Why does an electronic shutter cause banding under artificial light?
Electronic shutters read the sensor line by line from top to bottom. Many artificial lights flicker at the frequency of the electrical supply — 50Hz in Egypt and Europe, 60Hz in the US. When the sensor readout intersects with this flicker frequency, some lines are exposed during the bright phase and others during the dim phase, creating visible horizontal bands.
How flicker creates banding
A 50Hz LED light turns on and off 100 times per second. To your eye, this is invisible — it happens too fast to see.
But an electronic shutter reads the sensor over 1/15s to 1/60s. During this time, the light goes through multiple on-off cycles.
If the readout timing does not align with the flicker cycle, some rows are exposed during the bright phase (lighter bands) and others during the dim phase (darker bands).
Mechanical shutters avoid this because they expose all rows simultaneously — every row sees the same average brightness.
When banding is worst
Faster electronic shutter speeds: At 1/1000s or faster, each row is exposed for such a short time that it catches only a fraction of one flicker cycle — making brightness variation between rows more extreme.
Cheap LED and fluorescent lights: Budget lights have worse flicker because their driver circuits do not regulate output properly. Professional lights with high-frequency drivers (25,000+ Hz) produce no visible flicker.
Mixed lighting: Some lights flicker while others do not. Banding appears only in areas lit by the flickering source.
Cameras at Camera Shop Egypt
How to avoid flicker banding
Switch to mechanical shutter: The immediate fix. Mechanical shutters expose all rows simultaneously and are immune to flicker banding.
Use anti-flicker shooting mode: Many cameras detect flicker and time the shutter to the light’s bright phase. Enable it in your camera menu.
Match shutter speed to flicker frequency: In 50Hz regions (Egypt), use shutter speeds that are multiples of 1/100s — like 1/100s, 1/200s, 1/400s. Avoid 1/125s, 1/250s, 1/500s.
Use high-quality lighting: Professional LED lights with high-frequency drivers (Godox, Nanlite, COLBOR) are flicker-free at any shutter speed.
If you shoot under artificial lights with electronic shutter, always do a test shot first. If you see bands, switch to mechanical shutter or adjust your shutter speed to a multiple of 1/100s (for Egypt’s 50Hz power grid).
