CoachP wrote:
Wondering what type of shutter the majority of photographers use: Mechanical or Electronic? and what Camera System.
BOTH. I use Lumix gear.
Each shutter type has distinct advantages for certain types of applications, and distinct disadvantages for other applications.
I do a LOT of copy work — artwork, documents, photo prints, slides, negatives, stamps... The ELECTRONIC shutter is perfect for it. It eliminates all camera-generated vibration except for the automatic diaphragm stopping down. Coupled with remote release or two-second self timer, it ensures sharp results.
You DO need to be working with a continuous output light source when using an electronic shutter. Many cheap LED and fluorescent light sources flicker. This change in light intensity and color balance over time is particularly a problem in buildings using 277-volt lighting circuits with cheap "ceiling troffers" (2'x4' four-tube fluorescent fixtures).
I once had to do an impromptu copy job using clamp lamps and cheap 5000K LEDs from Home Depot. The only way I could avoid "vertical rolling bars" in the copies was to increase my shutter *time* to double the power line frequency (i.e.; 1/30 second for 60 Hz AC power).
Humans don't see that flicker, but a camera with a digital sensor WILL see it under the right conditions. My made-for-video LED light panels and copy stand lights are flicker free. Some cameras have integrated flicker reduction technology, but many don't.
Any time you want to do candid or event photography in STEALTH mode (think: candid photojournalism, weddings, plays, concerts…), the electronic shutter is great.
In my youth, I did a lot of candid photography for school yearbooks. After the first click of my shutter, I could no longer fade into the background. I HATED that, because I like to catch real expressions without influencing events or drawing attention to my work.
To me, there is nothing worse than watching a hard-to-hear event like a wedding or White House Oval Office meeting, and hearing some rude photographers' dSLRs clacking away in the middle of it. Church leaders and other venue managers are wising up and putting restrictions on that. In the age of mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras, there is simply no need to tolerate camera noise at most events.
As a Freshman in college, back in 2017, my son had a lead role as a satanic character in a play. It was an audience participation play, where the audience is seated in a bar/restaurant setting on the stage. The actors work around them, and on the tables in front of them, as shown below. (That's my son with his sleeve rolled up and tongue stuck out.) I was invited to photograph the play for the director. My son reserved me a seat at the on-stage table where the peak action would occur, and I used my GH4 in electronic shutter mode to snap over 300 frames of the action. It was as if no one knew I was there. A lady next to me asked me why I was holding the camera to my face if I was never going to use it!
Conversely, if you are panning when photographing fast action sports, racing, birds in flight, cheetahs chasing gazelles or something like that, unless you have a true GLOBAL READOUT shutter, you do not want to use an electronic shutter, because it leaves a "rolling shutter" effect. That's where vertical lines in the scene all tilt to one side of the frame. This phenomenon is caused by the time difference in the electronic line-by-line readout from the top of the scene to the bottom of the scene. Each line takes a certain amount of time to be read into the buffer memory, so there's a tiny position change from line to line. The faster the readout speed, the less rolling shutter effect you get. Micro 4/3 sensors are smaller than full frame sensors, so there's less rolling shutter with those smaller sensors, all other things being equal (they never are).
If your subject is moving slowly, or not at all, rolling shutter is not a factor.