MIA Sports Technology

Shutter Speed is the length of time (in fractions of a second) that the shutter is held open when exposing each of those frames.  This will be displayed as a fraction, eg. 1/60, 1/1000, 1/2000

On most dedicated video cameras, the framerate is not adjustable.  There are some exceptions when it comes to still picture cameras with 'movie mode', notably the Casio EX-F series cameras which can be adjusted from 60fps to 1200fps depending on model. 

The same principles of still picture photography also apply to video.  If you want the subject you are recording to appear sharp, they can not move while the shutter is open.  Any movement that occurs while the shutter is open is reproduced as a blur in that picture.

To record video of a golf swing and have the club appear sharp during the entire swing, the camera shutter must operate at 1/1000th second or faster.  Even a golf club traveling at over 100MPH cannot move very far in only 1/1000th of a second.  By reducing the distance the club travels while the shutter was open, you reduce the amount of blur seen on the club in each frame. 

The tradeoff with shutter speed is that it also affects the amount of light reaching the camera sensor to expose it.   As the exposure time decreases, the amount of light reaching the sensor to expose it also decreases and the image appears darker.  All sensors have a 'minimum' amout of light necessary to reproduce an acceptable picture, once this is reached the image will become very hard to see.  This is why you must film in a very bright location in high speed shutter mode- you are offsetting the amount of light lost by the shorter exposure time.

If the exposure time is not long enough for the sensor to receive the minimum amount of light necessary for a good picture, your images will come out dark or 'grainy' from sensor underexposure.   You can offset this problem by either selecting a longer exposure or by adding more light to your filming area.

TIPS:

Increasing the shutter speed does not affect the number of pictures recorded per second by the camera.  It only affects how long the camera exposes each of those images.

Blurring starts to become very obvious at shutter speeds under 1/500th second.

Shutter speeds exceeding 1/1000th second generally are not possible indoors without a specialized lighting setup.

Shutter speeds faster than 1/2000th second are not necessary for golf swing analysis.  Once you reach the magic number which makes the club appear still, faster shutter speeds will not improve the image.  In fact, they may actually hurt performance by darkening the image.

On adjustable framerate cameras, higher framerates = lower resolution.   We recommend using the 300fps setting on the EX-F1, the 210fps setting on the EX-FH20 and FC100, and the 240fps setting on all other EX-F models. 

Fast shutter speeds will cause severe image problems when used under 'flickering' light sources, such as traditional fluorescent lights or metal halide lamps.  This behavior will not occur in natural sunlight, or under lighting which uses a glowing wire filament (regular incandescent light bulbs, halogen lights.   More information about this issue is available in the article linked below.