Most digital cameras have live view but a lot also have a (mechanical) shutter (my Ricoh GR for example). If the sensor is sending information continuously for the live view why can’t this data be used for creating the picture? And how does the operation in live view and “picture taking” mode differ?
In: Engineering
Mechanical shutters are better if you’re trying to capture something that is moving. You can look up “rolling shutter” effect to see why. On digital shutters you have a ton of sensors in a grid that all briefly turn on and off. But in most cameras they go line by line – start in the middle and move up and down one line at a time. So the sensor in the middle actually captures the image a few milliseconds before the sensor on the outside and if you’re taking a picture of something moving quickly it won’t perfectly match up. Lots of cameras now have both, because a digital shutter let’s you capture at speeds much faster than a mechanical shutter can open and close. There is another type of digital shutter in which all sensors expose at the exact same time but it’s so expensive right now most cameras don’t use them.
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