Global Shutter vs Rolling Shutter: Differences & Comparison-Knowledge Encyclopedia-Shenzhen Kai Mo Rui Electronic Technology Co. LTD

Global Shutter vs Rolling Shutter: Differences & Comparison

Source：Shenzhen Kai Mo Rui Electronic Technology Co. LTD2026-06-22

A shutter is a mechanical structure inside a camera that controls the effective exposure duration of the photosensitive medium.

Global Shutter and Rolling Shutter correspond to global exposure mode and rolling exposure mode respectively, both widely adopted exposure schemes for industrial and consumer cameras. Their respective characteristics are detailed as follows:

Global Shutter

All pixels of the photosensitive array start and finish exposure simultaneously to form a complete frame.
Free from the "jello effect" typical of rolling shutter sensors.
Shorter overall frame exposure time; pixel data is transmitted only after the entire frame finishes exposure.
Motion blur may still occur when capturing extremely fast-moving objects.
Traditionally implemented on CCD image sensors; it imposes higher requirements on pixel output bandwidth, and CCD sensors are generally more costly than CMOS alternatives.

Rolling Shutter

Pixels on the photosensitive array are exposed line by line in sequential order to construct a full image.
Prone to the well-known "jello effect" when shooting moving subjects.
Longer total frame exposure time compared to global shutter; data is output row by row immediately after each line completes exposure.
Fast-moving objects will appear distorted or skewed in captured footage.
Most commonly built upon CMOS image sensors with lower bandwidth demands for pixel readout, making CMOS a more cost-effective solution.

Supplementary Explanation for Frame Rate Difference

It should be noted that video frame rates vary across different sensors. Take the AR0134 (Global Shutter) and MT9T001 (Rolling Shutter) as examples:

The AR0134 features a trigger mode for continuous video streaming: a rising edge acts as the start signal, with exposure and data output regulated by clock signals. The total frame formation time equals the exposure period of a single pixel plus the readout time for all pixels in one full frame.

By contrast, the trigger mode of the MT9M001 completes row-by-row exposure first before sequential data output. Given the inherently shorter exposure time of global shutter, the AR0134 delivers a higher frame rate than the MT9M001 under identical clock frequencies.

In most general scenarios, however, rolling shutter sensors achieve higher frame rates. This stems from its row-wise exposure-and-readout mechanism: total frame time for rolling shutter equals the exposure time of the first row plus the readout duration for all rows in the frame.

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