Film SLR with the smoothest shutter/mirror return

You're right, my ST is super smooth also. Different sound than the Aria, and heftier (I have the AA battery grip on mine.)
 
My Aria is not even close to the Nikon F80. Nonetheless, I personally prefer the Aria and never use the F80, but that was not the question here.

I understand the main question is smoothness and that is what I'm speaking of. But since someone asked, I did make a recording of a few shutter sounds for some inquiry before. I'll post it if someone can suggest a place that hosts audio; I lost the host I had previously. IIRC cameras were Nikon F3 w/motor, Leica M2, Nikon F80, and Rolleiflex. I thought it was a fun clip.
 
Leicaflex SL
R8/R9
My old Nikon F was more of a kiss, than a slap.

The F2 shutter sounds as refined as a mousetrap, but will probably outlast all of us.

I also have a fully overhauled F3-P. It's very smooth and pretty quiet.
 
f16sunshine said:
I have to second this. As well I would add the conTax RX/ST. They are motor drive cameras with silky action. Hard to beat. The RX/ST may take the prize for least vibration simply out of having more weight than the Aria.
Click to expand...

+1 on the RX. The ST doesn't seem quite as smooth.

I like my R8, though. It has a nice buttery electro-mechanical thing going on.

If anyone wants to hear the RX, check my video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZE-JoHbtIPI




.
 
If someone wants to get scientific about this, there are some interesting vibration measurement apps for iPad and iPhone, e.g.:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vibration/id301097580?mt=8

I played with one of these when wondering if I could quantify some odd suspension behavior in my car. That was hard to measure, but the vibration from a camera sitting right on top of the iPad would be easy, I'd think. At least, when firing the camera via self timer.
 
Smooth and low noise are not necessarily the same. Of all the SLRs I own, or have used, the smoothest are my Pentax 645Nii and my Zeiss Ikon Contaflex. The vibration is very, very low on both cameras. Very low noise from an SLR would probably go to my Pentax LX, although the SRT 102 is close, just a bit higher pitched.

If a very quiet shutter is necessary then a rangefinder is certainly the best way to go, the shutter on my little Leica II is very quiet and smooth. It literally makes my M6 sound like a freight train.

A camera with a nicely tuned leaf shutter is pretty quiet as well. I own a few old folders from the Thirties that are very, very soft and quiet. Sometimes I'm not entirely sure they went off myself and I'm the one that fired the shutter.

However, I have to say that the prize for the quietest shutter on any camera I have every used has to go to the Fuji GF670 folder. That electronic leaf shutter is literally almost silent.
 
In my experience (Leica R3, Leicaflex SL x2, OM-1, OM-2, Nikkormat FT3, Nikkormat FT2, Nikon F3, Nikon FM, Nikon FG-20, Minolta x-700, Minolta SRT101, Pentax ME Super and some others that don't come to mind immediately) it's the Leicaflex SL without question. Notable mentions for the Leica R3 and the ME Super. It's a pretty unscientific opinion though, I suppose my ranking is simply my perception at the time of what felt smoothest in the release and the film advance, it's probably little to do in practice with the vibration that actually occurs within the camera. Other than the pleasant sense of solidity that it gives, I can't say I've really noticed it making much (or any) difference to the photographs that I've taken.
 
Mark C said:
My Aria is not even close to the Nikon F80. Nonetheless, I personally prefer the Aria and never use the F80, but that was not the question here.

I understand the main question is smoothness and that is what I'm speaking of. But since someone asked, I did make a recording of a few shutter sounds for some inquiry before. I'll post it if someone can suggest a place that hosts audio; I lost the host I had previously. IIRC cameras were Nikon F3 w/motor, Leica M2, Nikon F80, and Rolleiflex. I thought it was a fun clip.
Click to expand...

Let us know where you park those audio files. I've got a digital recorder and if we set a spec I'll match others posts.
 
Probably RX, but with the added weight, the RTS III is also very smooth. The Aria is smooth for such a light camera.
 
At one time I had an RX and the Aria, but the RX had frame spacing problems. It also had some sort of a high pitched squeak during the shutter action. I returned it but I seem to recall the 'smoothness' factor to be nearly identical to the ST I have now. Aren't they pretty much the same camera, with the RX having the DOF feature?

Interestingly I've never had the opportunity to try any of the RTS models. In any case, it's a shame that Kyocera killed their photo biz. They built some tremendous cameras.
 
I have a theory: the more inconspicuous the camera should be, the quieter the shutter. My F80 (non-professional, should not be expected to be around) was nicely silent compared to my F100. In turn, the F100 is quite silent compared to my F5, which is known in this neck of the woods as "the cat startler" because of its violent post exposure clack (mirror return sounds like a shot).

Once, some time ago, in Central Camera in Chicago, I played with a Leica R9. It was quite loud. The Nikon D70, in contrast, a very whispery camera... Go figure!
 
Shutter Sounds Recording

Shutter Sounds Recording

I know the subject is smoothness, but I mentioned having a recording of some shutter sounds. I've posted that for anyone interested at:
http://community.wvu.edu/~ksf002/audio/ShutterComp.mp3

This is just for fun. I think I made it for a thread elsewhere about Nikon shutter sounds. I can't recall exactly, but think the cameras were a couple feet from a condenser mic into a Sony PCM-D50. It is was a single continuous recording with just some dead air removed to make it more listenable.
 
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