Shutters

I wrote this article primarily to be sure I understand all the stuff I am writing about. It is therefore fairly basic, and you might get bored in reading it. I do however hope to get some things straight for people who, like me, have difficulties understanding the basic facts of photography. That's why I put it on my web site. If you find that insulting, or appreciate it but want to correct me in one point or the other, please contact me.

Talking about today's cameras, there are basically two types of shutters:

Leaf shutters are situated within or immediately behind the lens, are typically made of metal and found on:

Focal plane shutters are situated next to -er- the focal plane - i.e. just in front of the film. They are made of cloth, rubber or metal, travelling horizontally or vertically and found on most 35 mm cameras with interchangeable lenses like SLRs and RF cameras, the most prominent example for the latter being the Leica (both screw mount and M series). They are also found on medium format rangefinder and SLR cameras.

As you know or might have guessed, both have their advantages and disadvantages:

External Link:

Rick Oleson knows almost everything about shutters and is a great drawer of simple, yet comprehensive, sketches. Highly recommended!

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Copyright © 2002-2010 by Erik FissErik Fiss. All rights reserved.All rights reserved. Last modified March 16, 2010

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