While on holidays recently I came up with a question regarding shutters on digital cameras.
From the (brief) research I've done it appears that most digital SLRs utilise a mechanical shutter. Is technology not good enough at present for us to use electronics to control the on/off status of the CCD?
The reason is ask is this. While on holidays I did some rapelling down a cliff that happened to be located next to a waterfall (I survived!). As I gained confidence I started jumping out from the rock face in arcs as I descended. It struck me that it would make a great photo of you could use a long shutter speed to capture the silky water of the waterfall, but to also be able to capture the instant in time at which I was jumping out away from the rock face.
To use a short shutter speed would capture the person, but not the get the silky water and vice versa. (And I don't think using a flash would be feasible at the distances you would shooting from)
It then struck me, if the the CCD on SLRs is digital, then would it be possible to develop a function wherbey the user could select on the CCD those parts of the image that they want short/long shutter speeds. This could be a broad selection (eg. bottom 2/3 of image at 2secs shutter speed, and top third at 1/2000...might be useful for early morning sunrise shots?) or you could go so far as to select a small circle of interest on the CCD that you want a specific shutter speed (eg. the waterfall).
Thoughts?
Andrew.