Purpose of shutter on digital camera?

I thought that CMOS can't shutter fast enough, meaning that to get shutterspeeds higher than something like 1/500s you still need a mechanical shutter. From what I understand, for CCD this isn't a problem and a camera can be designed without a shutter.

I kind of wonder how without a shutter you could get the same effects as 1st or 2nd curtain sync ...

Who knows? ... Someday the whole SLR concept may become obsolete ........

SKREEEEEEEEE ........ GR-I-I-I-I-ND ............ KLUNK ! (The sound of shifting paradigms without using a clutch).

Wasn't there some film SLR (I forget which, and I forget what exactly the concept was called) that actually used a semi-transparent mirror, and it *only* opened the shutter, it didn't move the mirror at all? The sacrifice was a loss of light both in the viewfinder and the overall image, but I think it would be fun to play with.

Edit: Pellicle Mirror was it?

aLFaDaRK wrote in post #2641260
Wasn't there some film SLR (I forget which, and I forget what exactly the concept was called) that actually used a semi-transparent mirror, and it *only* opened the shutter, it didn't move the mirror at all? The sacrifice was a loss of light both in the viewfinder and the overall image, but I think it would be fun to play with.

Edit: Pellicle Mirror was it?

I remember something like that about 30 - 35 years ago. I was thinking that there was a beam splitting prism, but I might be confusing that with a rangefinder.

Canon RT Slr

You're both right, I did a quick search.

With a CCD sensor, which doesn't theoretically need a shutter, wouldn't it be possible to use a similar mirror system to create a completely silent DSLR? The mirror would cut some of the light, but because of sensor's being more sensitive to light with less noise nowadays, it could effectively make up for that.

That would be a cool toy.

heres one.

Who cares.

the shutter is an important tool especially in studio photography. Alot of models change poses when the shutter is heard.

True, but it could be good as a second body (or even a main body) for someone who frequently takes photos during weddings, ceremonies, shows, etc. where they need to be as quiet as possible.

There's not enough demand for it to ever happen though.

Seriously I don't understand why there is such a huge demand for "super quiet" shutters. Yes I understand that weddings must be shot quietly, etc... but people are still shooting weddings to this day right with their loud 30d's and 5d's etc....

My eos1nRS has a pellicle mirror, it is great, the loss of light is not that much and you have the advantage of very little blackout when taking pictures as the mirror does not move. It helped it achieve 10 frames a second. There was a rumour some time ago that a New Canon prototype eos1 had a pellicle design. Who knows,, with luck and a fair wind ..