gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Shutter speed is only one part of the equation for exposures. The end result is what's important. All work in combination.

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

It's an interesting technical subject, whether or not any setting is accurate and the margin of error in its manufacture. For that matter what is the accuracy of any component. I am sure that the engineers and the techs in manufacturing worry about these thing all the time. Does this gizmo fit properly when attached to the adjoining thingy. Does this screw fit into that socket, and what are the "play" tolerances. But (there is always a but) as far as IQ of the image is concerned, what difference does it make? If in a fast motion situation if a setting of 3000 speed gives a slightly soft image and a 6000 speed a tack sharp one, that's all that matters. In every that's made. there is a margin of error(tolerances) in every component. From a camera to the space shuttle, or a power drill. I just re-read my reply, And in the next to last sentence, I meant to say--in everything that's made---. So my margin of error sucks Another thing that just occurred to me an absolutely accurate stetting is perfection, but (there is one of those buts again) the quest for it is self defeating. Perfection is the enemy of good. ( an old Chinese proverb, I just made up.)

Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

What did you guys do today? "We hung around and picked nits, you?"

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Electronically controlled shutters are quite accurate. I believe under JCII they allowed a + or - 10% variation, at the most... and I bet a lot of them are far more accurate than that.

JCII is "Japanese Camera Inspection Institute" and most Japanese camera manufacturers met those standards. I imagine there were similar standards set by organizations in Europe and the Americas.

But I can't prove how accurate modern DLSR shutters are, since my shutter tester only goes to 1/4000 and it's not usable on digital cameras (only works on film cameras because the tester's sensor needs to be placed in the film plane). Electo-mechanical shutters have been in use since the late 1970s. By the early 1980s, nearly all cameras were using them. AFAIK, all DSLRs now use them. Some DSLRs and mirrorless cameras now use digital shutters... sometimes for all shutter function, other times as an augmentation to the electro-mechanical shutter.... in some cases to offer as high as 1/32000 shutter speed. I suspect digital shutters are even more accurate than electro-mechanical.

BTW, at one time JCII specifications for earlier, fully mechanically controlled cameras was + or - 25%. That's 2.5X "less accurate" than the modern electro-mechanical shutter, but still well within the latitude of most film. These accuracy standards applied to shutter, aperture, ASA/DIN/ISO and metering systems, too.

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

Here I thought that most if not all DSLR's had an electronic shutter but that most SLR's except for the very newest ones the past few years had a mechanical shutter. Was I mistaken?

Dennis

BebuLamar

I think all current DSLR still have mechanical shutter (although all of them are electronically controlled). Some DSLR also has purely electronic shutter but they still have the mechanical one.

James Slick Loc: Pittsburgh,PA

Did you send the egg timer to a lab to check it's accuracy?

Erkibler

Should be easy to verify. Just count to 8,000 while the shutter is open.

BebuLamar

No you don't send it to a lab to check. It's the time standard used to calibrate the lab instruments.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

HOW DARE YOU!!! It was my mother's egg timer! Are you accusing my mother of some inaccuracy?

BebuLamar

I don't want to offend you or your mother but I think although she had the timer she never used it. She knew when the eggs were done.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

What kind of egg timer was it?
Deviled, Ostrich? ...Balut?
Makes a difference.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

Actually she was a working mom in the 1960's and she taught me to cook my own eggs.

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

I am waiting for the coming of the electronic shutter. Light from a subject falls continuously on the sensor; this must be so for with a mirrorless camera where else would the viewing panel or EVF get its image data. It should not be any technical problem to capture the sensor charge state at any one instant. A sensor is an array of tiny transistors that act like a capacitors whose dharge state provides the binary digits: 0s & 1s. Wish there were a description of exactly how sensors are structured and operate. All it would take is software code to read the charge state of the sensor at any one ibstant.