The Great (small) Camera Shutter Shootout

[oftheherd]

In another thread, Keith teased me about my preference for the Fujica line of cameras. I mentioned doing a non-scientific test of some I own. Well, I did a very un-scientific test using some SLR cameras I have. Here it is.

First off, this is entirely unscientific. I don’t own sound testing equipment other than my ears and brain. At 67 years old and four years in Vietnam, my high frequency isn’t what it used to be either. So everything is subjective, just holding the cameras near my ears and firing them off. I decided to use 1/60 for all the tests. That is not the fastest nor the slowest. It is the old flash sync.

The cameras I used were: in the Fujica line, my trusty Fujica ST 901, a Fujica ST 801 I acquired off ebay some months ago, and a Fujica AZ-1, I have had a while. Also in the Yashica line, a TL Super, Electro X, and FX 103. Then a Minolta XG1, and an old Pentax SV just because I had it.

As I expected, the Yashica TL Super was the loudest. I wasn’t surprised. That camera was loud when it was fairly new. It is however, well built, and still working. The TL Electro X was next. Not a surprise either, since it is of the same line.

It gets a little blurred from there. However, I think the FX 103 comes in next, but it is a lot quieter than the two Yashicas before it. The ST 801 and AZ-1 were close, but I judged the AZ to be a little quieter, but not much. The Minolta XG1 was quiet too, but I think it is about the same as the 801, maybe a little louder. I really think the ST 901 was the quietest, but I was surprised how close the Pentax SV was to it. It didn’t miss by much being as quiet as the ST 901. Go figure.

The 801 was close to the 901, but a little more “clackity,” or with more high frequency sound. Were my hearing of high frequency better, it might not have done so well. The AZ and Minolta also seemed to suffer from that. But the AZ-1 was still quieter that the ST 801. May have been both an age factor and technology transferred from the ST 901 to the AZ-1. It was next in line after the 901.

One thing to consider is that these are all old cameras, and except for my original ST 901, were all obtained second hand by me. I have another ST 901 I recently got off ebay. It is not as quiet as my original, whatever that means.

Bottom line, the ST 901 was quietest, and the Pentax SV next. That was the biggest surprise to me. I have always thought the 901 was quiet, but hadn’t expected the Pentax SV to be there. I guess I need to use it more. Then came the AZ-1, followed by the ST 801 and Minolta XG1. Hard to judge the difference between those two. The two older Yashicas were last, with the Electro X being a little quieter, but not a lot.

Another thing I guess should be natural, but I hadn’t thought of, is that there is a lot of noise that comes from the back and bottom of the cameras. Placing them on a blanket to fire them made a big difference in over all sound, but the ranking results seemed the same. Also holding the backs against a blanket, or even covered by a hand made a difference. I guess that might be another reason to use a half-case if you want to use a quiet (or even not so quiet) SLR for street.

Since this was as un-scientific as you could get, YMMV. But I thought it might be of interest. What do you think Keith? 😀

EDIT: Oops, this isn't supposed to be in the FSU thread, but in the evil SLR thread. Even my ST 901 isn't as quiet as my Kiev with its small strangled animal sound. 😀

Mods, if you get to this, please move it. Thanks.

 

[Keith]

I only have three SLR variants ... my OM gear, a very old Spotmatic and a Konica Autoreflex.

The OM's seem pretty quiet to me ... the Pentax has a real clack and the Konica makes a noise like someone dropping a brick into a rubbish can!

One day ... I'm going to have to get my hands on one of these Fujicas to see if all your hype is true! 😛

But not now ... no money! 🙁

 

[oftheherd]

...

One day ... I'm going to have to get my hands on one of these Fujicas to see if all your hype is true! 😛

...
(

Come to the light ... 😛

 

[rbiemer]

I only own three SLRs any more--2 Canon EOS bodies(Elan IIe and Rebel XS) and a Fujica 605 stn. The Fujica is definitely the quietest of the three. It does have this metallic "ping" sound at the slower speeds, not unpleasant or too annoying to me. The Elan is a click-whirr sound. The Rebel sounds like a pepper mill lately. Dunno what the mirror/shutter sound is like; I can't hear it over the loud winding noise.
After shooting a Kiev 60 for a few years, though, none of mine seem loud to me!
Rob

 

[shadowfox]

Minolta XD-11 has a very distinct and almost quiet shutter sound.

Nikon F3 sounds more hollow than I thought it would be.

But OM-1... now that's satisfying to hear. OM-2SP is the most horrible of all OM's.

Fujica has thick bodies, don't they? that probably helped to dampen the sound.

 

[oftheherd]

rbeimer - How do you like the 605? I had considered buying one on several occasions, but never did. I do like the ST 801, ST 901, and AZ-1 very well, and just thought the 6/7 series Fujicas might not be so much fun after getting used to the leds.

Shadowfox - The Fujicas, or at least those I have, are about the same size and weight as the OM-1 as I recall. Regardless, they are a small. http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showfull.php?photo=65367 shows my ST 901 with the Fujinon 50mm f/1.4 lens, beside my FX 103 with the Contax 50mm T* f/1.4 lens. The ruler may give you some idea of the small size.

 

[rbiemer]

The 605 I have isn't so good an example so my few difficulties are more due to that than any inherent flaws. I do like the match needle metering--about 30 years ago(WTF?😱) the first SLR I used was a Pentax K1000, so the match needle works well for me. Except that, again not by design but by age/wear, the meter is starting to be problematic--mostly because the switch isn't making consistently good contact.

The top shutter speed of 1/700 did take some getting used to; it doesn't occur naturally in the progression of speeds to me as 1/1000 does.

At some point I will want to get a better M42 SLR and my experience with this one means that Fujicas will be on the list of what I look for. And maybe some actual Fujica lenses!

I had a Porst camera for a while, it was a rebranded Practika(sp?) and was OK but as good for me as this one is. I do wish I had kept the 28mm lens that was on it though. Dunno who made it but it was branded "Diebold", took good photos, and seemed pretty well made.
Rob

 

[oftheherd]

rbiemer - I had forgotten that the ST 605 only went to 1/700th second. Match needle isn't so much a problem with me either since that is what I started out with on the Yashica TL Super. I just got lazy with the auto-exposure on the ST 901 and tried to get that on subsequent cameras. When it's good, it's really good.

The ST 801 doesn't have match needle, but match led. The first to do that. It does have speeds to 1/2000 if that is important and is in good working order. If you can get a good working ST 901, I think you will really learn to love it. Good auto-exposure, memory free metering, small and light, and good Fujinon lenses are supurb. Also, the meter is -3 to 18 EV at ASA 25. If memory serves, that is 1/1000 at f/16 down to 30 seconds at f/1.4. Nice range. Even the AZ-1 didn't do that well.

EDIT: Interesting about the Porst. I seem to recall they also sold rebranded Fujicas. I don't remember if any were the screw mount or only the latter bayonet series. I had never heard of them until seeing some ebay ads that identified them as Fujicas. They did look alike.