Do digital cameras have reciprocity failure on long exposures?
Asked 3/27/2013
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Film can suffer reciprocity failure on long exposures, where the measured exposure needs extra time and color shifts may appear. Does the same thing happen with digital cameras? If not, are there any long-exposure issues to be aware of, and does the camera’s meter automatically compensate for them?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
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No, the effect does not exist.
However, long exposures in digital have their own host of problems:
- Sensor overheating. This used to be a bigger problem, but with the advent of video DSLRs this has mostly disappeared.
- Hot pixels. Some sensors just don't like staying "active" and will internally leak and produce a single color hot pixel. Cameras and software such as Lightroom will automatically remove them, but in very long exposures or night-sky shots, they do not.
Originally by user2056. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user2056
13y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Not in the film sense. Digital sensors are generally close to linear: roughly speaking, doubling the light gives double the signal, so there is no normal reciprocity-failure correction table like with film.
That means your camera meter does not usually need to add extra exposure time the way film did.
However, long digital exposures can still have other problems, especially at very long shutter times:
- increased sensor noise/heat
- hot pixels
- image artifacts becoming more visible in very long exposures
These are not reciprocity failure; they are sensor/noise issues. Some cameras and software can reduce hot pixels automatically, and newer cameras often handle long exposures better than older ones.
So the practical answer is: no automatic reciprocity compensation is needed for digital, but very long exposures may still show noise-related degradation.
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