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Physical shutter of Sony NEX?

AGeoJO

New member
Maybe the answer is so obvious but I am puzzled about the presence of a physical shutter in the NEX cameras. Logic tells me that the shutter would be obviously in the front of the sensor but when you remove the lens I can see the sensor right in there. Does it use an electronic, virtual shutter that regulates the exposure on the sensor instead of a physical shutter like, let's say in any other DLSR or RF system? Can someone enlighten me? Thanks!
 

douglasf13

New member
Part of the reason that the NEX's shutter is so loud is because it remains open all of the time for live view. So, when you press the shutter button, the shutter closes, opens, closes and then opens again. Thus, it is double the movement of a DSLR shutter that just opens and then closes (when not using live view.)
 

AGeoJO

New member
Hi Douglas,
Thanks and that makes a lot of sense but that will cause an increase in the lag time then which I naively do not notice :D. Well, I notice an extended black out time after the exposure but I feel the capture time after the shutter has been triggered is pretty fast without any noticeable delay.
 

douglasf13

New member
Agreed. The lag time will increase because of this, but they've dialed it in pretty well. Granted, it won't compete with pro DSLR shutter lag times.
 

AGeoJO

New member
So, the whole shutter assembly will be lowered down, the shutter activated and the whole shebang will be raised up again. That is really nifty. I will check my camera when I get back home to see where it is. Do you have any link with images that show that by any chance? Thanks!
 

douglasf13

New member
Yep, the shutter closes, opens, closes, opens.

I just looked at shutter lag figures on Imaging Resource, and it looks like the shutter lag on the NEX-5 when manually focusing is about the same as a 60D when using a single point AF. Of course, the 60D has around 3x less shutter lag when using manual focus.
 

s.agar

Member
That would mean that the camera shakes more than an M8. That's what I had found out the hard way when trying hand held night/street photos with NEX+Leica lenses.
 

simonclivehughes

Active member
That would mean that the camera shakes more than an M8. That's what I had found out the hard way when trying hand held night/street photos with NEX+Leica lenses.
That's my impression also. It's taken me quite a while to improve my handling (waist height focussing) so that I don't get motion blur. It is possible, however, even shooting with f1.1 lenses.

What's amazing to me is that in Speed Priority mode, the NEX can do all that at up to 7fps!

It might shake more than an M8 (had them too), but your chances of a higher shutter speed would better with the outstanding higher ISO characteristics.

Cheers,
 
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