GH4 GH4 E-shutter vs Mechanical Shutter for Timelapse

B

blando3

Well-known member
I have been playing with time lapses using the GH4 and have had some success. I am particularly interested in shooting day to night time lapses. I have found the only way to shoot these is to use auto ISO to allow the camera to adjust as the sunlight disappears. My big question right now though is how to set the shutter, electronic or mechanical? Mechanical gives more options in terms of speed, although supposedly it's not as good for the camera. Electronic seems to create a jerkier time lapse, as seen in the first clip in my link below, while the mechanical shutter can create a smoother motion due to longer shutter speeds.

Check out what I've done so far:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huT5Sp0lH8c&feature=youtu.be

Any thoughts, comments, and advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Andrew
 
I just finished a very short time lapse for a wedding establishing shot. I used e-shutter and I didn't notice anything weird with the rendered video.
 
Electronic shutter can't leave the shutter open as long, and also introduces rolling shutter which can create problems in certain circumstances (fast moving objects, moving camera, lightning bolts or other flashes only illuminating half the image, etc). Mechanical shutter is gonna be the best bet for image quality and flexibility for those reasons, electronic is best to keep the camera silent if that is necessary. I'll pretty much default to mechanical shutter unless the sound of the shutter is gonna be problematic for where the camera is gonna be sitting for hours shooting away.

Here's something I put together earlier this summer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY1KpSEFXxU
 
Nice work! Do you worry about the wear and tear from running the mechanical shutter for hours and hours?
 
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