Did you buy a Leica only to find that the shutter was not as quiet as the hype?

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Neare

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I'll say it again,
Did you buy a Leica only to find that the shutter was not as quiet as the hype?


I don't believe Leica's are as quiet as people rave them to be. My Contax T3 is quiet (ignoring the wind). My Leica makes a similar amount of noise to many 35mm horizontal/vertical shutter cameras, simply without the extra mirror slap.
Then some Leica owners attack Bessa's and ZI's about them being to loud. In reality the noise difference is actually very minimal.

It's true, when you're out on the street people generally can't hear it. Well, that is if cars are going past and so forth. I use my Norita out on the street, now that has a loud shutter! But people also can't even hear that when cars are going past.
In a quiet back alley, inside a room or close to your subject on the street when a car is not going past... your subject can probably hear your shutter if they're paying attention. It often what sets off the "Did you just take my picture?".

Feel free to disagree with me, but know that this is not an attack against Leica, I do own and use one. It is just my experience and I am interested if anyone has similar thoughts on this. 😉
 
No, I have not, and I have owned more than a dozen over the years and handled even more. Some models are quieter than others, though. I have a M7 that is practically silent.
 
I've found that in situations where I wanted to be discreet (shooting during a tour of a museum or a cathedral) any shutter noise would have been too much. The only thing I can think of for those situations would be a point and shoot or phone camera with an electronic shutter--unless you live in a country where those are mandated to emit a sound each time a picture is snapped.
 
Everything is noisy in comparison to an Hexar AF in silent mode. Seriously.

I agree that they vary; the mechanical Ms are a lot louder than the M7.

Marty
 
I've found the M series very quiet (compared to SLR's at least), but the LTM series distinctly louder.

Of course the quietest of all are the leaf shutter cameras. For example a Rollei 35 or Retina IIc is much quieter than any Leica I've used.

Regards,
D.
 
A properly running, lubricated and adjusted M Leica is very quiet. As quiet as any cloth focal plane shutter I've ever shot, and I've shot a lot of different cameras. But, really, I think the whole camera noise thing is mostly irrelevant. I can only think of two or three times in the last 50 years when anyone noted the noise from my camera. Including Speed Graphic's FP shutter and Nikon F's.

The 6' 1" 220 pound guy holding the camera kind of gives me away even before I press the shutter button.
 
I didn't think it was that quiet either. I think it's the "snick" of the shutter as opposed to the mirror-slap of an SLR, or the whirr of the autofocus and motor drive mechanisms in other cameras which makes all the difference. I find my TLR has a similar sound - which is also manual focus, manual wind-on and doesn't have a mirror either.
 
Pickett Wilson said:
But, really, I think the whole camera noise thing is mostly irrelevant. I can only think of two or three times in the last 50 years when anyone noted the noise from my camera. Including Speed Graphic's FP shutter and Nikon F's.

The 6' 1" 220 pound guy holding the camera kind of gives me away even before I press the shutter button.
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Yeah I do agree with you. I never bought one because I wanted a quiet camera, I don't mind noise and I don't mind if people hear that I'm taking their picture. I really don't think that all this 'stealth' business is actually beneficial to ones work. You have to be in the action to get the action and trying to hide in plain sight is impossible.

But I just want to debate all the talk about them being some of the quietest cameras ever.
 
Why debate? They are SOME of the quietest cameras ever, just not the quietest. Tough to debate the uncertain grey of the middle ground.
 
Neare said:
You have to be in the action to get the action and trying to hide in plain sight is impossible.
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That is totally different. Bring a camera to your eye, regardless of brand or color, big or small, you are no longer inconspicuous. There are totally different qualities to photos take when you are "in the action" than to those which are taken from the hip or of the backs of peoples heads, that is for sure, but has nothing to do with shutter noise.
 
Debate doesn't necessarily mean that they are not, it could just raise some interesting viewpoints.

rover said:
That is totally different. Bring a camera to your eye, regardless of brand or color, big or small, you are no longer inconspicuous. There are totally different qualities to photos take when you are "in the action" than to those which are taken from the hip or of the backs of peoples heads, that is for sure, but has nothing to do with shutter noise.
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This is all part of the idea that photographers don't want to be noticed taking photos. Noise is an important aspect to many people regarding this.
 
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I personally think that it is a matter of confidence and personal comfort level. When you raise the camera, you will be or not be noticed, regardless of camera. It is much more a visual thing from your subject's point of view. You want equipment that makes you comfortable, and your subject will be comfortable or not about having their photograph taken. Seeing you raise your camera is the trigger which will effect them.
 
Neare said:
I don't believe Leica's are as quiet as people rave them to be. My Contax T3 is quiet
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The "hype" is from the film camera era when you had two prominent professional type 35mm cameras - the SLR and the RF. The RF without a mirror is far quieter than the SLR cameras of that bygone era. A leaf shutter camera without a moving mirror - like a TLR, View Camera, or little Contax T - is always going to be much, much quieter.

A luxury car may be quiet to compared to a compact car, but it is not as quiet as my bicycle.

You have to compare apples to apples.
 
It varies from camera to camera IMO.

My M2 is about the same as my Ikon but my very early double stroke M3 is incredibly quiet. It's all subjective ... my P67 makes a noise like someone dropping a brick into a rubbish tin but I can't say that bothers me.
 
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Noise aside, your appearance has alot to do with your visibility in the street. Being invisible in the street is an art on its own. Some people stand out like a sore thumb, some get be so unnoticed! I can sit in a cafe all day and stay invisible. If you are invisible, with your body language, the way you dress, the way you move, you will take pictures that reflects that. I am happy with how quiet the M6 is, but my Nikon FE is not much louder.
At the end of the day, i can take more unnoticed shots with the M6 bacause it is lower profile, less shiny and can hide under my arm, inside my jacket easily.

On the opposite note, people seem to be more relaxed when im taking portraits of them with the M6, because it doesnt block my face and i can leave both eyes open.
 
Prior to owning a Leica, I used an Olympus OM-2 for quite a while, so my last experience with a normal to loud shutter/mirror slap was quite a long time ago. When I got my M2, I was surprised the shutter was so loud. But that was in a quiet room with no background noise, and I was concentrated on the noise.
In regular usage, the M2 is very quiet, almost unnoticeable. Particularly in an age where everyone is used to the typical DSLR mirror slap.
In fact, occasionally people urge me to "take the damn picture already" moments after I've pressed down the shutter release.
 
You're right, the cameras aren't nearly "silent," but they are pretty subdued compared to the Canon EOS-3 I was using when I bought my first M. 🙂

Seeing you raise your camera is the trigger which will effect them.
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I think this is accurate. I went looking for a "quiet" camera in part to solve an imaginary problem; if you put people at ease before you raise your camera, it doesn't really matter how much noise it makes. But quiet does matter inside a church, IMO. I never wanted to be the "jerk" wedding photographer blasting away with a motor drive during the ceremony, and an M is very discreet in that setting.
 
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I meant to add ... it's not just the Leica shutter that is over hyped, it's the entire camera! Not necessarily Leica's fault though ... more to do with the individuals that use them who genuinely believe the camera is superior to all other 35mm rangefinders .. which if you've used some of the Leica M's competition you'll know is untrue!
 
I've had the opportunity to do some model photography of late. For my last shoot, I used a Rolleiflex 6006, a Canon F-1 and my Leica MP. The model, knowing nothing about film cameras, commented more than once about "how quiet that black camera (MP) is."

Jim B.
 
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