[lotech]

I just wondering if it is possible to implement electronic shutter on all DSLR with live view capacity via s/w 'hack', and why not ? if it is possible then we can have silent shutter on all camera, may be with some restriction to do this on a model that was not designed to have it but still worth the effort.

[photoptimist]

An electronic shutter is a hardware feature that must be built into the sensor chip. It requires special circuitry to clear each pixel at exactly the right time (an electronic first curtain) and then special circuitry to read each pixel at exactly the right time (an electronic second curtain). Both circuits must be synchronized to each other and to the data readout systems.

If the sensor and main circuit board does not have this circuity, it can't be done.

[Bob 256]

Be careful what you ask for. Aside from what photoptimist pointed out, an electronic shutter can have a downside. Although there are no moving parts, the image must be captured in strips (rows of pixels). The entire frame is not captured all at once (except in special sensors) and it takes time to do the strip thing, so you end up with something akin to focal plane shutter aliasing where moving objects can be streaked. For shooting stationary objects where vibration has to be minimized, they are great, but otherwise, they can be troublesome.

[edri]

Indeed, the "rolling" effect can be disturbing in many cases.

[Gerbermiester]

Even in the K-1 which supports electronic shutter in live view has a few limitations. Notably, flash isn't supported (which is frustrating for macro work).

[lotech]

Understand the limitation, 'rolling' effect also on mechanical shutter depends on speed in use and the object movement, only prefect shutter is leaf shutter afaik. I just thought that electronic shutter can be done at slow speed, I don't know how K1 works, but since Pentax rely on Sony sensors (still ??) that Sony produced with electronic shutter, so I believe the camera circuitry is the main reason for not having ES on the Pentax. If you have worked in the factory you will know that products of different models having the exact same mother board but some component omitted, or some jumper shorted/opened to restrict the functionality, so that if you know the trick you can enable some hidden feature of a low model, I believe camera industry is the same, the sensor may already have everything but the camera does not.

[clackers]

Understand the limitation, 'rolling' effect also on mechanical shutter depends on speed in use and the object movement, only prefect shutter is leaf shutter afaik. I just thought that electronic shutter can be done at slow speed, I don't know how K1 works, but since Pentax rely on Sony sensors (still ??) that Sony produced with electronic shutter, so I believe the camera circuitry is the main reason for not having ES on the Pentax. If you have worked in the factory you will know that products of different models having the exact same mother board but some component omitted, or some jumper shorted/opened to restrict the functionality, so that if you know the trick you can enable some hidden feature of a low model, I believe camera industry is the same, the sensor may already have everything but the camera does not.

The K-1 and the KP have electronic shutters available in Live View - the first one. The second curtain is mechanical to minimize the rolling shutter effect.

[beachgardener]

I've heard of this electronic shutter, but, never known how to use it. Is it in the manual?

[biz-engineer]

The second curtain is mechanical to minimize the rolling shutter effect.

There is no EFCS on the K1, it is all electronic shutter with lots of rolling shutter effect, yet not available for silent shooting.

[edri]

Here are some explanations, in general. Pentax implementation may not be exactly the same.


Disadvantages of Electronic Shutter Silent Shooting

[clackers]

There is no EFCS on the K1, it is all electronic shutter with lots of rolling shutter effect, yet not available for silent shooting.

I think it's only EFCS in the K-1, except for Pixel Shift shots, right?

[Ontarian50]

What many don't realize, and Nikon didn't tout it in their technical descriptions of their cameras, but the earlier DSLRs from them had a form of electronic shutter.

I once tested a partially disassembled Nikon D70 camera, and found that mechanically, it topped out at 1/125th of a second. All shutter speeds set higher, still got a mechanical 1/125th. So Nikon was going "electronic shutter" for higher speeds. Presumably, this was how they were able to achieve a 1/500th flash sync speed in a lower cost camera.

It was telling that when later models came along, that 1/500th sync disappeared, as Nikon had gone back to using a traditional mechanical shutter at higher speeds. I realized then that they wouldn't have done it unless there were downsides to the electronic shutter approach.

[biz-engineer]

I think it's only EFCS in the K-1, except for Pixel Shift shots, right?

I think it's only ES and not EFCS in the K1, according to rolling shutter test shots compared between LV ES and one single frame of a Pixel Shift capture... give the same image with the same line scanning slope. The K1 manual has a page about electronic shutter, it doesn't mention EFCS anywhere.

[dafbp]

The K-1 and the KP have electronic shutters available in Live View - the first one. The second curtain is mechanical to minimize the rolling shutter effect.

I always wondered why I was hearing a shutter when choosing electronic shutter [to save the shutter when shooting static subjects].
It'd be nice if Pentax added an option to turn off the mec. shutter.

[wings]

Thanks for the information. It’s something that I really didn’t use that much, but it sure demonstrates one of the many features that are packed into Pentax cameras and available if needed. What circumstances would this feature be useful?