Sony a7rII shutter vibration

[rdonson]

The a7r suffered from some nasty shutter vibration especially noticeable with long lenses and long exposures for landscape work.

Has this been tested on the a7RII and deemed a non-issue? 

Has anyone tested the "silent" electronic shutter to understand its limitations?

[jrp]

No, but, if you look in the online manual, you will find that the electronic curtains don't play well with wide aperture lenses, etc.

[MatthewCromer]

I use EFCS all the time on my A65 including with wide aperture lenses.

It is true that there can be artifacts under certain conditions, but I haven't seen them to be a problem.

[NancyP]

I am not sure why electronic first curtain shutter would not play well with wide angle lenses. After all, the second mechanical curtain slams down as usual, then the camera reads out the data as usual. Rolling shutter effect occurs if you have motion in the subject and the exposure proceeds row by row. That gives you the cool propellers: http://jasmcole.com/2014/10/12/rolling-shutters/

But I don't have the camera or the manual.

[Wayne Fox]

No, but, if you look in the online manual, you will find that the electronic curtains don't play well with wide aperture lenses, etc.

page # and possibly a quote would be helpful. I took a quick look and can't see any caution.  would be curious as to sony's exact wording.

[Wayne Fox]

I am not sure why electronic first curtain shutter would not play well with wide angle lenses. After all, the second mechanical curtain slams down as usual, then the camera reads out the data as usual. Rolling shutter effect occurs if you have motion in the subject and the exposure proceeds row by row. That gives you the cool propellers: http://jasmcole.com/2014/10/12/rolling-shutters/

But I don't have the camera or the manual.

Unfortunately I will have to wait for mine, customer waiting list at my store is pretty long.  But the Sony rep is in town, and has one, so I get to shoot some tests tomorrow. Electronic first curtain is my priority, as it is the reason I have done little shooting with my A7r.

I think there maybe a little confusion however, as there are two modes, Electronic Front Curtain, and Silent shutter which I assume uses an electronic second curtain as well.  I could see that silent mode may have some limitations, but electronic first curtain has been in sensors for a very long time.

[michael]

As for as I can tell after 4 days of heavy use, the shutter vibration issue is a thing of the past.

The A7RII's shutter mechanism is brand new, made of carbon fibre, and rated at 500,000 actuation. It also has a brake mechanism. It also sounds much softer and "smoother".

Michael

[Wayne Fox]

As for as I can tell after 4 days of heavy use, the shutter vibration issue is a thing of the past.

The A7RII's shutter mechanism is brand new, made of carbon fibre, and rated at 500,000 actuation. It also has a brake mechanism. It also sounds much softer and "smoother".

Michael

That's good to hear.

Sounds like you've been having fun

[Jack Hogan]

The a7r suffered from some nasty shutter vibration especially noticeable with long lenses and long exposures for landscape work.

Has this been tested on the a7RII and deemed a non-issue? 

Has anyone tested the "silent" electronic shutter to understand its limitations?

Watch Jim Kasson's blog.  He'll surely be testing it in the next few days.

Jack

[Chris Livsey]

page # and possibly a quote would be helpful. I took a quick look and can't see any caution.  would be curious as to sony's exact wording.

The Manual, if not the camera 

http://download.sony-asia.com/consumer/IM/4576983111.pdf

The word "wide" appears four times and not in the context of the shutter/lenses.
The word "angle" six times, again no connection, what are we looking for?
Page 83 lists limitations for "silent" shooting, lenses are not mentioned.

[MarkL]

Unfortunately I will have to wait for mine, customer waiting list at my store is pretty long.  But the Sony rep is in town, and has one, so I get to shoot some tests tomorrow. Electronic first curtain is my priority, as it is the reason I have done little shooting with my A7r.

I think there maybe a little confusion however, as there are two modes, Electronic Front Curtain, and Silent shutter which I assume uses an electronic second curtain as well.  I could see that silent mode may have some limitations, but electronic first curtain has been in sensors for a very long time.

Some shutter modes also make it revert to 12bit:

Silent Shooting
Long Exposure NR
Bulb (more than 30 sec. exposure)
Continuous Shooting (including Bracketing continuous shooting)

[MatthewCromer]

Jim Kasson's preliminary tests show a much improved 12-bit mode in the A7R2 versus previous Alphas - about 1/2 stop DR less than the 14 (actually 13) bit mode.

[Wayne Fox]

quick test regarding EFC on a7rII.  Used one of the tougher situations for the a7r to handle, Nikon 70-200/2.8 with Novaflex adaptor, so body is hanging off the back of the lens. Lens is mounted solidly to a RRS TVC-34/Arca Swiss Cube.  Exposed at @5.6, 1/13th of a second at ISO 200.  Processed in LR 6, only adjustment was disable all sharpening.

EFC to me eliminates all shutter vibration issues, any softness is related to the lens itself.  If you use the standard first curtain, the new shutter shows a slight improvement over the previous version, but if you were having problems with any lens on the a7r, the new shutter may still exhibit those problems unless you use EFC.

but this sort of begs the question why is there even a  choice for standard shutter mode.  Is there any kind of tradeoff in image quality?  If so under what circumstances? Seems that unless you are shooting very fast moving subjects (the only circumstance where I think it might be a concern) there isn’t any reason not to use EFC all of the time.