The Importance of Shutter Speed & Shutter Angle

On cameras and camcorders the shutter is the device that controls the amount of light that can pass through a lens. Shutter can be described in terms of fractions of seconds or angle. What exactly is a camera shutter? What’s the difference between shutter speed and shutter angle? For better understanding, it is recommended that you get yourself familiarized with the related terms.

What is the Primary Difference Between Shutter Speed & Shutter Angle?

The primary difference between shutter speed and shutter angle is how they are both measured. Shutter speed is measured in fractions of a second. Shutter speed measures how fast the shutter moves. For example, if the shutter exposes the film for 1/60th of a second, then it means it has 1/60 shutter speed. Slow shutter speeds allow more light but if the subject is moving, then the image is produced with motion blur. On the other hand, faster shutter speeds allow less light but they are effective when it comes to freezing motion.

Shutter angle is measured in degrees. When you measure shutter angle, you are measuring the part of the rotary disc that is exposing the film to the light. A shutter angle is considered “normal” if it is 180 degrees. At this angle, the shutter speed is half the frame rate. For a film shot at 24 fps, the standard shutter angle is 180 degrees.

What is a Camera Shutter?

The shutter is a covering for your camera sensor that is kept closed until you capture a photo or record a video. Every time the camera takes a shot, the shutter opens allowing the sensor to be exposed to the light that goes through the camera lens’ hole or the aperture. The shutter closes once the sensor grasps the light in order to stop the light to hit the sensor.

What is Shutter Speed?

Shutter speed is the time that is measured when the camera shutter is open. This is the definition with regards to still photography. When it comes to film photography, shutter speed is the time that is measured of the film’s exposure to the scene that is being recorded.

Shutter speed in digital photography is the time that is measured for the camera’s sensor image to see the scene that is going to be shot. Technically, it is the time when dramatic effects are created either when you blur the action or freeze it.

What is Shutter Angle?

The term “shutter angle” is used to describe the shutter speed that is relative to the frame rate. Shutter angle is generally used for rotary shutters where a disc containing the angled opening spins and lets in light once per revolution to expose every frame. The shutter speed is lower when the angle is larger. The limit is up to 360°, which is the point where the shutter speed becomes as slow as the frame rate. Decreasing the angle makes shutter speed arbitrarily fast.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

Q:What is the shutter speed of a 45 degree shutter angle?

A:To calculate the shutter speed for a 45-degree angle, start with your frame rate of 24fps and determine how to reduce the full exposure of 360 degrees to 45. Divide 360 by 45 to get 8, then multiply that by your frame rate of 24 to arrive at a shutter speed of 1/192.

Q:What is 180 vs 360 shutter angle?

A:The 180° rule can be broken to emulate a specific film era, or used to make video purposefully shaky, or outright jarring. The wider the shutter angle, from 270° up to 360° the more motion blur, and the narrower the shutter angle, (less than 180°), the less motion blur is perceived from one frame to the next.

Q:What is 1 60 shutter speed in angle?
A:In essence, at 24 fps, our camera's effective shutter speed correlates with 1/48 second when paired with a 180-degree shutter angle. At 30 fps, the effective shutter speed is 1/60 second. At these speeds, an appropriate amount of inherent motion can be frozen, with a minimum amount of image blurring.

Overview

In the digital realm, the terms shutter speed and shutter angle are used interchangeably. DSLR cameras refer to exposure time with the term shutter speed while CMOS shutter-less cameras generally refer to it as the shutter angle. The key difference between the two is the way they are both measured.