QL-17 This quiet??

[flippyot]

Hola,

SO I just got my QL-17 last week and I've been messing aroudn with it (no film developed yet) and I'm just curious as to how quiet this camera is supposed to be.

I have a Bessa R and that thing has a nice 'chu-chunk' to the shuter noise but this QL-17 is a quiet as a mechnical pen click. Is it supposed to be this quiet?

I've asked a few of the photogs in my area but none of them have had experience with the QL so I'm relying on you guys.

PLEASE HELP BEFORE I WASTE MORE ROLLS ON A CAMERA THAT MAY BE MALFUNCTIONING!

P.S. right now where I live it's more ecinomical for me to ship 15-20 rolls at a time to get developed.

 

[Warren T.]

Yes, it's normal. The QL's leaf shutter is very quiet compared to the Bessa's focal plane shutter. In fact, the quietness can be considered a "plus" because it makes the camera stealthier and unobtrusive in certain situations.

--Warren

 

[mr_phillip]

The Canonets are very, very quiet. They've got mechanical leaf shutters that should be MUCH more quiet than the double shutter of the Bessa R.

If you want to check that it's working ok, just set the camera to a slow shutter speed and fire the shutter while looking into the lens. You should see the shutter open and close. If it doesn't then the shutter is stuck (which is quite easy to fix), but from the sounds of it yours is behaving normally.

BTW, the quiet shutter makes them great cameras for 'stealth' candid shots.

 

[bigdog]

It is very quiet. I have never heard a Leica shutter which some may say is the benchmark to measure against, but the Canonet is quieter than my Bessa R2a which I find kind of loud. My Canon Elan 7E is quieter than my Bessa R2a and almost as quiet as the Canonet.

 

[flippyot]

Thanks all for the help.

I have looked at the shutter from the back and could only tell when the speed was set at 1/30. At 250 and 500 it just looks like the shutter jerks real quick and thats it.

I'm currently shooting photos of people helping out orphanages and such so this quiet shutter has been helping a lot byt letting me capture people in action instead of them posing.

Once I get the film back I'l lpost the photos.

 

[peter_n]

Great little camera, and as others have said that leaf shutter is whisper-quiet! Puts Leica to shame... 🙂

 

[thetooth]

you can also open the film door , hold it up to a lamp , and looking through the lens and fire the shutter . that will tell if it is firing properly at high speeds .

 

[niimo]

I've got a few Canonets, both VERY quiet. Definitely quieter than the Bessa-R, had one of those until recently, too. I would even say it is as quiet as or quieter then a M3.

But if we are talking about quiet shutters, the Canon EOS Elan 7E is also extremely quiet, I would put it in the same category as the canonet. Really surprised me for an SLR. 🙂