50
votes
What would be causing a thick black diagonal line in front of my camera's sensor?
From what I see this is element from the shutter. And my humble advise is to send your camera to repair shop, give it in to the hands of professional, do not try to repair it.
- 11.6k
23
votes
Why do cameras use a slit between two curtains rather than exposing the entire sensor instantly?
As was said, the mechanical shutter has speed limitations. As to the slit, try to imagine without it. Suppose the shutter opens by moving from top to bottom of frame. And then of course, it has to ...
- 12.9k
21
votes
Why do cameras use a slit between two curtains rather than exposing the entire sensor instantly?
Thought experiment time. Assume we'd like a minimum exposure of 1/2000 of a second (500 microseconds) on a 35mm full frame camera. We have a single 'shutter' to move out of the way, and back.
We'll ...
- 1,848
21
votes
What would be causing a thick black diagonal line in front of my camera's sensor?
The item obstructing the sensor is a shutter blade. Your shutter has failed and needs to be replaced. There's no hack or DYI solution for this problem. This is a hardware problem and not something ...
- 674
20
votes
Accepted
What are the pros and cons of mechanical vs electronic shutter?
Fujifilm has a nice summary of the issues with each.
Electronic Shutters (ES) have some interesting characteristics due to the way the image is read out of the sensor.
Moving objects can be distorted, ...
- 6,694
19
votes
Accepted
Silent Shooting - is it easy on the camera's mirror mechanism?
Most DLSRs with "silent" or "quiet" shutter modes don't change the speed at which the shutter is operated at all. The transit time each curtain takes to traverse the height of the sensor is constant ...
- 175k
19
votes
Removing "banding" lines caused from using silent shutter
I don't use Photoshop, so here it is done with Gimp, but I assume the same tools are available on PS:
Use Wavelet decompose to decompose the image into its frequency components (these are images that ...
- 20.6k
18
votes
Accepted
If a rolling shutter travels from top to bottom, why does this image seem to show skew in the other direction?
You are correct that the image is inverted as it is projected on the sensor and that the mechanical shutter reveals the bottom of the scene before the top of the scene. What you have missed is that ...
- 175k
18
votes
Accepted
DSLR or Mirrorless for Helicopters with doors off?
Mirrorless or DSLR doesn't really matter. Use whichever lens-body combination gives you the best reduction of vibrations that are relatively slow in frequency but very deep in amplitude. Smaller ...
- 175k
16
votes
Shutter speed calibration
Calibrating your Shutter Speed
Unless you are performing photographic telemetry or a variety of other niche scientific measurements, the only reason to know the exact length of your exposure is to ...
- 1,989
16
votes
Accepted
How is uniform exposure achieved when using a leaf shutter?
There are actually a variety of leaf shutter designs, so a single answer might not be entirely appropriate... but it seems apparent that you are talking about the in-lens aperture diaphragm type.
...
- 14.9k
14
votes
Why are the tops of people's bodies missing from this photo taken with a tablet from a moving car?
This is very likely the result of an automatic HDR mode.
Because of the apparent high contrast of the scene, the camera app tried to blend multiple pictures of the scene with different exposures ...
- 1,488
13
votes
Removing "banding" lines caused from using silent shutter
This "banding" is caused by the primary light source in the image varying in intensity over time, and by the (electronic) rolling shutter in the camera converting this variation over time ...
- 4,703
10
votes
How is uniform exposure achieved when using a leaf shutter?
The best way of approaching this might be by thinking of the aperture. A stopped down aperture does not only project light on the centre of film plane. Instead, the entire film plane is exposed more ...
- 2,702
9
votes
Accepted
What is the origin of the iconic shutter sound in TV/movies and on phones?
From the horse's mouth...
A quote from Jim Reekes, creator of the Mac startup & camera sounds [amongst other things] from his own site -
The Story of Sosumi and the Mac Startup Sound
One of ...
- 23.2k
8
votes
Why do I have to press the shutter button twice to take a photo with my Canon DSLR?
You have probably enabled mirror lockup.
The purpose of mirror lockup is to allow the slight vibrations caused by the movement of the mirror to dissipate before the shutter is opened. This is mostly ...
- 175k
8
votes
Accepted
How long can a shutter be cocked before it is damaged?
I have been doing this stuff since the 1950’s, I have never actually seen damage to a camera due to the springs taking a set due to prolonged cocking. Not to say that can’t happen as I was taught not ...
- 38.7k
8
votes
Why does electronic first curtain shutter affect rendering of blurred backgrounds?
The reason for the phenomenon is that at wide apertures in good light necessitating a fast shutter speed, most of the exposure is coming from a very narrow traveling slit between the first and second ...
- 6,598
7
votes
If a rolling shutter travels from top to bottom, why does this image seem to show skew in the other direction?
Yes, you are right, the effect is opposite from what we would expect from a shutter moving downwards.
And this is because the shutter moved upwards, or, more specifically, it was the electronic ...
- 5,060
7
votes
What are the pros and cons of mechanical vs electronic shutter?
One problem with electronic shutter is that it's sometimes combined with mechanical shutter, so that there's electronic first curtain (simple to implement, just gradually release the photosites at the ...
- 6,598
7
votes
What are the pros and cons of mechanical vs electronic shutter?
No one else has yet mentioned that many cameras which offer both options reduce raw bit-depth when the electronic shutter option is chosen in order to increase frame rates beyond what the mechanical ...
- 175k
6
votes
Accepted
Do rotary shutters have uneven exposure?
No, because the farther from the center it is the greater the rotational velocity is. I.e. the shutter travel speed is proportional to the radius. If you continue your simulation, the bottom of the ...
- 14.9k
6
votes
Should I expect a new-to-me large-format shutter to require maintenance?
Short answer, yes, this issue is expected.
That Copal No. 1 is probably between thirty and sixty years old, and in professional service would have been expected to receive a CLA (Clean, Lube, Adjust) ...
- 7,113
5
votes
Accepted
How can I get the Shutter Actuations/Count for my Nikon D5300?
The simplest way would be to upload an image to CameraShutterCount which will do it for you.
Alternatively, using the freeware, cross-platform exiftool you can extract the data either by reading ...
- 23.2k
5
votes
What is a leaf shutter?
A leaf shutter is located in the lens of a camera, rather than in front of the focal plane inside the body of the camera. They are made of several metal blades that fit together in a circular ...
- 175k
5
votes
Accepted
What is a leaf shutter?
The general idea of a leaf shutter seems to have started from leaves on trees. The earliest leaf shutters had a relatively large, flat opaque "leaf" with a "stem" sticking out from one end where it ...
- 19.3k
5
votes
Accepted
What are the advantages and disadvantages of each shutter mode of my Sony α7R II?
The silent mode (only electronic shutter) is as it stated, silent. It makes no noise. The drawback of this mode is that the A7R II (and almost all other cameras) do not have what is called global ...
- 204
5
votes
How long can a shutter be cocked before it is damaged?
I would not lose sleep over it.
There are a number of film cameras - Rollei 35 in small and Bronica ETRSi in medium format come to my mind - that actually require you to cock the shutter after ...
- 6,010
5
votes
What are the physical limits that determine a camera's flash sync speed?
Before electronic flash became the norm, we used flash bulbs. These were a one-time use bottle of sunlight. Typically they consisted of a glass envelope filled with oxygen. The bulb contained a ...
- 38.7k
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