you can end up with “shutter shock” that eliminates low-level detail in your images. This is most pronounced at longer focal lengths, and some cameras are worse in this regard than others. Here are three example photos taken on the Nikon Z7 (not a camera with particularly high levels of shutter shock). These are all 100% crops. In order, it goes mechanical shutter, EFCS, and electronic shutter. These are taken at 1/13 second. Click to see full size:
Quite clearly, the mechanical shutter image is not as sharp. The blur is not strong enough to ruin a photo, but it’s also not ideal. The other two images, by comparison, are perfectly sharp. Also, remember that these differences are more exaggerated on some cameras than others. If you often shoot around the 1/10-second mark, you’ll want to test for yourself to see how bad the problem can get.
Ranking:
- EFCS and electronic shutter (tie)
- Mechanical shutter
Rolling Shutter
Rolling shutter is very important any time you photograph a fast-moving object. Essentially, as your camera reads the scene line-by-line, anything moving quickly can be distorted with a “jello” effect.
In the photos below, I captured a regular ceiling fan on maximum speed, using a shutter speed of 1/2000 second. In order, the photos are mechanical shutter, EFCS, electronic shutter. Click to see full size:
As you can see, the first two images – mechanical shutter and EFCS – show practically no rolling shutter effects. The electronic shutter image, however, is going absolutely crazy.
Ranking:
- Mechanical shutter and EFCS (tie)
- Electronic shutter
Sunstar Flare
In certain cases (especially at fast shutter speeds), using the mechanical shutter can introduce a peculiar type of flare to bright objects in a scene. It is not really flare in the traditional sense, but instead a special kind of sunstar. If you have not heard the term “sunstar” before, it refers to the sharp edges of light seen in certain photos, like the one below:
Normally, sunstars are caused by aperture blades in your lens. But the shutter curtain can cause them as well, and things don’t look good when it does. I call this “sunstar flare” for lack of a better term:
Again, it’s the biggest problem at extremely fast shutter speeds. The image above is so extreme in large part because I’m shooting at 1/5000 second. However, until about 1/125 second (at least on my Nikon Z7), the effects can still be strong enough to be annoying. So, how can you minimize them?
Take a look at the following images, all captured at 1/2000 second and uncropped. Once again, the order is mechanical shutter, EFCS, electronic shutter:
That’s a pretty striking difference! The mechanical shutter has two distinct “sunstar flares,” while the EFCS has one (representing the exposure’s mechanical rear curtain). The electronic shutter does not have this issue at all.
Ranking:
- Electronic shutter
- EFCS
- Mechanical shutter
Flickering in Artificial Light
One of the other major effects of your shutter mechanism involves flickering/banding issues in artificial light. It’s most obvious in the following set of images. The order is still mechanical, EFCS, electronic shutter. Click to see full size:
As you can see, in this example, the only image to have noticeable banding issues is the third – taken with the electronic shutter. In general, that’s what you’ll see; mechanical and EFCS are not a problem in terms of banding. However, some specific cases with EFCS and artificial light can result in banding issues as well, especially when you are using fast shutter speeds like 1/2000 second. For example, take a look at the comparison below. Mechanical shutter is Before, EFCS is After. This is a moderate crop, roughly 1/5 the original area:
So, although EFCS is not nearly as bad as the electronic shutter under artificial light, it still is not ideal. Mechanical is the way to go any time you are shooting in such conditions.
Ranking:
- Mechanical shutter
- EFCS
- Electronic Shutter
Bokeh at Fast Shutter Speeds
One issue that grew in recognition recently in the photography world is the potential for EFCS images to have nervous bokeh at fast shutter speeds. It is certainly more visible in some cases than others, and I’d argue that even a worst-case scenario is not especially bad. Nevertheless, here are three crops demonstrating bokeh differences. Mechanical is first, followed by EFCS, then electronic. I took these at 1/2000 second to exaggerate any differences in bokeh that may appear. Click to see larger:
To my eye, the middle image – taken with the electronic front curtain shutter – indeed has the busiest bokeh, although not by much. The other two photos look similar to one another. For reference, here is the uncropped image (EFCS version):
This is a case where you might as well avoid EFCS for bokeh-critical shots at a fast shutter speed – but if you accidentally take some, you almost certainly will never notice.
Ranking:
- Mechanical shutter and electronic shutter (tie)
- EFCS
Noise Banding
A final problem that some photographers have mentioned regarding EFCS and the electronic shutter is the possibility of line-pattern noise in the shadows (i.e., the “banding” problem that was said to occur on the Nikon Z cameras, although that claim was arguably misleading.)
It’s said that extreme shadow recovery doesn’t look as good when using EFCS or the electronic shutter compared to the mechanical shutter. However, at least with the Nikon Z7, I was unable to reproduce this. Take a look at the following crops – again, mechanical, EFCS, and electronic:
To me, they all look equally good in terms of noise performance, line-pattern or otherwise. Keep in mind that these images have been recovered a whopping five stops in Lightroom, which is more than anyone would ever reasonably do. Here is the uncropped image for comparison:
Perhaps with certain cameras it is more pronounced than what I’ve shown here. You should always test for yourself in cases like this. However, based on what I see here, there are more important reasons than this to pick between the various types of shutter.
Ranking:
- Electronic shutter, EFCS, and mechanical shutter (tie)
Problems with Each Shutter Mechanism
Clearly, none of these shutter types is universally the best. So, I cannot recommend that you always use one rather than another; it depends on the photo.
Here are the downsides of each – so you know when to avoid each shutter mechanism (which is really what matters here):
Mechanical Shutter
Image quality factors:
- Can introduce sunstar flare when bright sources of light are in your frame
- Can introduce “shutter shock” vibrations at certain shutter speeds, especially around 1/10 second
Non-image quality factors:
- Does not always allow the fastest frame rate for high-FPS shooting
- Often maxes out at 1/4000 or 1/8000 second – not as fast as some electronic shutters
- Loudest of the three
Electronic Shutter
Image quality factors:
- Often adds extreme flickering/banding when shooting in artificial light
- Introduces rolling shutter issues on fast-moving subjects
Non-image quality factors:
- Does not always allow flash – or, if it does, may max out at slow flash sync speeds like 1/60 second
Electronic Front Curtain Shutter (EFCS)
Image quality factors:
- Can add some flickering/banding when shooting in artificial light, though not as much as the regular electronic shutter
- Introduces half of a sunstar flare
- At fast shutter speeds, can introduce slightly nervous bokeh
- On some cameras, shooting at 1/2000 second or faster can lead to uneven exposure with certain lenses, according to Sony’s own information as well as online user reports
Non-image quality factors:
- Maxes out at 1/2000 second with some cameras
- Louder than electronic shutters
Recommendations
There is no single takeaway here about the best type of shutter to use for photography. However, below, I’ll try to pinpoint my recommendations for various needs. Note that the following summary assumes your camera can select any of these three shutter mechanisms:
For landscape photography, use the fully electronic shutter by default (not EFCS). However, if there is any significant artificial light in your shot, the mechanical shutter is your safest bet (although EFCS will probably be fine). In rare cases when something in your scene is moving quickly, like a bird in the sky you want to be sharp, switch to the mechanical shutter. Lastly, if you need to use specific options that the electronic shutter prevents (like long exposure noise reduction), you obviously should use a different shutter mechanism.
For portrait photography, use the mechanical shutter by default, especially if you are using a flash. The biggest issues with the mechanical shutter – sunstar flare and shutter shock – are not major problems in this genre. However, if you are shooting at a wide aperture in bright conditions (perhaps a beach photoshoot) and risking overexposure, there is a case to be made for the electronic shutter – assuming your camera allows extended shutter speeds like 1/16,000 or 1/32,000 second.
For sports, wildlife, and macro photography, use the mechanical shutter by default. That way, you avoid rolling shutter issues and eliminate banding in artificial light (which means you can use a flash without issue). One exception: some cameras shoot faster frame rates with the electronic shutter (again, like the Nikon V3’s 20 FPS electronic versus 6 FPS mechanical). In that case, under natural light, it may be worth accepting some rolling shutter to get the faster frame rate.
For documentary photography, the electronic shutter will allow you to be as quiet as possible. However, if you are indoors or there is any significant artificial light in your photo, switch to the mechanical shutter instead.
For cityscape and architectural photography, use the mechanical shutter any time there is artificial light in your shot. If you are right at the shutter-shock speeds (1/10 second or so), consider bracketing shots – one with the mechanical shutter, and one with EFCS. Figure out later if the EFCS images have banding; if they don’t, you can use them without issue.
If I only had to pick one type of shutter to use in the widest possible range of conditions, I would pick the mechanical shutter. But for natural light photos of a nonmoving subject, the electronic shutter is nearly always the way to go. As for EFCS, it can be useful on cameras which don’t have an electronic shutter option, especially for minimizing shutter shock around 1/10 second shutter speed. Otherwise, if you have the all-electronic option, there aren’t many situations where EFCS is optimal for you anymore.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this article gave you a good understanding of the pros and cons of each shutter mechanism. As a landscape photographer, I previously had been shooting most of my photos with EFCS, but after doing these tests it’s clear there is a better method (given that my camera has a fully-electronic shutter option). Now, I’m going to use “silent mode” for almost all my landscape photography, except in rare cases where artificial light is in the shot. This way, I eliminate shutter shock while making the sun look as good as possible in every frame – plus allowing beyond 1/2000 second shutter speed in bright conditions.
If you have any questions about this article or suggestions as to when each shutter mechanism is ideal, let us know in the comments below!
As an avid Hobby Photographer , this information is so fundamental and also a game changer for me. I did a test this morning with seagulls flying the harbour and I felt so embarrassed, ignorant and relieved at the same time after reviewing the images. Over the past two years , I have been so discouraged with my wildlife photography and the R6 and I assumed it was the lens, my technique or other environmental factors. I was using EFCS for everything and I was only having a 10% successful keep rate. Most of the still bird images were very good. The images from this morning were taken in low light but almost 90% of them were in focus using the mechanical shutter. I will take the lessons that you provided while exploring landscape and macro photography as well, I actually felt like crying thinking about the pictures that I deleted..and the opportunities that I missed.
Great Report, congratulations.
I want to put the focus on an issue using mechanical or EFCS shutter.
Under all circumstances i have blurry fotos with the mechanical shutter, which does not appear under EFCS or ES conditions. Same problems have Sony and Nikon even with much more expensive cameras.
Anyone familiar with the shutter types on the GFX 50S Mark 2?.
For long-time photography the noise reduction doesn’t work if I use the electronic shutter on the Nikon z6?
Great article Spencer Thank you. Can I just ask you one thing please. My R5 is restricted to 12 bit RAW files with the electronic shutter and I’m wondering if this would still be the best option for landscapes due to this limitation?
That’s a good question. I’d stick to EFCS in that case if I were you. The differences are very slight between 12-bit and 14-bit, but the differences are also very slight between EFCS and electronic shutter!
I found this article to be an excellent explanation of the three shutter modes. I use an R5 and now feel much better informed about the pros and cons. The images illustrate the strengths and weakenesses of each mode very well. Thanks for posting the article.
Worth mentioning that you can eliminate the light banding/flickering when using electronic shutter or EFCS by using a shutter speed equal to, or double, the AC frequency in the country. So using 1/60s or 1/120s in the US, or 1/50s or 1/100s in Europe or Aus, will completely eliminate banding regardless of the shutter type.
I’m a bit confused, the new Sony A1 has specs of 30FPS in Raw Mode when using the Electronic Shutter and 10 FPS using the Mechanical Shutter. If an electronic shutter is not great for moving subjects, why would you ever need 30 FPS. Is this more of a marketing ploy than anything else or has Sony advanced the technology so the Electronic shutter is good for fast moving objects i.e. Birds in flight , car racing etc.
Sony A1 (and a9 series) has a much faster sensor read speed due to the stacked sensor technology. It is bordering on equivalent to a mechanical shutter.
When the technology progresses enough to cameras having a global shutter (simultaneous read across the whole sensor), then the electronic shutter will be superior to mechanical in all situations and they can remove the shutter altogether.
Could you explain why the rolling shutter affects electronic shutter only and not also mechanical ? in fast shutter speeds mechanical also has a small slit between the curtains which gets exposed, and this is scanned across the frame. What I am missing ? :)
I’ve been wondering this same thing. There would still be a time difference between the top and bottom of the frame. So, why does mechanical not have the rolling shutter as well?
It does affect the mechanical shutter a bit, just not nearly as much.
In order to “read” the scene with an electronic shutter, your camera can sometimes take as long as 1/15 second, even when you’re at a shutter speed like 1/1000. (Each individual pixel is only exposed for 1/1000 second, but there’s 1/15th of a second between the first and last pixel’s exposure. Hope that makes sense.)
With a mechanical shutter, the physical shutter curtains move extremely fast – certainly faster than 1/15 second. There’s just not as much time for the subject of your photo to move, and therefore, less rolling shutter. But on extremely fast subjects like the blades of a helicopter, you may still see a bit.
Hi Spencer, thanks for taking time to reply, but I don’t think you answered the question that was asked. I don’t blame you, I can’t find this answer anywhere! It’s killing me, I’m dying to know the answer! Hopefully you can help correct me where I’m going wrong.
You said the sensor can read the entire image in 1/15 of a second in e-shutter mode. However you said the mechanical shutter travels across the sensor faster than 1/15 of a second. How would the sensor be able to read the data before the second curtain passed that part of the sensor? Does the sensor read slower when in e-shutter mode, than it does in mechanical shutter mode? Why on earth would that be the case? You might have to be a camera engineer to know the answer. Do you know any camera engineers? Haha I’m half joking, but I would love to know the answer. Thanks!
You do have a misunderstanding, but I’m not totally sure what part you’re confused on. So I’ll explain the whole process in both cases.
Electronic shutter: There are no moving parts in this case. Each individual pixel is switched essentially to a “read” mode where it is actively gathering light. The length of time which it gathers light is equal to your shutter speed. So, if your shutter speed is 1/4000 second, each pixel is only active in the “read” mode for 1/4000 second. However, in the case of most cameras, all 24+ million pixels on the sensor are not active in “read” mode simultaneously. Instead, it basically scans from one corner to the other. (I’m honestly not sure which corner it starts and ends at, but for instance, the scan could start at the top left and end at the bottom right.) Rolling shutter comes into play because the scanning process isn’t instantaneous; it takes about 1/15th of a second for every pixel from one corner to the other to scan. In other words, even though each pixel is only “reading” the scene for 1/4000 second – and therefore eliminating motion blur – the entire scanning process takes long enough that a moving subject can appear warped in your photo (i.e. rolling shutter) even if it’s otherwise sharp.
Mechanical shutter: Once again, each individual pixel is only reading the outside world for whatever duration you set as your shutter speed. To start, I’ll explain how it works for a 2-second shutter speed because it’s easier to visualize. When you press the camera’s shutter button, the bottom of the two mechanical shutter curtains (which had been covering the sensor) moves rapidly down so that every pixel on the sensor is visible. Two seconds later, the top of the two mechanical shutter curtains follows suit. When I say that the mechanical shutter travels faster than 1/15 of a second, I mean that these shutter curtains are moving fast. Extremely fast. Also, perhaps a bit unintuitive, but these curtains move at exactly the same speed regardless of the shutter speed you’ve selected; if that’s hard to visualize, imagine a 30 second exposure ending with this “rapid curtain close” in exactly the way that a 2-second exposure does. Once you’re at especially fast shutter speeds – say, 1/4000 second again – the camera does an interesting trick so as not to expose each pixel for longer than 1/4000 second. No longer does the first curtain move, followed by a delay for the length of your exposure, followed by the second curtain moving. Instead, the first and second curtain both move at the same time, with a very small gap between them. The smaller the gap, the shorter the duration of the exposure. (That’s how the camera differentiates between, say, 1/1000 and 1/8000 second with the mechanical shutter.) If you’ve properly been able to visualize the process I describe, it should be no surprise that the mechanical shutter is less prone to rolling shutter. Each pixel is still exposed for the same duration of 1/4000 second, but the “scan” is so much faster than with the electronic shutter, as the two shutter curtains are moving so rapidly.
If that’s still hard to visualize, you’ll find it useful to watch slow-motion videos of a camera’s mechanical shutter at different shutter speeds. You don’t need to be a camera engineer to understand it, but you do need to have a good visualization of how the two methods work!
Also, in case you’re wondering why electronic shutters have to take so long to complete the scan, the truth is that they don’t have to – but it’s expensive to make them scan more quickly, or to use a “global shutter” that exposes each pixel simultaneously rather than scanning them.
Sorry this was so long, but I hope it’s clearer than the abridged version I shared in an earlier comment.
Thanks so much for the reply again! I really appreciate the time it must have taken. I have seen the slow-motion videos of mechanical shutters, so I was with you on that. In fact, that’s what was so confusing: If the sensor can only be read at a max speed of 1/15 of a second, and the mechanical shutter is traveling faster than that, and only a small portion of the sensor is exposed at a time, then the sensor would be reading some of the pixels while they’re dark, thus telling those pixels to be black.
But as you probably know now, my misunderstanding was even more fundamental. I didn’t understand how a digital camera sensor worked. I didn’t realize each pixel could gather light, be covered up, and hold on to its state, to be read later. In other words: Yes, the pixels are being “read” while they’re in the dark, after the mechanical shutter has already covered them! Each pixel of the sensor “remembers” how much light it was exposed to, just like film does. Very fundamental, but not obvious for most laypeople. When it comes to electronics, we think the “detecting” and “reading” need to happen at the same time, and a lot of the time they do. This “photo electric” effect on silicon seems like black magic, and it was the key I was missing. For others who are interested, here is the article I found that explained it down to the kindergarten level I needed: www.shutterbug.com/conte…hotography
Thanks again Spencer for taking the time to help me understand! Turns out I was further behind than you thought. You gave me the 3rd grade version, I needed the kindergarten version. Still, much appreciated. Cheers!
Spencer,
Thank you for this very clear explanation.
You did not mention the relationship with Vibration Reduction / IBIS /stabilization in this article.
This might be relevant for some cameras. E.g. I found that in my Nikon Z6 images taken with the mechanical shutter with VR on and shutter speeds shorter than 1/100 are more blurry than images tKen with VR set to off. Up to 1/80 it is vice versa.
Would it be possible to share your views and findings n a separate article?
Thank you