Bobbo
Well-known
Is it possible to replace the steel curtains on a Canon 7 (or another Canon RF) with cloth, and how much would one expect to pay?
Thank you,
Bob Clark
Thank you,
Bob Clark
Stephanie Brim
Mental Experimental.
ChrisN, last I knew, had this done. I told him to get back to me with how it worked, but he hasn't yet. 
Kim Coxon
Moderator
Hi,
I spoke to a good Leica repairer in the UK on this a short while ago. You can use cloth and it makes the camera a bit quieter. If you want replacement metal ones, apparently there are some Nikon ones available which will fit. I am pretty certain DAG can also replace the metal curtains with cloth.
Kim
I spoke to a good Leica repairer in the UK on this a short while ago. You can use cloth and it makes the camera a bit quieter. If you want replacement metal ones, apparently there are some Nikon ones available which will fit. I am pretty certain DAG can also replace the metal curtains with cloth.
Kim
Kim Coxon
Moderator
I think he sent his to DAG,
Kim
Kim
Stephanie Brim said:ChrisN, last I knew, had this done. I told him to get back to me with how it worked, but he hasn't yet.
Stephanie Brim
Mental Experimental.
He was supposed to give me a full sound report because I'm also interested in this (if it really does make the camera quieter, that is). I may decide, though, that my P is quiet enough.
jlw
Rangefinder camera pedant
I don't think it will make a big difference on quietness. The main factor that makes Canon shutters a bit noisier (IMHO) is that they have separate brakes on the opening and closing curtains; that slight bit of extra mechanism adds a slight extra bit of noise when it engages.
Otherwise, the separate brakes are a good thing; they're one reason, I've been told, that the Canon shutter does such a good job of retaining its accuracy over time. I think I've told this story, but when a local store had a "Canon Day" a few years ago featuring a factory technician doing camera checks, I had him test my never-been-serviced VI-T just for fun. He told me the shutter speeds were well within JCII tolerances for a NEW camera. (He also advised me never to let anyone work on it unless it really needed work -- no periodic CLAs or whatever.)
Otherwise, the separate brakes are a good thing; they're one reason, I've been told, that the Canon shutter does such a good job of retaining its accuracy over time. I think I've told this story, but when a local store had a "Canon Day" a few years ago featuring a factory technician doing camera checks, I had him test my never-been-serviced VI-T just for fun. He told me the shutter speeds were well within JCII tolerances for a NEW camera. (He also advised me never to let anyone work on it unless it really needed work -- no periodic CLAs or whatever.)
W
wlewisiii
Guest
jlw said:
I've been told the same thing by DAG regarding my Canons.
William
ChrisN
Striving
Steph - be patient! You youngsters! I haven't received the camera yet!
My P is still with Mark Hama. I expect to get it back in a week or two (fingers crossed).
My P is still with Mark Hama. I expect to get it back in a week or two (fingers crossed).
nanthor
Well-known
It is now 18 years later Chris, how patient must we be? No longer a youngster...
tortellini_man
Established
i would also be interested in this i have a canon 7 that has a wrinkled shutter curtain that makes me need to crop all photos taken at 1/1000s
i have a canon 7 that has a wrinkled shutter curtain that makes me need to crop all photos taken at 1/1000sArchiver
Veteran
@ChrisN How much longer can we wait? 😆
On a tangent, I read somewhere that someone replaced their Leica M cloth shutter with a titanium shutter from a Nikon F something, and it was just as quiet as the cloth shutter.
Found it.
Titanium Shutter for Leica M
A pic of my M5 in progress, at cameraworks-uk.com. Titanium shutter curtains installed!
rangefinderforum.com
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
Archiver
Veteran
Oh dear. At least it wasn't some time in 2020 😬ChrisN's profile says he hasn't visited RFF since January, 2023
TenEleven
Well-known
I have to say that I am feeling really dubious about any claims about the reduction of shutter noise by swapping the curtains from metal to cloth....
I have a (original black paint) metal curtained Canon L1 and a cloth curtain Canon L1 (in silver). Both are the L1 (read: not VL1) model.
Funnily enough the black paint L1 (metal curtain) is quieter than its cloth curtain brother -- and is also just as quiet if not quieter than my Leica M2.
It's secret? I has been overhauled!
If you don't believe me I can make a sound recording of it and then you can listen for yourselves.
My personal guess from what I was told at Kanto Camera is that they reduced the shutter spring tension back to normal after someone screwed it up - it had been cranked up as a "quick fix" to combat the stiffness of aging grease. This of course will make the shutter louder as the spring now has more tension on it and the shutter moves more forcefully.
I have a (original black paint) metal curtained Canon L1 and a cloth curtain Canon L1 (in silver). Both are the L1 (read: not VL1) model.
Funnily enough the black paint L1 (metal curtain) is quieter than its cloth curtain brother -- and is also just as quiet if not quieter than my Leica M2.
It's secret? I has been overhauled!
If you don't believe me I can make a sound recording of it and then you can listen for yourselves.
My personal guess from what I was told at Kanto Camera is that they reduced the shutter spring tension back to normal after someone screwed it up - it had been cranked up as a "quick fix" to combat the stiffness of aging grease. This of course will make the shutter louder as the spring now has more tension on it and the shutter moves more forcefully.
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TenEleven
Well-known
This has most likely nothing to do with the crinkles and more to do with your shutter needing service. My L1 and also my P and 7 and so on are all a bit crinkled. It's just how these things are - at sometime in its 60-70 years of life someone will have put their thumb into or through the shutter.i would also be interested in this
If you need to crop it means that the shutter is "capping" or "fading" this is a phenomenon that can affect all Leica (and Contax!) type mechanical shutters. Basically the curtains are not traveling at the correct speed. The quick hack "fix" for this is as I outlined above to increase the spring tension which overcomes the built up grit and degraded grease.
However one should really consider giving these cameras a proper service.
Edit: To add a bit more detail, it's most likely that the rear curtain ends up "overtaking" the first curtain, which means the image gets gradually darker to one side as the slit width between the two curtains narrows. In extreme cases there might not even be an image at the other end of the frame.
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