I know some of you will be asking - what about Anti-Shock (first curtain electronic shutter)? Initially I have talked about the Anti-Shock setting but decided to take it out because that original cut was more than 20 minutes long. I am trying my best to make more compact videos, as I realize most people click off at 5 minutes mark or earlier. The short description of what Anti-Shock is - a hybrid of electronic and mechanical shutter to mitigate shutter vibration/shock that can cause soft images. Rest assured, I will cover Anti-Shock in detail in coming videos, perhaps in my future OM-D Tips video.
Thanks Robin, another informative video. In your next video regarding anti-shock, can you cover the low-light high ISO performance in comparison to regular shutter? This Fall I am planning on capturing some Northern light time lapses, but would like to mitigate against the possibility of shutter shock at 1 to 4 second shutters speeds.
I like your videos since a time now. Something I want to say is, the rolling shutter while using electronic shutter is less than in most other cameras in the market. Only cameras like the Sony A9 or RX10IV can handle it better or the same good. And the OM-D EM1 Mark III now is reading out so fast, that I can do all my sports stuff with electronic shutter. Something I never could do with a Sony A7 III or Nikon Z6 or nearly other mirrorless camera. Sorry for my english 🙂
As wilflife shooter, silent mode is my butter and cookie mode. Even in low light, if I am around videographers, I use the silent mode to not be captured in sound by them. With portrait with children, who tends to get tense and cringy, I also use silentmode, so they dont notice when they are relaxed and keep relaxed. Did however, not know, the silentmode added banding and extra noise, will think about that. Super thanks for the heads up and great user-friendly-video!
In my head the heart for silent shutter is because when you use it the shutter sound won't scare your subjects, especially wildlife, so they like it better. That's how I remember it anyway.
Hi Robin thanks a lot for the long overdue video on silent shutter in OM-D cameras. The pros and cons are wonderfully depicted that benefits even a long time silent shutter user like me. 👌👍🙏 Can I humbly add 3 observations of mine - Number 1 is if we use electronic shutter the main shutter mechanism does not work so zero shutter count added. That saves your shutter cycle life. Number 2 is it is very useful in shooting birds in the wild where the sound of shutter alerts the birds and animals. Number 3 is there is less camera shake from shutter shock in this mode. So I could get pretty sharp handheld capture even at 1/8-1/4 sec using 300mm f4 Pro with 1.4x converter attached. If you can remember some of the 16"x12"" prints I have shared with you during a workshop in Penang. I got so good results with it that both my EM-1X and EM-1III are always in by default C1 set with silent shutter. When I need to shoot fast moving birds or birds in flight I switch to normal shutter set at C2 with C-AF or C3 with C-AF TR depending on the situation. The C4 mode I have set with handheld high resolution mode.
Interesting. I was just using electronic shutter for 2 years cause mechanical was broken and I no doubt stumbled upon some of the issues your mention: artificial light noise, my speedy dogs with strange shapes, etc. I will be glad to use mechanical shuttwe again with the new camera at last
You are sooo right, Robin. Nikon Z9 is now using only electronic shutter, no more mechanical shutter. I was searching for this video to watch it again.
Thank you Robin, excellent explanation on when "to" and "not to" use silent shutter. I have used this mode very occasionally but will look to implement more from now on.
i am a 'silent shooter' haha..for my type of shooting, I can say 95% of my shot is done in silent shutter mode. except those required using flash. or when I saw a sign of artificial light around. Done that to preserve the life of my shutter. I know I might get bored of my cam and looking for an upgrade before the shutter fails, but I just like to baby my stuff and it gives me peace of mind when i use my cam. but the 'tactile' feedback when the mech shutter is used is very addicting and satisfying
Super advice. I used to shoot silent shutter all the time for low light gig photography. I love that I can always learn from your knowledge, one of the best Olympus / and others channels (psst the best)!
Slight misunderstanding lost in translation - a shutter (derivation) is hinged panel fixed inside or outside a window that can be closed to keep out the light. Opening a shutter will let light in. Closing a shutter during the day will block sunlight and keep a house cooler (its main purpose). Or curtains, hence cameras' first curtain, second curtain. In french the word "volet" (window shutter) is often used for camera shutter.
Thanks so much for this Robin. As a 6 year EM5/2 user and 1 year EM1/2 user, I have never used the electronic shutter because I never needed the silence, and never thought about prolonging the mechanical one. That has changed today! I wonder if this is the reason that I find my hi-res images to be softer than single shots?
High res shot should not be softer, it is the opposite if done correctly. Do see my videos (I have done a few) on high res mode. You need a sturdy tripod, no subject movement, set the delay for capture and you should be fine.
iqueque you’ll only see issues with the shutter (mirror) on DLSR’s as the mirror weighs a lot more than the shutter on a ML camera. Which is why they have “mirror lockup”. If you have “soft” images then it might be down to your technique. As Robin said, try with a good sturdy tripod first, before looking anywhere else.
For most general uses, I really dislike silent shutter modes. It does not give the feel of having taken a photograph and the speeds take too many images in burst modes, and then you have to sort through so many in post processing. It is the one thing I dislike about my OM-1.
I wish that Olympus allowed a slight artificial noise for the silent shutter, like Panasonic does. I would use it far more, especially for bursts if it did. The ‘Global Shutter’ has arrived at last and Sony are the ones to do it with their A9II which will retail in early 2024. However there is already a shutterless camera available to buy now from Nikon in their Z8 and Z9. This being November 2023.
Thank you as always for your superb video, Robin. Re-vitalised my interest in Olympus completely. Had been a user since 2008 but went away in 2018 but going to be back now, for good. I am not a youngster. Everything you are saying makes total sense, keep with it and the very best of health and good fortune to you!
Robin, thanks for your very clear and useful explanation of how and when it would be good to use silent shutter (and when not to). I always learn so much from your videos and I appreciate the hard work that goes into making them. Cheers!
For me electronic shutter is for day outdoor use and mechanical for nighttime indoor/outdoor use. I don’t shoot sports so I don’t have to worry about banding ☺️
I found this video very interesting Robin, as a bird photographer using my E-M1X as my workhorse I've never experienced the problems you talk about. I shoot in low light all the time and can remove all the noise with my editing software. I use pro capture mode to catch small birds in flight all the time, my preferred shutter speed for this is 1/3200 and have never experienced the jello effect you speak of, maybe I'm just lucky that way. The only time I use the mechanical shutter is photographing indoors (basketball or volleyball) Still a great video Robin!
No worries, in contrary to popular belief, that flying bird was not as fast as, say a swinging tennis racket at maximum momentum.... even 1/3200 sec was not enough to freeze it.
@@robinwong Okay thanks Robin, I love the silent shutter because it is truly silent. My old Canon camera had a silent mode, but wasn't silent because it was a mechanical shutter and to add insult to injury fps dropped from 10 to 5, but with the Olympus I still shoot at 18fps!
Thank you Robin. I just wish you had posted this a week ago. I was taking photos of nervous woodpeckers in the woods using the silent mode and the photos were unusually bad. I thought something was wrong with the camera as is would not go higher than 3200. Well, at least I know now. Thanks again.
The banding problem with silent shutter can be mitigated by using flash + silent shutter, but that limits the camera to single shots and the flash can be annoying.
Greetings from southern Indiana, USA! Maybe I missed it, but one problem I found with the silent shutter is that I inadvertently tend to take a few more photos than I intended to take! I don't find that out until later, however. Having used a DSLR, the Olympus shutter is extremely quiet in mechanical mode. The silent option is useful if needed, for the reasons you mentioned.
Great info, Robin. I didn't know about the low light high ISO glitches! Those were pretty obvious. I always thought silent shutter was the antidote to shutter shock that can cause soft images. But I see Olympus has an anti-shock feature too. I thought all it did was delay the shutter actuation by a split second? A separate video explaining this would be most helpful! The shutter on my E-M5 MkIII seems quite pronounced, especially compared to the redesigned shutter in my Panasonic GX85 (which is almost as silent as a leaf shutter!).
I normally use the silent shutter mode to preserve the life of the shutter of my EM-1 MK2, but i didn't know the issue with the high ISO, so thank you so much for your advices. I also have the M10 MKIII but i don't understand why Olympus decided to put silent mode only on AP, it's annoying because anytime you access to that mode it's reset and also is limited to P mode. I know is a 'beginner' camera but I think they removed too many options from M10 Mk2.
I have been using Olympus cameras for five years now and never knew that the electronic shutter gives more noise and possibly a color cast! Wow. I've used it almost all the time, and was sometimes really disturbed by high ISO noise. I wonder if it had all been different with the mechanical shutter. Thanks for the input!
Very nice, it was an incredible helpful video for me, because I was wondering about a lot of noise in some of my pictures, now I know I shouldn't use silent shutter in those scenarios. Thank you very much again, I love your videos they already helped me a lot and looking forward to more 😍👌
great explanation Robin. I also think electronic is the future, specially with faster cpus allowing more computational tricks in M43. Some of the limitations of e-shutters you mentioned will be avoided when they reach 120fps or more.
Thanks. You are the first who describes the cons in high Iso. But what is the dynamic range and silent shutter? Sony has visible limitations at least until the models II. In some publication this was described to elder Olympus models. Thumbs up! You are great!
One more case where silent shutter should not be used - when the camera is panned to capture action. In football using silent shutter can result in bent goal posts and also bent player legs due to the top to bottom scan of the sensor. I solved this issue by using mechanical shutter for football shots.
Hi Robin great video!. This really got me thinking as I shoot a lot of HDR landscapes at low ISO and every time I take anywhere between 3-7 frames and sometimes more than one of the same scene so that's a lot of mechanical shutter activations over time. As the HDR setting in the camera (E-M1 mk 1 and E-M5 mk II) doesn't enable Silent High Speed mode I setup some Mysets with the desired exposure bracketing and Silent High Speed mode enabled and it works well for this type of work. Kind regards, Leigh
Great information Robin. Thanks. Is there a way to turn on an audible indicator to electronic shutter? I guess I'm an old dog, but I just prefer being able to hear my shutter. It doesn't need to be as loud as a mechanical shutter, but something.
Great info Robin! I am new to the Oly 4/3 after renting one last month-then buying the 5 mk ii when I saw the wonderful results--including weight savings (coming from Canon full frame). I am glad I watched this because I didn't have time to read the entire manual and assumed that the default shutter sound was actually "fake" like on cell phones. Loving your videos!
I’m wanting to start looking at doing more sport photography, and there’s some confusing info here - at least as I’m interpreting it. You mentioned - and gave some great examples of the jello effect in those tennis shots, but at the same time I was always thinking the pro mode or burst is likely to be the method I’d want to use for a lot of sports photos. I’m just curious as to which option might be the recommended one to use, particularly for sports like basketball, netball, hockey, soccer?
I get the impression that mechanical shutter is good in most normal situations and the electronic shutter is a special feature for niche situations. (at least for most amateurs)
Not really. Electronic shutter is the future and has surpassed mechanical shutter in some aspects. After the limitations are fixed, it will bring a lot more possibilities and push boundaries on what the camera can do.
My older Olympus PEN has its "maximum" shutter speed of 1/16,000 only when using electronic shutter. The mechanical shutter tops out at 1/8,000, but when I use 1/16,000 electronic for moving objects, I almost always get that rolling shutter effect. So, I have come to realize that my maximum usable shutter speed is really 1/8,000, which more than acceptable to me, but makes me wonder why Olympus included the 1/16,000 speed when it is almost never usable. Just for the "specs"?
Im using electronic shutter all the time in my Olympus em1mark2, and i miss shutter simulation sound. Not for me, but for people on the other side of the lens. There is such option in panasonic, but not in oly. Maybe as ambasador you could reach OMDS for the little update for olympus cameras :)
Hi Robin, I am a little vit confused. You say not to use with fast movements, the tennisplayer, but you should use it when you try to catch birds. Can you explaine please. Nice work by the way!!!
Thanks Robin. Slightly confused that we shouldn't use silent shutter with fast moving subjects, but it is with that mode that you can achieve highest frame rate for capturing the critical moment within fast action. 🤔.
You only have to worry if your subject is moving extremely fast. My example was extreme, the tennis racket swinging at maximum speed (those were shot at a WTA tournament, so professionals not just any tennis players). We are talking about shutter speeds of 1/2000 sec and faster and still not enough to freeze action kind of "fast moving subject".
Just as a video camera uses a high enough frame rate to capture full motion, but not so high that it looks un-cinematic or with so much resolution that the camera can't process it all quick enough without distortion. For stills though, we're used to seeing motion blur as representation of something fast-moving like the wheels of a speeding car or the rotors of a flying helicopter, in which case using a slow enough shutter speed during exposure is more important to rendering that than changing its function from electronic to mechanical.
Hi Robin! My name is Jorge from Spain. Thank you for you explain. Is posible that another benefic of the electronic shutter can be minus power consum? The battery Life any more? Excuse me for my english. Congratulations for your channel. I learn very much. Bye!
Robin, I remember you said one day: With mecanic shutter we have less noise in the photos. In the near future it will be like thar with de electronic one?
@@robinwong YES, I know, from the minute 06:00 you describe diferent exemples. In the end you tell us that now we are in a time of change. That is why we must take advantage of the best of each shutter, but that in the future "you think" that the electronic shutter will remain only in our cameras. So, your answer to my question is: Yes :)
Great explanation, definitely earned some coffees :) one thing i don’t get though is how in the pro capture example, one can seemingly get the perfect moment of the chameleon’s tongue fully extended. Wouldn’t there be a jello effect due to the electronic shutter being used for such a fast moving object?
Robin Wong and what about a “lensless camera”? Just an anti- shock and full transparent glass before a super sensitive sensor which just captures the whole visual information in order to let you crop the image without any loss of quality... Maybe into your mobile within a few years... 😳
Hello Robin, fellow Malaysian here. This is completely unrelated to the video, but I came from a Q&A livestream from the school of photography, and one of the viewers mentioned that I should go to you regarding my problem. I’m 20 this year and I’ve been into photography since I was 11. However recently, (pre-quarantine) I felt that I lost all my motivation to take photos. Photography was the only way to convey my emotions. I went to KL for a round of street photography to help myself with my slum, but I found myself wandering around for 5 straight hours and not taking a SINGLE photo. This is worrying for me as photography was the only thing that could stabilise my mental health. What do you think I should do to help get myself loving photography again? I hope to start shooting again after the quarantine ends. I own a nikon d610, nikon 50mm 1.8G and a tamron 24-70 2.8. I would love to find other people to shoot together with to help rekindle my love for it. I’m at a dead end for now unfortunately. Would love your feedback on this. Sorry for the long post!
I do not understand very well. First, electronic shutter is not recommended for high speed images (the tenis player), and later, Robin recommends electronic shutter for high speed images (birds)...perhaps I did not catch the piece of advice.
The recommendation was more for limiting light in the exposure than for freezing motion, useful if you don't have a filter handy when shooting at midday.
Hi Robin - I hope you don't mind if I ask you a question on this topic. You mention in this video that some of the issues with "silent mode" include higher ISO noise in low light situations, and the rolling shutter problem. Are these still issues as of 2/1/2021 using the EM1 Mark III with the latest firmware? I'm trying to figure out the best options for getting the sharpest images possible for any given situation. I know opinions vary, but I trust yours :-). I hope you are doing well - you are such a positive person - I know you will do well, no matter what you end up doing.
Hi Robin, thanks for this enlightening video. I have a question, given ideal conditions, the qualify of the images taken with silent shutter would be as good as those taken with mechanical shutter, isn't it? I shoot mostly landscapes and portraits, so I think I'll consider electronic shutter on my em10 M2 from now on.
Yes, there should be no visible difference between mechanical shutter and silent shutter images, unless you hit the restrictions that I have mentioned in the video (eg high ISO, artificial light, fast moving subject, etc).
Hi Robin. Thanks for the tips. Always great to learn something new about one's gear. One question however, you mention that on e-m5 II the flash speed sync is 20th of a second... I tried and can't get the flash to work at all in silent mode. Any ideas why? cheers
Negative, your camera should have a drive setting for a 1 second delay to help mitigate shutter drag, also consider remote release if you're able to use a tripod
Great video! Since I mostly photographing wild animals i use the silent shutter a lot and often at hi ISOs. Do you know why you get more noice with the electronic shutter? I never thought about it before you mentioned it here.
Great video Robin! Just one doubt, if the silent shutter can be set at extremely fast speeds, why does bending still occur? I would think that at 1/25000 of a sec, for example, every motion could be stopped.
As Robin mentioned, the entire sensor array is not being read all at once; it is being scanned line by line. Although each pixel is sampled for 1/25000 sec, and that is the exposure time, it takes much longer than this to scan down the whole frame.
THANKS - Super informative video! QUESTION please: Can I exceed the 1/250 flash synch limit when using silent shutter? Is that that how the young lady at 10:55 was done? Please explain - thanks again, Sir.
Hello Robin. I have a question. Yesterday I took photos at around 19 o clock with nice sunny light. I had my f stop at 11and I think I used a shutterspeed of 1000 and took photos of buildings and a carport. The photos that I took , and esspecially the once that I took in portrait (vertically) had a wobbly floor and the cars looked like they were standing on a curved floor and so were the fences that were completely bowed.- can this be because I used the electronic shutter? If so I am not going to use that for stationary objects anymore.
I know some of you will be asking - what about Anti-Shock (first curtain electronic shutter)?
Initially I have talked about the Anti-Shock setting but decided to take it out because that original cut was more than 20 minutes long. I am trying my best to make more compact videos, as I realize most people click off at 5 minutes mark or earlier.
The short description of what Anti-Shock is - a hybrid of electronic and mechanical shutter to mitigate shutter vibration/shock that can cause soft images.
Rest assured, I will cover Anti-Shock in detail in coming videos, perhaps in my future OM-D Tips video.
If people click off after 5 minutes that really says something (and not a good thing) about the modern attention span.
don't have in my em5 original. need help!
@Zbriu EM5 ii has those features; those were deciding factors for me.
Thanks Robin, another informative video. In your next video regarding anti-shock, can you cover the low-light high ISO performance in comparison to regular shutter?
This Fall I am planning on capturing some Northern light time lapses, but would like to mitigate against the possibility of shutter shock at 1 to 4 second shutters speeds.
That would be an interesting topic to cover, I heard that shutter shock can lead to soft images depending on the speed !?
The heart symbol may be related to this expression: so quiet that you can hear your heartbeat.
I like your videos since a time now. Something I want to say is, the rolling shutter while using electronic shutter is less than in most other cameras in the market. Only cameras like the Sony A9 or RX10IV can handle it better or the same good. And the OM-D EM1 Mark III now is reading out so fast, that I can do all my sports stuff with electronic shutter. Something I never could do with a Sony A7 III or Nikon Z6 or nearly other mirrorless camera. Sorry for my english 🙂
As wilflife shooter, silent mode is my butter and cookie mode. Even in low light, if I am around videographers, I use the silent mode to not be captured in sound by them.
With portrait with children, who tends to get tense and cringy, I also use silentmode, so they dont notice when they are relaxed and keep relaxed.
Did however, not know, the silentmode added banding and extra noise, will think about that.
Super thanks for the heads up and great user-friendly-video!
thanks i alwais wonder when to use silent and when dont thanks for your explinations:-)
Great information, Thanks!
Thanks! Appreciate the support
In my head the heart for silent shutter is because when you use it the shutter sound won't scare your subjects, especially wildlife, so they like it better. That's how I remember it anyway.
Hi Robin thanks a lot for the long overdue video on silent shutter in OM-D cameras. The pros and cons are wonderfully depicted that benefits even a long time silent shutter user like me. 👌👍🙏
Can I humbly add 3 observations of mine -
Number 1 is if we use electronic shutter the main shutter mechanism does not work so zero shutter count added. That saves your shutter cycle life.
Number 2 is it is very useful in shooting birds in the wild where the sound of shutter alerts the birds and animals.
Number 3 is there is less camera shake from shutter shock in this mode. So I could get pretty sharp handheld capture even at 1/8-1/4 sec using 300mm f4 Pro with 1.4x converter attached. If you can remember some of the 16"x12"" prints I have shared with you during a workshop in Penang.
I got so good results with it that both my EM-1X and EM-1III are always in by default C1 set with silent shutter. When I need to shoot fast moving birds or birds in flight I switch to normal shutter set at C2 with C-AF or C3 with C-AF TR depending on the situation. The C4 mode I have set with handheld high resolution mode.
Once again, great explanation. And a quick summary of when and when not to use is very useful. Thanks!
Thanks, and I am glad I can help.
Interesting. I was just using electronic shutter for 2 years cause mechanical was broken and I no doubt stumbled upon some of the issues your mention: artificial light noise, my speedy dogs with strange shapes, etc.
I will be glad to use mechanical shuttwe again with the new camera at last
You are sooo right, Robin. Nikon Z9 is now using only electronic shutter, no more mechanical shutter.
I was searching for this video to watch it again.
Thank you Robin, excellent explanation on when "to" and "not to" use silent shutter. I have used this mode very occasionally but will look to implement more from now on.
Thanks Mike, yeah I need to do a video about this, it is not as easy as a yes or no answer!!
As fan of the Olympus brand I appreciate all your knowledge on photography and Olympus. Thank you
i am a 'silent shooter' haha..for my type of shooting, I can say 95% of my shot is done in silent shutter mode. except those required using flash. or when I saw a sign of artificial light around. Done that to preserve the life of my shutter. I know I might get bored of my cam and looking for an upgrade before the shutter fails, but I just like to baby my stuff and it gives me peace of mind when i use my cam. but the 'tactile' feedback when the mech shutter is used is very addicting and satisfying
Super advice. I used to shoot silent shutter all the time for low light gig photography. I love that I can always learn from your knowledge, one of the best Olympus / and others channels (psst the best)!
Thanks, you are being too kind. Appreciate the support.
Robin you are the best.
No need to be a newcomer to take advantage of your videos. Always clear and useful. Thanks
Thanks that was useful. The low light was new to me. Enjoy the coffee.
Thanks Robin, very well explained. I use the electronic shutter whenever it’s appropriate. Great for nature photography.
Slight misunderstanding lost in translation - a shutter (derivation) is hinged panel fixed inside or outside a window that can be closed to keep out the light. Opening a shutter will let light in. Closing a shutter during the day will block sunlight and keep a house cooler (its main purpose).
Or curtains, hence cameras' first curtain, second curtain.
In french the word "volet" (window shutter) is often used for camera shutter.
Thanks so much for this Robin. As a 6 year EM5/2 user and 1 year EM1/2 user, I have never used the electronic shutter because I never needed the silence, and never thought about prolonging the mechanical one. That has changed today!
I wonder if this is the reason that I find my hi-res images to be softer than single shots?
High res shot should not be softer, it is the opposite if done correctly. Do see my videos (I have done a few) on high res mode. You need a sturdy tripod, no subject movement, set the delay for capture and you should be fine.
iqueque you’ll only see issues with the shutter (mirror) on DLSR’s as the mirror weighs a lot more than the shutter on a ML camera. Which is why they have “mirror lockup”. If you have “soft” images then it might be down to your technique. As Robin said, try with a good sturdy tripod first, before looking anywhere else.
For most general uses, I really dislike silent shutter modes. It does not give the feel of having taken a photograph and the speeds take too many images in burst modes, and then you have to sort through so many in post processing. It is the one thing I dislike about my OM-1.
Incredibly useful and perfectly explained. Thank you !
Thanks Robin. Now I am safe to use silent shuttle with your assurance on usage conditions.
AUPA!
Thanks and greetings from Spain!
Gracias y saludos desde España!
Great video, Robin. I’ve been using silent shutter more and more. I appreciate the limitations though
Glad that you found the silent shutter useful in your photography workflow.
I wish that Olympus allowed a slight artificial noise for the silent shutter, like Panasonic does. I would use it far more, especially for bursts if it did.
The ‘Global Shutter’ has arrived at last and Sony are the ones to do it with their A9II which will retail in early 2024. However there is already a shutterless camera available to buy now from Nikon in their Z8 and Z9. This being November 2023.
Great video Robin. Very well explained.
Cheers
Thank you as always for your superb video, Robin. Re-vitalised my interest in Olympus completely. Had been a user since 2008 but went away in 2018 but going to be back now, for good. I am not a youngster. Everything you are saying makes total sense, keep with it and the very best of health and good fortune to you!
Robin, thanks for your very clear and useful explanation of how and when it would be good to use silent shutter (and when not to). I always learn so much from your videos and I appreciate the hard work that goes into making them. Cheers!
Really impressive knowledge of the deep detail, Robin. Really well explained scenarios too. Great work 🎖🏆
Thanks Robin always excellent
excellently explained, thank you Robin 🙂
Great video! I've been getting these problems and wondering why for years. Cheers Robin you are excellent!
Great video as always. I always learn something new from you every time I watch.
Thank you very much, Mr. Robin. I have learned so many useful things from you. You are the best.👍👍👍👍
For me electronic shutter is for day outdoor use and mechanical for nighttime indoor/outdoor use. I don’t shoot sports so I don’t have to worry about banding ☺️
I found this video very interesting Robin, as a bird photographer using my E-M1X as my workhorse I've never experienced the problems you talk about. I shoot in low light all the time and can remove all the noise with my editing software. I use pro capture mode to catch small birds in flight all the time, my preferred shutter speed for this is 1/3200 and have never experienced the jello effect you speak of, maybe I'm just lucky that way. The only time I use the mechanical shutter is photographing indoors (basketball or volleyball) Still a great video Robin!
No worries, in contrary to popular belief, that flying bird was not as fast as, say a swinging tennis racket at maximum momentum.... even 1/3200 sec was not enough to freeze it.
@@robinwong Okay thanks Robin, I love the silent shutter because it is truly silent. My old Canon camera had a silent mode, but wasn't silent because it was a mechanical shutter and to add insult to injury fps dropped from 10 to 5, but with the Olympus I still shoot at 18fps!
Wonderful, very well explained video on this important subject. Thanks Robin.
Thank you Robin! Very clear video.
Olympus should add an optional artificial shutter sound for electronic shutter.
Thank you Robin. I just wish you had posted this a week ago. I was taking photos of nervous woodpeckers in the woods using the silent mode and the photos were unusually bad. I thought something was wrong with the camera as is would not go higher than 3200. Well, at least I know now. Thanks again.
The banding problem with silent shutter can be mitigated by using flash + silent shutter, but that limits the camera to single shots and the flash can be annoying.
Flash and silent shutter do not work together
@@JorgeMoredo That is incorrect. The Pen F and all newer cameras can use flash and silent shutter. See instruction manual.
Greetings from southern Indiana, USA! Maybe I missed it, but one problem I found with the silent shutter is that I inadvertently tend to take a few more photos than I intended to take! I don't find that out until later, however. Having used a DSLR, the Olympus shutter is extremely quiet in mechanical mode. The silent option is useful if needed, for the reasons you mentioned.
Great info, Robin. I didn't know about the low light high ISO glitches! Those were pretty obvious. I always thought silent shutter was the antidote to shutter shock that can cause soft images. But I see Olympus has an anti-shock feature too. I thought all it did was delay the shutter actuation by a split second? A separate video explaining this would be most helpful! The shutter on my E-M5 MkIII seems quite pronounced, especially compared to the redesigned shutter in my Panasonic GX85 (which is almost as silent as a leaf shutter!).
The anti shock video is definitely coming soon.
I normally use the silent shutter mode to preserve the life of the shutter of my EM-1 MK2, but i didn't know the issue with the high ISO, so thank you so much for your advices. I also have the M10 MKIII but i don't understand why Olympus decided to put silent mode only on AP, it's annoying because anytime you access to that mode it's reset and also is limited to P mode. I know is a 'beginner' camera but I think they removed too many options from M10 Mk2.
Yeah the silent mode on E-M10 Mark III was "nerfed", I hope Olympus won't do that to their future cameras.
@@robinwong Or they change on a future firmware update (but i don't believe it) ;-)
I have been using Olympus cameras for five years now and never knew that the electronic shutter gives more noise and possibly a color cast! Wow. I've used it almost all the time, and was sometimes really disturbed by high ISO noise. I wonder if it had all been different with the mechanical shutter.
Thanks for the input!
Very nice, it was an incredible helpful video for me, because I was wondering about a lot of noise in some of my pictures, now I know I shouldn't use silent shutter in those scenarios. Thank you very much again, I love your videos they already helped me a lot and looking forward to more 😍👌
great explanation Robin. I also think electronic is the future, specially with faster cpus allowing more computational tricks in M43. Some of the limitations of e-shutters you mentioned will be avoided when they reach 120fps or more.
Thanks. You are the first who describes the cons in high Iso. But what is the dynamic range and silent shutter? Sony has visible limitations at least until the models II. In some publication this was described to elder Olympus models.
Thumbs up! You are great!
Your videos are so informative! I learned so much about photography because of them, Robin! 😍❤️
But we like the Click!
One more case where silent shutter should not be used - when the camera is panned to capture action. In football using silent shutter can result in bent goal posts and also bent player legs due to the top to bottom scan of the sensor. I solved this issue by using mechanical shutter for football shots.
Hi Robin great video!. This really got me thinking as I shoot a lot of HDR landscapes at low ISO and every time I take anywhere between 3-7 frames and sometimes more than one of the same scene so that's a lot of mechanical shutter activations over time. As the HDR setting in the camera (E-M1 mk 1 and E-M5 mk II) doesn't enable Silent High Speed mode I setup some Mysets with the desired exposure bracketing and Silent High Speed mode enabled and it works well for this type of work. Kind regards, Leigh
So...for shooting portraits, electronic shutter would be a good choice
OMG a silent heart! You are dead at that point! :)) Good advice on when not to use electronic shutter. I love that mechanical shutter sound :)
Great information Robin. Thanks. Is there a way to turn on an audible indicator to electronic shutter? I guess I'm an old dog, but I just prefer being able to hear my shutter. It doesn't need to be as loud as a mechanical shutter, but something.
Great !!!
Great video as usual.
Thanks
This was really informative -- thanks !
Cheers
Great info Robin! I am new to the Oly 4/3 after renting one last month-then buying the 5 mk ii when I saw the wonderful results--including weight savings (coming from Canon full frame). I am glad I watched this because I didn't have time to read the entire manual and assumed that the default shutter sound was actually "fake" like on cell phones. Loving your videos!
brilliant, as usual..
Thanks a lot for this explanation. As always very useful and informative...
Great video. Thanks so much for sharing!
I’m wanting to start looking at doing more sport photography, and there’s some confusing info here - at least as I’m interpreting it. You mentioned - and gave some great examples of the jello effect in those tennis shots, but at the same time I was always thinking the pro mode or burst is likely to be the method I’d want to use for a lot of sports photos. I’m just curious as to which option might be the recommended one to use, particularly for sports like basketball, netball, hockey, soccer?
Great info! Thank you
muchas gracias por tus explicaciones maestro
I get the impression that mechanical shutter is good in most normal situations and the electronic shutter is a special feature for niche situations. (at least for most amateurs)
Not really. Electronic shutter is the future and has surpassed mechanical shutter in some aspects. After the limitations are fixed, it will bring a lot more possibilities and push boundaries on what the camera can do.
Excellent video, very instructive.
Regards.
My older Olympus PEN has its "maximum" shutter speed of 1/16,000 only when using electronic shutter. The mechanical shutter tops out at 1/8,000, but when I use 1/16,000 electronic for moving objects, I almost always get that rolling shutter effect. So, I have come to realize that my maximum usable shutter speed is really 1/8,000, which more than acceptable to me, but makes me wonder why Olympus included the 1/16,000 speed when it is almost never usable. Just for the "specs"?
Im using electronic shutter all the time in my Olympus em1mark2, and i miss shutter simulation sound. Not for me, but for people on the other side of the lens. There is such option in panasonic, but not in oly. Maybe as ambasador you could reach OMDS for the little update for olympus cameras :)
Great lessons... thank you...
poor cat
Hi Robin, I am a little vit confused. You say not to use with fast movements, the tennisplayer, but you should use it when you try to catch birds. Can you explaine please. Nice work by the way!!!
Great video!
Thanks Robin. Slightly confused that we shouldn't use silent shutter with fast moving subjects, but it is with that mode that you can achieve highest frame rate for capturing the critical moment within fast action. 🤔.
Mostly because of rolling shutter
You only have to worry if your subject is moving extremely fast. My example was extreme, the tennis racket swinging at maximum speed (those were shot at a WTA tournament, so professionals not just any tennis players). We are talking about shutter speeds of 1/2000 sec and faster and still not enough to freeze action kind of "fast moving subject".
@@robinwong So hummingbird wings perhaps. Thanks for your reply. 👍
Just as a video camera uses a high enough frame rate to capture full motion, but not so high that it looks un-cinematic or with so much resolution that the camera can't process it all quick enough without distortion.
For stills though, we're used to seeing motion blur as representation of something fast-moving like the wheels of a speeding car or the rotors of a flying helicopter, in which case using a slow enough shutter speed during exposure is more important to rendering that than changing its function from electronic to mechanical.
Hi Robin!
My name is Jorge from Spain.
Thank you for you explain.
Is posible that another benefic of the electronic shutter can be minus power consum? The battery Life any more?
Excuse me for my english.
Congratulations for your channel. I learn very much.
Bye!
I don't think it is possible for me to comment on that unless I do a scientific comparison which... I don't think I am the best person to do.
Robin, I remember you said one day: With mecanic shutter we have less noise in the photos. In the near future it will be like thar with de electronic one?
I also covered this topic in this video.
@@robinwong YES, I know, from the minute 06:00 you describe diferent exemples. In the end you tell us that now we are in a time of change. That is why we must take advantage of the best of each shutter, but that in the future "you think" that the electronic shutter will remain only in our cameras. So, your answer to my question is: Yes :)
Thanks for the lesson.
I have just a question: are all the inconvenients of electronic shutter also present with the anti shock shutter?
Great explanation, definitely earned some coffees :) one thing i don’t get though is how in the pro capture example, one can seemingly get the perfect moment of the chameleon’s tongue fully extended. Wouldn’t there be a jello effect due to the electronic shutter being used for such a fast moving object?
First they took away the mirror, now they want to take the shutter from us. 🤬
Maybe in the future the camera will be "sensorless". haha
Robin Wong and what about a “lensless camera”? Just an anti- shock and full transparent glass before a super sensitive sensor which just captures the whole visual information in order to let you crop the image without any loss of quality... Maybe into your mobile within a few years... 😳
My EM5-i makes black images at or beyond 1/2,000 second shutter
Is the electronic shutter when we look through the view finder
And the mechanical when we use the live view mode ???
TY!
Hello Robin, fellow Malaysian here. This is completely unrelated to the video, but I came from a Q&A livestream from the school of photography, and one of the viewers mentioned that I should go to you regarding my problem. I’m 20 this year and I’ve been into photography since I was 11. However recently, (pre-quarantine) I felt that I lost all my motivation to take photos. Photography was the only way to convey my emotions. I went to KL for a round of street photography to help myself with my slum, but I found myself wandering around for 5 straight hours and not taking a SINGLE photo. This is worrying for me as photography was the only thing that could stabilise my mental health. What do you think I should do to help get myself loving photography again? I hope to start shooting again after the quarantine ends. I own a nikon d610, nikon 50mm 1.8G and a tamron 24-70 2.8. I would love to find other people to shoot together with to help rekindle my love for it. I’m at a dead end for now unfortunately. Would love your feedback on this. Sorry for the long post!
Go see a a shrink!
I do not understand very well. First, electronic shutter is not recommended for high speed images (the tenis player), and later, Robin recommends electronic shutter for high speed images (birds)...perhaps I did not catch the piece of advice.
The recommendation was more for limiting light in the exposure than for freezing motion, useful if you don't have a filter handy when shooting at midday.
@@ericmeekey7886 I take note. Thank you very much
Another stellar lesson.. Thank you..
Cheers, glad I can share
Hi Robin - I hope you don't mind if I ask you a question on this topic. You mention in this video that some of the issues with "silent mode" include higher ISO noise in low light situations, and the rolling shutter problem. Are these still issues as of 2/1/2021 using the EM1 Mark III with the latest firmware? I'm trying to figure out the best options for getting the sharpest images possible for any given situation. I know opinions vary, but I trust yours :-). I hope you are doing well - you are such a positive person - I know you will do well, no matter what you end up doing.
Hi Robin, thanks for this enlightening video. I have a question, given ideal conditions, the qualify of the images taken with silent shutter would be as good as those taken with mechanical shutter, isn't it? I shoot mostly landscapes and portraits, so I think I'll consider electronic shutter on my em10 M2 from now on.
Yes, there should be no visible difference between mechanical shutter and silent shutter images, unless you hit the restrictions that I have mentioned in the video (eg high ISO, artificial light, fast moving subject, etc).
@@robinwong Thank you, sir!
thanks alot but do the silent shutter decrease the dynamic range?
Hi Robin. Thanks for the tips. Always great to learn something new about one's gear. One question however, you mention that on e-m5 II the flash speed sync is 20th of a second... I tried and can't get the flash to work at all in silent mode. Any ideas why? cheers
Can't m1 mark ii do it too? 🤔
Trigger shake is also only removable in silent, right?
Negative, your camera should have a drive setting for a 1 second delay to help mitigate shutter drag, also consider remote release if you're able to use a tripod
Great video! Since I mostly photographing wild animals i use the silent shutter a lot and often at hi ISOs. Do you know why you get more noice with the electronic shutter? I never thought about it before you mentioned it here.
Great video Robin! Just one doubt, if the silent shutter can be set at extremely fast speeds, why does bending still occur? I would think that at 1/25000 of a sec, for example, every motion could be stopped.
As Robin mentioned, the entire sensor array is not being read all at once; it is being scanned line by line. Although each pixel is sampled for 1/25000 sec, and that is the exposure time, it takes much longer than this to scan down the whole frame.
Robin what will we poor people do with M10 iii and silent shutter which has not;;; and has it to M10ii the older model?
I have a question, how can I turn off the AF sound in silent shutter mode?
THANKS - Super informative video!
QUESTION please: Can I exceed the 1/250 flash synch limit when using silent shutter? Is that that how the young lady at 10:55 was done? Please explain - thanks again, Sir.
I thought true shutterless cameras can only happen if cheap, low noise, globally scanned CMOS sensors become available.
Hello Robin. I have a question. Yesterday I took photos at around 19 o clock with nice sunny light. I had my f stop at 11and I think I used a shutterspeed of 1000 and took photos of buildings and a carport. The photos that I took , and esspecially the once that I took in portrait (vertically) had a wobbly floor and the cars looked like they were standing on a curved floor and so were the fences that were completely bowed.- can this be because I used the electronic shutter? If so I am not going to use that for stationary objects anymore.