To see exactly what difference EFCS and Full Electronic Shutter modes have on image sharpness compared with the use of flash, I grabbed my Nikon D850 and I proceeded to do a quick test at 1.3x and 1.5 second shutter speed. The results were not even close to what I expected. All of the images looked sharp! So, I tried a faster shutter speed of 1/4 second and the results were the same. All perfectly sharp.
Now I was really interested to see the results at something a little more demanding, so I set up a Mitutoyo 20x and Sigma LSA for a look. Did the increase in magnification show any difference between Flash, electronic shutter and full mechanical shutter?
The Set-Up
Camera: Nikon D850
Objective: Mitutoyo M Plan APO 20X
Tube Lens: Sigma LSA https://www.closeuphotography.com/sigma-life-size-attachment/
Studio set-up used: My standard 52mm rig https://www.closeuphotography.com/52mm-setup
Sensor: 35.9 mm x 23.9 mm BSI CMOS Full Frame, 43.13 mm diagonal and Pixel pitch of 4.34 µm (micron sensor pitch).
Flash: Godox TT350s wireless flash x 2 with one Godox X1s 2.4G wireless flash transmitter
Vertical stand: Nikon MM-11 with a Nikon focus block
Manual exposure mode, ISO 64, 1/160th of a second and lowered to 10 seconds with the non-flash images. All images used CSM (custom settings menu) d6: exposure delay set at 3 seconds.
A series of images was shot with each configuration in 2 micron steps. At 100% view in Photoshop I chose the sharpest frame for the crop comparison. All images were shot as a single RAW file, no stacking, and all processed in PS CC with all noise reduction and lens correction turned off, all settings were zeroed out (true zero) and the same settings were used for all images. These are all single files, no stacking was used.
The Test Results
This is an image of Texas Instruments silicon wafer at 20X, re-sized to 1500 pixels but un-cropped with the 100% crop area outlined in Blue.
100% center crop below, click on an image to see a larger version, to see the full size file, right click or two finger click on a mac and select open in a new tab or new window to see the full-size 1500 pixel file.
Results left to right
Flash only
Flash with EFCS
No Flash with EFCS only
No Flash with Full Electronic Shutter, Nikon Silent Live View Photography Mode 1.
No Flash and Full Mechanical Shutter
Results left to right
No Flash with EFCS only
No Flash with Full Electronic Shutter, Nikon Silent Live View Photography Mode 1.
No Flash and Full Mechanical Shutter
Conclusion
The results of this test really surprised me. The fact that all the results are sharp at 100% view, including the results with a normal mechanical shutter, is unbelievable. My standard operating procedure has always been to use flash or EFCS to get really good detail at 100% view.
Now the question is, how much of the sharpness consistency is due to my set-up, my technique, or the D850? In any case the D850s performance here was amazing.
From the Nikon D850 brochure:
Tested for 200,000 cycles — Durable, high-precision shutter To ensure durability, the D850’s shutter has been tested for 200,000 cycles while actually loaded in the camera. It’s also designed to minimize the mechanical vibration that causes image blur. The D850 is the first Nikon D-SLR to adopt a shutter counter-balancer in its shutter drive, which travels upward during each shutter release to counteract the vibration caused by the front curtain’s downward motion. What’s more, the camera’s shutter monitor function calculates the duration between front- and rear-curtain movements every time the shutter is released, and automatically corrects any variance.
What do you think? Questions and comments welcome.