What's the sound difference between cloth and titanium shutters in an SP? My SP shutter is wonderfully quiet...
JonR
Well-known
I think the key to getting long lived cloth curtains is to USE the cameras.... I read somewhere that unused cameras get problems quicker with the cloth...
/Jon R
/Jon R
What's the sound difference between cloth and titanium shutters in an SP? My SP shutter is wonderfully quiet...
Although I've not used equipment to measure it, sounds like 30% to my ears. The Titanium Curtain SP shutter is near identical to a Nikon F with the mirror locked up. The cloth curtains are lower-pitch and a a bit more damped.
I agree! SPs with cloth shutters are definitely quieter than SPs with titanium shutters.
Here's a photo of a set of replacement shutter curtains. You can see that the crimped part comes attached to the curtain, so there would be no need for a repair guy to uncrimp and recrimp if he had genuine spare parts available.

ZorkiKat
ЗоркийК&
Is it possible that a replacement curtain which is sewn around a replacement (thin) lath will work in a Nikon? This works in other cameras, so there may be a chance that it may in a Nikon.
In most cases the crimped lath has more to do in the blind-making process than the function of the shutter itself. Crimped laths are less labour- intensive than wrap around laths since less gluing and no sewing is involved. The lath is crimped in one action, perhaps along with the ribbons too.
The crimped lath also appears to be more reliable than the wrap around types since there is no possibility of the cloth become unglued or lose its stitching. But a properly glued and sewn cloth blind (and tapes) will hold the lath very reliably too.
As for the function, the thickness difference between a wrap-around (with cloth) and a crimped lath may be very little. I think that the difference is too small to matter when the two blinds traverse on the curtain channel.
The plain lath is quite easy to make. It's really just a thin metal strip with cut outs on either side for the tapes. I made a few out of thin metal strips- width isn't very critical but length must match what they're replacing. I know they worked when they replaced crimped metal laths in some cameras like Zorki or Zenit. I don't know if the Nikon's mechanism is far less tolerant of the lath type used.
In most cases the crimped lath has more to do in the blind-making process than the function of the shutter itself. Crimped laths are less labour- intensive than wrap around laths since less gluing and no sewing is involved. The lath is crimped in one action, perhaps along with the ribbons too.
The crimped lath also appears to be more reliable than the wrap around types since there is no possibility of the cloth become unglued or lose its stitching. But a properly glued and sewn cloth blind (and tapes) will hold the lath very reliably too.
As for the function, the thickness difference between a wrap-around (with cloth) and a crimped lath may be very little. I think that the difference is too small to matter when the two blinds traverse on the curtain channel.
The plain lath is quite easy to make. It's really just a thin metal strip with cut outs on either side for the tapes. I made a few out of thin metal strips- width isn't very critical but length must match what they're replacing. I know they worked when they replaced crimped metal laths in some cameras like Zorki or Zenit. I don't know if the Nikon's mechanism is far less tolerant of the lath type used.
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