Hi,
Not saying that leaf shutters are not useful, but consider this:
Total sales of interchangable lens cameras is around 10 000 000 a year while MFD market is believed to be around 10000 a year.
So MFD sales are about 1 promille of ILC sales.
Life cycle of MFD-s is probably longer than for ILC, but I guess that that is highly probable that not more than 1% of the photographers use MFD and not all of those MFDs are leaf shutter cameras.
Therefore I guess that 99% of the photographers do without leaf shutters. I don't say LS are not good or that they are not needed. But, I guess that we would have more LS systems around if there was a large market for them.
Obviously, photographers using outdoor flash benefit from LS, but I would suggest they are minority, ignored by Canon, Nikon, Sony, Pentax and Fuji.
The starting point of this discussion was really a very nice stop motion image shot with a Pentax 645Z at 1/125s.
Best regards
Erik
I disagree. IMO a portrait in available light with a natural background and the model is lit by a fill flash is more pleasing and more interesting than a studio scene with a white or grey boring background. When shooting without a leaf shutter in full sunlight environment you either shoot with a small aperture (e.g. f/16, but this does not give a pleasing bokeh) or using a strong ND filter (with the disadvantage of focusing and possible color shifts) or using some kind of tricks like FPS...High Speed Sync (with all kind of disadvantages of light output power loss and/or differing color balance). With leaf shutters as I do with my H6D-100c I can sync a mobile power pack up to 1/2000 sec in full sun light at f/2.2. The freedom of not having to worry of the limitation X-sync of focal plane shutters (1/160 sec ... 1/250 sec) is a luxury as soon one shoots a system with a comfortable leaf shutter as with Phase One or Hasselblad.
Hi,
As long as surround light is low, shutter speed doesn't matter.
There are some reasons that 99% of worlds best images are probably made with focal plane shutters:
Could be that 99% of the cameras used to capture world's best images have FPS
Could be that 99% of the worlds best photographers know to make best use of their systems
Could be that 99% of the worlds best images are made in available light or in studio
Yes, I would suggest that there are situations where short sync times are essential too keep down surround light, but they may rather be exceptions than rules.
It may also be that great photographers can work around limitations of their equipment.
Not saying that leaf shutters are not great. Just saying that an awful lot of great images come from focal plane shutters. Leaf shutters have benefits for sure, just may be that focal plane shutters also have benefits.Those benefits may outweigh the disadvantages for 95% of the users?
Best regards
Erik