I posted sharpness test results with and without EFCS with the Zeiss 135mm f/2 APO-Sonnar here. EFCS seemed to make a significant difference at shutter speeds from a few tenths of a second to a hundreth or so. Some people have reported no improvement with common zoom lenses. I thought I’d try the AF-S Nikkor… [Read More]

Before I get to how the electronic first curtain shutter (EFCS) on the D810 works, it will be instructive to look at how the all-mechanical focal plane shutter operates. Here’s a photograph of an analog oscilloscope with the time base set to 0,5 milliseconds/division. EFCS was disabled, and the shutter speed was 1/1000 second:  … [Read More]

[This post, like the previous one, was extensively revised on 7/28/2014, and for the same reason.] I repeated the tests of the previous post with the camera in portrait orientation. This is a more severe test, since the shutter moves in the left/right direction when the camera is oriented with the long side up and… [Read More]

One of the new features on the D810 is the electronic first curtain shutter (EFCS), which should in conjunction with raising the mirror well before the exposure, reduce vibration. The EFCS controls on the S810 work quite differently from those on the Sony a7 and a7S. Like the Sonys, there’s a menu item to turn… [Read More]