why do we like quiet cameras?

[BrianShaw]

Brian, "another mid-life crisis"? 😱

My wife was concerned about my impending one... and then I told her it was my Leicas. That calmed her down.

Do women go through MLC? 😕

I married later than many, so I tell my wife that SHE was my mid-life crisis and anything else... cars, cameras, etc. are things I DESERVE. A bit arrogant, I suppose, but she tends to agree so...

Yes, women go through MLC also. Unfortunately it is often refered to as "menopause'. A slightly different type of crisis, I believe.

 

[OldNick]

I have never used a Leica M camera of any sort, but my Leica IIIf and, especially, my Leica IIIa, are about as quiet as one can get except for the digicams. If I turn off the flash on my Fuji F10, there is very little to indicate that I am taking a photo. I think that, realizing it or not, we all like the idea of stealthily taking photos with our subjects unaware that they are being photographed.

Jim N.

 

[DMG]

isn't it about the end product at the end of the day? in reality as long as i get the pic i want the shutter could sound like concorde for all i really care

 

[Film dino]

I'm wondering what real evidence there is that Leica rangefinder shutters were deliberately designed to be quiet... Isn't the sound mostly a function of the rubberised silk used? 2c..

 

[IGMeanwell]

My Polaroid 250 Land Camera has a very loud shutter... went you set cock it it you can feel the tension on it... when you fire the shutter its a loud clunk!!! And that was a camera designed for candids!!!

I have always wanted a quiet shutter... my Nikon is not terribly loud but loud enough to make me feel self concious about it

suprisingly my Minolta X-370 has pretty quiet shutter until you reach the highest shutter speeds....

I think my Yashica has a pretty darn quiet click... its not silent but its not loud

Any owners of the Hexar AF... is the silent mode completely silent?

 

[rxmd]

I'm wondering what real evidence there is that Leica rangefinder shutters were deliberately designed to be quiet...

I guess it's one of the byproducts of the development of a myth that any feature gets re-interpreted as the result of a deliberate design decision. You find a lot of this going on about Leica products.

Philipp

 

[Crasis]

I guess it's one of the byproducts of the development of a myth that any feature gets re-interpreted as the result of a deliberate design decision. You find a lot of this going on about Leica products.

Philipp

From a different side, wouldn't the use of rubberized silk or whatever, be a deliberate design decision? I can't really believe that they'd decide to use such a cloth mechanism instead of metal if they didn't see an advantage. After all, that's why they can't go any higher than a certain shutter speed.

 

[Sparrow]

Getting back to the original question, and away from the brand thing, I have a similar difficulty the other way round, I always feel uncomfortable with a Rolleiflex, often the lack of noise and the fact you’re not looking through a finder leaves the subject unaware they have been caught on film.
Now perhaps I’m too sensitive but that feels like spying or voyeurism to me and I feel far more comfortable if there is some “click” so the subject at least has a sporting chance of being alerted to, and if they wish objecting to, being photographed.

 

[jamiewakeham]

You all need to take a turn at firing the shutter of one of the Kiev Hasselblad clones - especially when there's a slow speed engaged, to add the clacking of the timer to the mix...

Whoosh-THUNK... BANG... clackety clackety clack... BANG! And then winding the thing on is louder than some 35mm shutter noises!

After that, all 35mm SLRs seem 'stealth', and all rangefinders are completely silent.

Jamie

 

[Sparrow]

From a different side, wouldn't the use of rubberized silk or whatever, be a deliberate design decision? I can't really believe that they'd decide to use such a cloth mechanism instead of metal if they didn't see an advantage. After all, that's why they can't go any higher than a certain shutter speed.

If that were the case they would have stuck with cloth on the M8 and not risked the controversy of the new shutter noise

 

[amateriat]

When I was single and looking for a woman, I liked a loud shutter. They noticed me and was impressed that I was a photographer. 😉 After I got married and, well, had no reason to impress women anymore... I started using a TLR and RF with quiet shutters. 😱 Lately I've returned to the click-whizzzz of a SLR with motor-drive. I hope I'm not headed for another mid-life crisis 😱

Practically fell out of my chair with this one, partly because of an unintentional flash of recognition: somewhere around the halfway-point of my relationship with my s.o. (we'll have been together 10 years this Friday – and that's without the benefit of nuptials!), I made the wholesale switch from SLRs to RFs. I don't think the male-on-the-prowl thing has anything to do with it, but what do I know? (She, on the other hand, still has her SLR...)

More to the point, I think: a quiet(er) camera is simply better, IMO, than a noisy camera. It simply offers up more options. RFs, by nature of their design, tend to be somewhat more quiet than many SLRs; there are quiet SLRs out there, but they tend to be lower-end models (film or digital) with dim VFs and other annoyances. RFs, from my experience, tend to be less-disruptive in terms of "operational noise" (VF blackout, vibration from mirror-slap) than SLRs in general. Somewhat smaller bodies and much smaller lenses make them less confrontational than zoom-equipped SLRs of most any stripe – yet another kind of "noise".


- Barrett

 

[VinceC]

>> what real evidence there is that Leica rangefinder shutters were deliberately designed to be quiet<<

I think it eventually became intentional, if not from the start. In the 1950s, Nikon was able to speed up cloth shutters to be able to attain a flash sync of 1/60, but at the cost of increased noise in the shutter brake. Leica maintained their 1/50 flash sync up until the M8, for the most part of keep the mechanism very quiet. The move to metal shutters allows the M8 to have higher speeds.

 

[alan davus]

You all need to take a turn at firing the shutter of one of the Kiev Hasselblad clones - especially when there's a slow speed engaged, to add the clacking of the timer to the mix...

Whoosh-THUNK... BANG... clackety clackety clack... BANG! And then winding the thing on is louder than some 35mm shutter noises!

After that, all 35mm SLRs seem 'stealth', and all rangefinders are completely silent.

Jamie

Just read your post and are still chuckling. Do you do any other voice imitations? Seems you might have missed your calling in life.

 

[ffttklackdedeng]

If that were the case they would have stuck with cloth on the M8 and not risked the controversy of the new shutter noise

I think Leica left the cloth shutter until the M7 not to risk low selling numbers because of the noise. But the technical limitations regarding max and flash sync speed are an issue. The turn to digital is such a big improvement for most that they won't complain too much and bite the bullet of the increased noise.

 

[jamiewakeham]

I'm a teacher, Alan; my entire working life is about performance and bringing realisation to slightly abstract concepts (well, that and getting the little b*ggers to stay in their seats, but hey...).

But this leads me to an idea. Maybe we could try to vocalise descriptions of all the popular shutters in this way - then we could try to understand how the ZI shutter is different to the M3. I'm happy to work on this. Could I have volunteers to send me, say, a ZI and an M3? They'll do for starters. I promise to return them...😉

Jamie

 

[Macpod]

cos everyone says its cool. im a trend follower

 

[FrankS]

Say you've got a choice between a loud camera and a quiet camera. You choose.

 

[FrankS]

HI Memphis, I ride a BMW, so at least I''m consistent. They are over-engineered too. 🙂

-old German motorcycles, old German cameras-

 

[jaapv]

Sitting in a hide - trying to photograph some shy furry thing- The guy beside you: Bleep-bleep AF, and then suddenly a sound like a motorcycle starting up - the film rewinds automatically. Animal heading for the horizon...😡 :bang:

Or safari-vehicles with DSLR'S in burst mode - it sounds like machine-guns open up..😱

 

[Sylvaticus]

So as not to make the birds fly off, not to make the animals run away, not to make the people turn round..... And don't forget the beeps. Go right through the whole set up, turning off beeps and jingles at every option. It takes about 10 minutes with a film camera, 30 minutes with a digital. Or get one that never beeps or thinks it's a gramophone in the first place.

I saw the Lincoln Center christmas tree last year, the beeping was non-stop and sounded like a fleet of ambulances driving round and round.