My Kodak P880, with the same image sensor size as my 20D's, has no shutter at all as it has a continuous electronic viewfinder.
I don't think the shutter and viewfinder are connected at all.
"continuous electronic viewfinder" - you mean the lcd screen on the back? So what happens when you switch that off? Is your viewfinder switched off?
Of course not - it's purely a screen that is unconnected to the shutter mechanism.
If they were connected and you switched off the screen, the shutter wouldn't work because you've claimed your camera "has no shutter at all BECAUSE it has a continuous electronic viewfinder"
And both cameras have a significant difference in their sensor size. As expected the Canon 20D sensor is WAY bigger. According to
Stevesdigicams and
dpreview the 20D sensor is 15.0 X 22.5 mm.
According to
dpreview the Kodak sensor is minute in comparison measuring a mere 7.18 x 5.32 mm
My Kodak P880 will sync with flash at 1/4000th of a second
Where did you find this info???
Kodak website doesn't say it, neither does
dpreview,
stevesdigicams.
nor does [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Kodak-Easyshare-P880-Digital-Optical/dp/B000A8JYB8"]Amazon[/ame]
I'm not saying you're wrong but i'd be interested to hear where you got your info from considering the manufacturer doesn't even claim it.
And as for the mechanical shutter - i found this
Current DSLRs use mechanical shutters just like film cameras. That's not because it's the best way to construct a camera. It's because the technology is available and mature, and current full-frame CCD technology requires the sensor to be covered while it's read out. More advanced sensor technology does no longer need a shutter (as seen from today's digicams), but image quality does not reach that of full-frame CCDs. So with the quality-aware buyers of DSLRs, mechanical shutters are currently the right compromise.
You can read
more here
I'm not sure how knwledgeable the guys is but it seems a reasonable explanation.