The problem with rangefinders is that >

My Ferrania Elioflex mk1 has a shutter so quiet that you never know if you've fired it until you go to wind on and you hear the loud klunk of the double-exposure prevention mechanism.
 
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I sometimes take my Mamiya RZ67 out at parties to entertain them with the shutter noise ... absolutely gorgeous sound that covers so many frequencies.
 
The Leica R8/9 have shutter sounds that declare their presence but unobtrusively and without vibrations; quickly and efficiently. A pleasing noise.

Got to wholeheartedly agree with Timmyjoe on the FM2n. Sloppy KERPLONK. Unbecoming of an otherwise solid machine.
 
The problem with rangefinders is that......... they don't take good pictures. At least mine don't. Every RF camera that I've owned for 30+ years has been bad.
 
Timmyjoe said:
I find the most annoying sounding shutter of all my cameras is the one on my Nikon FM2N. It's loud, but not extremely so, but man it sounds like a crappy piece of tin, and gives me the sensation that I'm shooting a piece of junk that may fail at any moment. And I've had this camera since new in 1996. Has sounded like this since the beginning.

I love the way my rangefinder shutters sound.

Best,
-Tim
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I took my FM2n out yesterday to finish the roll. What has always struck me about Nikon gear is how well it is made, how good a job Nikon engineers did to make cameras that were ergonomic and functional, that could be relied on to do the job. I suspect optimising the sounds featured low down their list of things to get right. It is just a metallic click that does its job.
 
I hate a camera with a shutter So quiet that it leaves me unsure it fired. As far as Noise, I vw got a Bell and Howell Foton, which is loud for a single shot....the thing can fire off 17 equally noisy shots at 6 frames per second!
 
The leaf shutter, rangefinder Plaubel Makina 67 makes a noticeable thump. I believe there're many rangefinder cameras that are pretty loud out there. The Robot Royal for example.

Now that it's 2019, I see even less point in this argument. None would better an electronic shutter in this regard.
 
An electronically control actuation lacks a certain "je ne sais quoi"

An electronically control actuation lacks a certain "je ne sais quoi"

Archlich said:
The leaf shutter, rangefinder Plaubel Makina 67 makes a noticeable thump. I believe there're many rangefinder cameras that are pretty loud out there. The Robot Royal for example.

Now that it's 2019, I see even less point in this argument. None would better an electronic shutter in this regard.
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This past week I was using an old late 1950'ies Voigtlander fixed-lens 35mm rangefinder in a quiet interior room with a marble staircase and granite floors. The lighting was rather dim. I don't know if anyone else was able to hear it, but at 1/15th of a second, the shutter actuated with such a satisfying "schnick" - that had a touch of spring and gear driven whir from the slow speed escapement.

I don't think sound of the shutter actuation at 1/15th of second on my nearly all electric Olympus XA would be nearly as pleasurable.
 
Out to Lunch said:
There are no problems with rangefinders. They are what they is. If you have a problem with rangefinders. Deal with it.
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They can't. They are SLRians.

"no shutter sound"
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Whut? M8 and any Bessa will give you shutter sound. HCB called Leica shutter sound as the "kiss". I'd rather hear kiss as sound of my accomplishment than stove's exhaust flapper on windy day.

"could take photo with cap on the lens"
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enjoy your yellow, red filter on SLR.

"long lenses are not good on RF"
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HCB has no problem with 90 on M3. And SLR wide ones sucks. Show me SLR 21 as small as CV CS 21 f4. Or as small 90/4 as LTM Elmar.
 
All the shipboard US Navy photographers mates used Pentax 67s for aerial shots from helicopters since the late 80s. Hanging out a helo door a thousand feet from the water is one of those places where the 67 doesn't sound loud at all...

I loved the sound of the Bronica S2a, like racking a Mossberg 12ga!

The quietest shutter I never heard was my old Hexar on silent mode. I had to watch the framelines reset to make sure it fired.

As for the OP, just keep living, all those shutters will keep getting quieter and quieter... I can't hear my Retina IIa out of my right ear at all these days, and my left probably isn't far behind.
Phil Forrest
 
I like the lack of noise on my Contax iia. The problems with rangefinders include (already mentioned)- lens cap, but i have trained myself well, and my Voigtlander lens actually unscrewed a ways on me a couple of times (SC Skopar 21mm f4). I think I have it safely snug now, but I lost most of a roll a couple of weeks ago, because I did not catch it until after I shot the roll (I took the yellow filter off and saw it). I love the lens, so I just need to keep checking it to be sure. If I had an SLR, I would have found the problem immediately.


pumpkin harvest by Mark Wyatt, on Flickr
 
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