Shutter shock is the mechanical vibration caused by the movement of a camera’s shutter mechanism.
When you take a picture, the camera’s shutter opens and closes to expose the sensor to light.
This creates tiny vibrations that travel through the camera body and shake the sensor ever so slightly.
The result is a slight blurring or softening of the image, which can be especially noticeable in high-resolution images (like RAW) or when using longer focal lengths.
The Main Causes of Shutter Shock
1. Shooting With the Mechanical Shutter
The primary cause of shutter shock is the mechanical shutter itself.
In DSLR cameras, the mirror flips up and down to expose the sensor, while in mirrorless cameras, the shutter curtains open and close.
Both these actions generate vibrations that can affect image sharpness.
2. Low Shutter Speeds
Shutter shock is more likely to occur at specific shutter speeds, usually between 1/60 and 1/250 of a second.
These speeds coincide with the natural resonance frequency of many cameras, making them more susceptible to the vibrations caused by the shutter mechanism.
3. Large Lenses
Longer and heavier lenses can exacerbate the effects of shutter shock, as their weight and length make it more challenging to stabilize the camera during the exposure.
Big prime lenses used for bird photography are at risk for shutter shock, especially if they are being hand-held.
How to Reduce & Eliminate Shutter Shock
1. Electronic Front Curtain Shutter (EFCS)
Modern mirrorless cameras, like the Canon EOS R7, offer electronic front curtain shutter, which significantly reduces shutter shock.
With electronic front curtain shutter, the first curtain of the shutter opens electronically, which means no vibrations are produced.
But, a second mechanical curtain closes, ending the exposure, and this motion can still create some vibration, albeit at the end of the exposure instead of at the beginning.
2. Electronic Shutter
Many modern cameras also offer a full electronic shutter mode, where the sensor is exposed to light without the use of mechanical curtains.
Electronic shutter mode completely eliminates shutter shock but, on some cameras, electronic shutter mode introduces an issue called like rolling shutter effect, or rolling shutter distortion.
When shooting with my Canon R7, I use electronic shutter mode most of the time because the 30 frames per second allows me to capture shots I would miss otherwise.
I do lose some shots to rolling shutter effect, but the shots I do get are extremely sharp.
Read my article on how to get sharper bird photos if you want to learn more.
3. Tripod
For especially large and heavy lenses, a tripod and can stabilize the lens and help minimize the effects of shutter shock.
But, consider turning off image stabilization when using a tripod, it may introduce some wobbliness or softness in otherwise stable images.
4. Shutter Speed
In many cases, some amount of shutter shock is nearly impossible to avoid, but increasing your shutter speed can make it negligible.
Try to avoid shutter speeds between 1/60 and 1/250, as these tend produce shutter shocked images more frequently.
The degree of shutter shock varies from camera to camera so you may need to experiment with your own camera to determine where shutter shock starts to show up.
Shutter Shock on the Canon EOS R7
If you are a Canon R7 user (like me), or are considering buying one, you might be wondering to what extent the R7 suffers from shutter shock.
Personally, I haven’t noticed shutter shock on my R7 but I also haven’t run tests to specifically test for it.
But, I did find this explanation on canonrumors.com, by AlanF, especially helpful for those of us who use an R7:
There is discussion in various forums about shutter shock with Electronic First Curtain Shutter (EFCS) with the R7. I have been following this and have done careful tests of my own with charts and would like to sum up the situation. Shutter shock can occur when any shutter is opened mechanically and it causes a vibration, independent of whether the camera is mirrorless or a conventional DSLR, unlike mirror slap that can’t occur for mirrorless. EFCS is designed to avoid this as the shutter opens electronically and closes mechanically, after exposure. But, it has been noted with the R7 in its high speed 15 fps drive for EFCS that the first shot is fine but that there is shutter shock for the subsequent shots. This appears to be because the shock of closing can vibrate the following shot. This doesn’t happen for all lenses, the adapted EF 100-400mm II, for example, has been reported to be immune.
I have tested the RF 100-400mm, RF 100-500mm and RF 800mm f/11. In H+ mode of 15 fps with EFCS and mechanical shutter, there is noticeable shutter shock at lower shutter speeds that is nearly gone by 1/250s and completely absent at 1/400s. Electronic shutter has zero shutter shock as expected. In the H mode of 8 fps for EFCS, I couldn’t see shutter shock at 1/60 s. So the take home message is: avoid H+ mode for EFCS at /250s or slower and all mechanical modes at 1/250s or slower. Also, the R7 does have bad rolling shutter with ES, so avoid that when wings are flapping fast or panning fast against vertical lines. But, the R7 has a good variety of drive modes, the H+ mode is 30 fps for ES and 15 fps for MS and EFCS, the H is 15fps for ES, 8 for EFCS and 6.5 for for MS, and low continuous is 3 fps for all three modes, and so we have lots of choice for different situations. I leave the camera in low speed continuous ES for static shots, H+ ES for BIF and H+ EFCS for insects in flight etc where rolling shutter can be a disaster
AlanF (canonrumors.com, August 1, 2022)
To sum up AlanF’s main point, shutter shock on the Canon R7 is only problematic below a shutter speed of 1/250 in electronic first curtain.
This is great news for us bird photographers because we often keep our shutter speeds much higher than 1/250 so that we can freeze the motion of fast moving birds.
Conclusion
I hope this article gave you a better idea of what shutter shock is and how you can deal with it.
Shutter shock is a sad reality of owning a DSLR or using mechanical shutter mode on a mirrorless camera.
Getting a camera with a stacked sensor is the best way to eliminate shutter shock because you can shoot in electronic shutter mode without worrying about rolling shutter.
But, cameras with stacked sensors are very expensive, putting them out of reach of most hobbyists.
Thankfully, technology keeps improving and becoming more accessible, so I’m optimistic that we’ll have stacked sensor cameras available at reasonable prices in the near future.
If you want to learn more about taking pictures of birds, including gear recommendations and how to photograph birds in flight, check out my guide on getting started with bird photography.
Until then, keep taking pictures.