Rolling Shutter Effect

Blades

Jason Mullins shot a series of photos of an airplane propeller with his iPhone 4 that demonstrate a rolling shutter effect, where the object being photographed is moving faster than the shutter as it scans the frame.

Here’s another example shot by Soren Ragsdale in 2009.

Airplane Prop + CMOS Rolling Shutter = WTF

A similar thing can happen with video, as Mikel Ortega discovered when shooting a propeller with his Nokia N95.