Does the SL3 display Shutter Shock with the Mechanical Shutter?

[SrMi]

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No image sharpness degradation was observed at 1/250 sec.

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[Luke_Miller]

Mechanical 1/250 is fine on both my SL and SL2. I think I see slight blurring at 1/200, but so little I could live with it.  Any slower down to 1/60 is a problem.  Not in every shot, but enough to avoid those shutter speeds. I'm told 1/30 is OK but have not tried it.

[FlashGordonPhotography]

I have tested extensively for shutter shock on the SL3 and have reported on various threads. I've tested the 4 APO SL primes I have, 24-90, 90-280, Panny 70-200/4, 100-400, 150-600 Sigma, 500 Sigma and a few others.

I tested on and off tripod, ES vs MS over multiple shutter speeds and multiple distances. I also experimented with extra supports to see how much was camera shake.

After about 500 shots I still can't conclusively find evidence of shutter shock. Now, I'm not saying it's not there. All focal plane shutters have it, to some extent. But unlike the SL2, where I could get consistent results easily. It's been MUCH harder on the SL3. Just when I think I have it, I'll get a few pin sharp shots at those same settings in a sequence. On a tripod with all IS off and firing the shutter with the Fotos app I see almost zero differences other than focusing errors. Below is the 150-600 MS and ES comparison at 600mm to illustrate. There's no evidence of shock in these. One on a tripod and one handheld.

There is no evidence of shutter shock with any focal length below 100mm. With the 100-400 above 200mm. I think I see some regular shock effects until 1/2f. The 150-600 and 90-280 seem to be showing shock at 1/f to around 1/250 but it's not entirely consistent. I'm not convinced yet that some of it has to do with optimisation of the IS algorithms. Every sequence has a shot or two that's perfectly sharp with MS and a few that aren't with ES. I am struggling to find absolute consistency.

The 90-280 seems to be a bit of a shock magnifier. It was the lens I had the biggest differences with. I wonder whether further firmware will provide optimisations to the whole system.

Basically, I see no issue with shutter shock and the SL3 in real world use. If I'm shooting at focal lengths over 150mm I'll stick to 1/f if possible. I have never thought the 90-280 was a viable shot at 280mm and 1/125 of a sec. No issue with modern noise reduction and the very good SL3 sensor to bump the ISO.

Gordon

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[Luke_Miller]

Thanks for your report.

[algrove]

On 3/18/2024 at 10:07 AM, BernardC said:

The "old school" test is to attach a laser pointer on a camera and take pictures of the projected dot on a wall. Go through all available shutter speeds and see which ones cause problems. Typically, you'll find a small range of speeds that cause issues, with anything slower or faster being fine.

Great testing idea.