Re: Auto shutter on a1 always uses mechanical, even when electronic should be preferred
Grenache wrote: EB-1 wrote:
What does it do when you set 20 FPS? That should force ES mode.
EBH
No idea. This is my least common use case and the one for which I would have hardwired in electronic shutter. This should already be the default, well before invoking 20fps.
In the end, I can just do what I have been. I just thought auto would have some logic baked in.
As I see it, if you want faster fps than the shutter allows, then of course the electronic shutter should be selected. If you want to use flash then of course the mechanical shutter with its faster flash sync speed should be selected. Outside those obvious cases, it isn't clear to me that outside those obvious cases that one shutter mode is clearly better than the other. Sure the electronic shutter is better when I want to shoot silently, but how is the camera going to know that. Sure, I would want either EFCS or electronic shutter if the camera is on a tripod, but again how is the camera going to know that.
There is probably a very very small possible advantage of the mechanical shutter at reducing blur with really fast moving targets. That tiny and highly unlikely to matter advantage wouldn't be worth wearing out the mechanical shutter to me, but I can see why the camera might be automated to use the mechanical shutter for that mostly theoretical and very tiny advantage. The camera can't know how fast the as yet unacquired target is going to move.
What we have here, IMO, is a basic rule. Automatic modes on cameras typically suck. The P mode almost always picks an aperture and shutter speed I wouldn't pick as well. Using automatic shutter makes about as much sense as using P mode. Not surprisingly the camera isn't very good at making good decisions in either of these automatic modes.
Personally, I rarely use even auto ISO, and I even prefer to manual focus much of the time rather than use auto focus. Those modes can be useful, but P mode and it appears this auto shutter mode are pretty close to worthless. I personally find many of the "features," on modern cameras to be pretty worthless.
Jun 23, 2025 at 06:34 AM
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