Page 294 - Friedman Archives

294 “Custom” (Gear icon) Menu Settings

6.23 E-FRONT CURTAIN SHUT.

Menu Position MENU  5  e-Front Curtain Shutter

What it Does Obviates the need for the shutter to close first before
initiating the exposure

Recommended Setting ON unless you’re experiencing overexposures with
older lenses

So let’s talk about what happened each time you took a picture with Sony’s
first SLT camera, the Alpha 55:
1. The shutter would stay open to allow live view to occur.
2. The shutter release button was pressed.
3. The shutter closed. (& the sensor was reset).
4. The shutter opened (starting the exposure)
5. The shutter closed (terminating the exposure)
6. The shutter opened again (allowing Live View to occur once again).
That’s a lot of shuttering! You can actually hear what all this sounds like
by setting this e-Front Curtain Shutter variable to “Off” and taking a single
picture. Yup! It sounds like two consecutive shots are being taken. This is
a lot of extra wear and tear on the shutter too.
While there are still some technical hurdles to tackle before we can get to
the day when the shutter is eliminated altogether, Sony has made some
progress toward that goal by borrowing a technique pioneered by Canon in
the previous decade: by eliminating the need to block out all light to the
sensor at the beginning of the exposure (to “reset” the sensor). This
technique is called “e-Front Curtain Shutter”.
So with this new feature enabled (which is the factory default), the shutter
sequence gets shortened to this:
1. The shutter stays open to allow live view to occur.
2. The shutter release button is pressed.
3. The sensor is reset electronically. The exposure begins immediately.
4. The shutter closes (terminating the exposure)

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