Technically, we don't really need a shutter for digital anymore, do we? The sensor can always stay on, and you can have it report back to the processor for increments as small as you can manage with the processor and bus speed, such as 50,000/sec.
The trick is to siphon off the heat and electrons (noise, etc.) so that you can keep the sensor active and amplified for sensitivity at fast increments. It's a difficult trick (ask the people who made the Red One camera pass 2k RGB at 120fps from the sensor). As sensors and processors with HD video technology progress at shunting the the amplification side effects, the speed will get more pronounced and one day we'll see the sensor really opened up to fast processing beyond what mechanical shutters can accommodate. I believe that's being worked out. Look at the Phantom HD video camera (http://www.visionresearch.com/) that gets 3k at 1,400 fps (and "Shutter speeds down to 1 microsecond"). Those developments are coming to consumer cameras probably in the next 5 years. >Date: Fri, 22 May 2009 12:42:29 -0700 >From: Joseph McAllister <[email protected]> >Subject: Re: Oh another K-7 thread... > >Maybe some day they'll figure out how to get light to travel faster, >or conversely get shutter curtains to zip across the focal plain >faster than 10,000 miles per hour. I'm opting for an optical glass >shutter that blocks light completely until hit with a current at which >time it becomes utterly transparent until the current is removed. >Could even be combined with the low-pass filter glass. > >No fee for the idea, but I'd be glad to help with the science, >Pentax.... > >Joe -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
