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

Pretty quiet, quieter than any SLR I've used and quieter than my ZI. Can't compete with a leaf shutter like in GF670, or the shutters in my compacts like Contax T, Klasse, or Lomo.
 
Am I the only one who can't hear Bigfoot's shutter? After using the Pentax 6x7 & Hasselblad? Or R2D2 at 10 frames per second?

Come to think of it, the shutter in the M5 is obscenely loud...compared to my Fujinon-W and Nikkor and Kodak lenses on the 4x5s.

There you have it: It depends.
 
Quiet? GSN, and Yashica ap priority, Konica Auto S3 were the quietest among the cameras I've owned. If you want the quietest RF possible, it's a leaf shutter. Shutter noise is also quiet with point-n-shoots, but that's defeated by the auto film advance motors. Fixed lens rangefinders with leaf shutters - they're just quieter than cloth focal plane shutters. The quietest, of course, are digital point-n-shoots. They make no noise. Given their size, retractable lenses, and completely silent operation - wouldn't that make these the best tools for street photography, rendering everything else obsolete?
 
I mean if someone sees me with a camera up to my eye I think they assume you're taking a picture at any rate, they would probably be more perturbed if you DIDN'T take a picture at that juncture.

I don't do 'street' photography so maybe it's just not a concern for me, but even then, by the time they hear the click, it's too late...

Still don't really understand the obsession. One time I read about the Hexar AF which has the stealth mode and the article must have been struggling to justify it as they said it was 'perfect for courtrooms'!!

I'm playing devil's advocate of course, but it still seems a funny obsession to me!

ped
 
No, not at all. I didn't buy my Leica to get the quiet shutter, but it is extremely quiet. Like a whispered click.

Neare said:
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. 😉
Click to expand...
 
I think some of this is due to the Cult of Leica--the camera has achieved a near-mythical status in the minds of many--and so it's attributed with magical properties: being quieter than a whisper, having a mystical "glow," turning you into Henri Cartier-Bresson (or David Douglas Duncan) the instant you first press the shutter...
 
GSNfan said:
So, forget silence, if you want invisibility on the street the last thing you want is a Leica M in your hand.
Click to expand...

I went to big cities with crowded streets (because mine does not have those) and not once did anyone notices the Leica I was using...

either that or because mine is an M4-P, so the Leica snobs are too embarrassed to acknowledge it. 😉

Works for me.
 
After a CLA- I though the shutter was not firing. Relieved to get a properly exposed roll of film back!

And I have a lot of Seiko and Compur based cameras.
 
My M's have the quietest shutter sound out of all my focal plane shuttered cameras. Significantly quieter than the Bessa R's and R2 I've owned. It is strangely satisfying to think that you can hear build quality in the sound of the shutter. Leaf shutters are usually quieter.
 
Last edited:
Yes, when I got it, I was expecting my IIIF had a more silent shutter... After Youxin's great work, yet the IIIF is louder than my Bessas (Ts, 3A & 4M)... When I've had Ms in my hands, their sound hasn't really been quieter either... Maybe just a bit different... Honestly the same league to me... But certainly Ms can be easily heard in silent or near silent places... Thank God for the XA! Now that's magic!

Cheers,

Juan
 
My Barnack Leica's are noisy, but the M cameras are not noisy. In comparison, the Rolleiflex 2.8D is less noisy than any Leica I own,and the 3.5F is so silent that I thought that the shutter is faulty. It is all relative. A Retina 1b is very quiet too.
 
Noise of Leica shutter

Noise of Leica shutter

I think the shutter is one of the quietest, (m6) I had a print showing at a Gallery a week ago and took a lot of shots of the gallery visitors, and some asked "when are you going to take it?"

However, the Bessa 3 is really close, I don't think measurably louder.
 
I'd been using leaf shutter cameras for a while before getting an IIIc and then III. I definitely expected the Leica to be quieter than it was. The III is noticeably louder than the IIIc.

In practice, the IIIc doesn't bother me at all while the III feels a bit too loud. Of course, the III was serviced so I still use it more often.

The only camera I put down after hittng the shutter was a FF70. I couldn't deal with its volume. 🙂
 
I came from a Nikon FE, and a Leica sure is a whole lot quieter. It's silent enough not be noticed on the street even though it doesn't quite live up to the hype. A Rolleiflex is a bit quieter still though.
 
My M7 when I had it was incredibly quiet ... a faint muffled 'clop' and not much more. The electro magnetic shutter of the M7 also seems to give very little trouble!

If M7's ever get down to the prices M6's are currently I would consider having one again in spite of the battery dependency!
 
Yes, that was my first thought when tripping the shutter on my first M, an M6, and my feelings haven't changed since acquiring an M3 and M4.

I find my M's quiet, but not silent. If you want a silent rangefinder, I suspect you should be looking at some of those fixed lens rangefinders from the 70's with leaf shutters. My Rolleicords with leaf shutters can be whisper quiet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom