Video: How the Shutter of Your DSLR Works

Tuesday 1 August 2017, 20:20 by Elja Trum | 6,825 views | 2 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Every time you take a photo, a curtain opens in your camera to let light reach the sensor. Immediately afterwards, a second curtain closes to end the exposure. In this video, Chris Marquardt clearly shows you how this shutter works.

With a longer shutter speed, the first curtain opens, the sensor is fully exposed for a while and then the second curtain closes. With a short shutter speed, the second curtain follows the first before the sensor is fully exposed. A strip of light effectively moves across the sensor.

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About the author

Elja Trum is the founder of Photofacts and online photography course website Photofacts Academy. He has been writing about photography since 2006. Elja is also the author of (Dutch) books on composition, black-and-white photography, flash photography and portrait photography.

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2 comments

Jan Wijn wrote on Wednesday 2 August 2017 at 11:10 | reply
Het is voor mij nog steeds verbazingwekkend dat zo'n mechaniek hoge sluitertijden haalt, In de analoge tijd mocht je blij zijn dat een sluiter 8000 kliks meeging, nu is 40.000-50.000 geen uitzondering meer.
This comment was written in another language and has not been translated yet.

Casanova56 wrote on Tuesday 8 August 2017 at 18:02 | reply
Sorry Jan Wijn.
Een sluiter ga tegenwoordig al ruim 150.000 keer mee, uitzonderingen daar gelaten.
This comment was written in another language and has not been translated yet.

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Would you like to take better photos and keep up with what is happening in photography? Photofacts publishes articles that teach you something about photography — from a product announcement to a practical shooting tip or a look at a website. Photofacts covers photography every day and is a hobby project of Elja Trum's that got out of hand. The articles are written by a team of volunteer authors. If you would enjoy writing one or more articles for Photofacts, do get in touch.More about Photofacts

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