The problem with rangefinders is that >

Jeremy Z

Jeremy Z

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> they don't make enough NOISE during the shot to give the photographer a sense of accomplishment.

I've been shooting mostly my fixed lens rangefinders lately, with the leaf shutters built into the lenses.

Yesterday, I took delivery a Nikon FG. Today, I went out and shot a roll with it. After having gotten used the fixed lens rangefinders, this thing felt loud and shakey! It's like: CHUCK-CHUCK! instead of *click*.

No WONDER folks like Pentax 67s so much! :D
 
Half of the people probably stopped reading for a moment when I took a portrait in a public library once with my Pentax 6x7. Probably one of the best sounding shutters I know of nonetheless. I definitely prefer my leaf shutters though.
 
I love when the Pentax 6x7 goes KUH-PLONK and everybody turn their head... It generates a nice tactile sensation too, with the recoil generated by the gigantic mirror and the massive shutter curtains traveling at full velocity!

My Rollei 35 or Panasonic GM5 don't provide a much satisfactory experience in comparison...

Cheers!

Abbazz
 
But I would bet both your Rollei and Panasonic provide a much more vibration-reducing environment for your images.
 
My Komaflex has both a leaf shutter and a reflex mirror. Its loud for such a tiny camera! And quite complicated mechanically. Its only real issue is that at its maximum speed (1/500th) it'll consistently do a blurred or double image; I think due to mirror bounce or something.
 
I find my Rolleicord to have the least butch shutter sound, with the 'flexes not far behind. The Leica III and the Zorkis I have make a sound that reminds me of cocking the bolt on a Lee Enfield .303 (I'm sure a Mauser or soviet equivalent equally likely).

Of SLRs I find most rather loud and dissonant, with a special place in hell for the 67 I owned, an absurd amount of energy released to ruin exposures with shake. However, for mechanical pleasure the Leicaflex SL2 is rather joyous.

But the summum bonum, the apotheosis of shutters, is that of the Leica M2 or 3 I own (I'm sure other Ms are equally wonderful) and it comes closest to the sound of the virgin's sigh, which is the release of a champagne cork done properly. Add in that wonderful film advance and the whole thing is a private joy.
 
Whenever I want to feel like a professional instead of a sneak, I pull out my Nikon F2 and let it rip. Some kind of perfect mechanical ledgerdemain going on inside that thing, not a snick, not a thwack, not a click. There is just no onomatopoeia which can describe that sound using written letters. Lovely if you are in the mood. Besides, sometimes it's just too quiet in here! Wake up everybody, you're on Not-Candid Camera!
 
Larry Cloetta said:
Whenever I want to feel like a professional instead of a sneak, I pull out my Nikon F2 and let it rip. Some kind of perfect mechanical ledgerdemain going on inside that thing, not a snick, not a thwack, not a click. There is just no onomatopoeia which can describe that sound using written letters. Lovely if you are in the mood. Besides, sometimes it's just too quiet in here! Wake up everybody, you're on Not-Candid Camera!
Click to expand...



As an F2 and M2 user I agree completely with the preceding two posters. I think of the F2 shutter sound at the higher speeds as a bark, and the M2 as a quiet little “ssnickkk”.


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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
 
One of the (many) reasons I stopped using a Bronica S2a many years ago was the KA-PLOCK!! of the shutter. That thing felt like it was trying to jump out of my hands and make a getaway.
 
I'm loving this thread. Probably the greatest photographic cringe factor for me is shutter noise and I avoid it like the plague. Where possible in an SLR I use mirror lockup mainly to reduce mirror vibration, because the mirror has to do its thing anyway. In any small camera the standard I look for in shutter noise is something that compares with the sound of my LF lenses leaf shutters. I'm ever the optimist.
 
Gregm61 said:
But I would bet both your Rollei and Panasonic provide a much more vibration-reducing environment for your images.
Click to expand...
Contrary to the commonly accepted Internet truth, I have never felt that the big Pentax was particularly subject to vibration induced image blur. The camera has a very comfortable grip and I can reliably shoot at 1/30s handheld with the 105mm, while 1/30s with the GM5 (no in-body image stabilization) and a 25mm lens is more like gambling.

Maybe it's because the hands holding firmly the large camera act as an energy dissipator. Or maybe because the vibrations are mostly induced by the mirror going up before the shutter starts firing and have therefore no ill effect on image sharpness.

Cheers!

Abbazz
 
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