Why is the Leica M shutter so loud?

When I compared the shutter sound of my M3 to my friends M3, mine was decidedly louder than his. His camera looks mint. So shutter sounds can vary quite a bit camera to camera, even if they are the same model. I once got irritated w/ the mirror slap on a Pentax K1000 and glued a small strip of foam at the top where the mirror hit and it made a different camera out of it. A Nikon N80 is about as quiet as any M camera. A Nikon F100 will rattle your teeth. I can't see anyone saying that an M shutter is loud. Try using a Bessa R. If you really must have a quiet camera I cannot imagine a quieter one than a Konica Hexar AF on Silent Mode. Bitingly sharp lens too.

I understand that until recently, the Leica M was the only camera the press was allowed to use when photographing congressional sessions. Reason: its quiet shutter. And if the M6 isn't quiet enough, try an M7. They are next to silent!

is there a quieter focal plane shutter? is it possible to make one?

This quite hypothetical discussion does not make much sense for me. Go out and use your Leicas on the street.

Btw my Pentax 6x7 nearly has some sort of recoil when you press the shutter :-) not to mention the sound.

This thread contains the last post ever by Bailey, err Z, on photo.net. RIP.

Robert,

 

If you set up some cameras say, two metres away, and fire them why wouldn't a decibel reading be a reliable guide to relative noise levels? Wouldn't it show the peak decibel level for each camera? Where the human ear is concerned, wouldn't that show which camera was the noisiest? If not, how should it have been done?

 

The OM2 would indeed be a scale focus camera with the mirror locked up but, as I said in an earlier post, that's not the issue. The OM2's shutter is cloth as well if I remember correctly so a direct comparison with the OM2 and the M4-2 would seem reasonable to me. It just seems ironic to learn that the M body, if Modern Photography is to be believed, has a noisy-ish shutter, all things being equal.

 

I wonder if the likes of the CL would be any better in that respect. Can anyone say if it's quieter than an M?

 

DB measurement doesn’t take into account frequency, I believe. 10 dB at 16,000 hz sounds different to many people (i.e. old people :-) as opposed to 10 db at 4000 Hz. I recently thought of this using my Fuji Xe1 and Xt3 (totally quiet!) and thought of the old days using M2’s and M3’s. Very interesting subject. Always cough right after you press the shutter.

What neil_ parker said reminded me of what I heard (or read) in the 1960s: that the Leica was the only camera allowed inside recording studios with open microphones. Obviously the twin lens Rolleis were not considered here.

What neil_ parker said reminded me of what I heard (or read) in the 1960s: that the Leica was the only camera allowed inside recording studios with open microphones. Obviously the twin lens Rolleis were not considered here.

Movie sets have required still cameras be in blimps since sound stages were invented. Leicas were the only cameras allowed in courtrooms since they were small and the quietest cameras at the time. The "courtroom" meme has been around since the 1940's, and is repeated in a Pavlovian sense every time "quiet shutter" is mentioned.

 

A lot has changed in 10 years since the last post on this forum. Some cameras are completely quiet except for focusing and setting the aperture. There have been further improvements in regard of the latter.

 

M cameras were never all that quiet. Besides the shutter, the speed regulator had a distinct bounce following closure of the shutter. Some claim to identify the shutter speed based on this distinct sound. Digital M cameras aren't' even that quiet.