looking for a slr with quiet shutter...

[jr stevens]

<p>Hi all, i hope this is the right forum for my question..i recntly bought a Nikon FE and love it except for the extremely loud shutter! is this the case with all the classic SLR's and rangefinders or can someone recommend a slr with quiet shutter that i can use indoors for concerts, plays, etc that won't wake up the dead when i take a picture?</p>

[awahlster]

<p>The closest thing to a quiet SLR would be a Medium format body with the shutter in the lens or a camera like the Canon Pelix that does not have a moving mirror. But those are pretty much collectables now with a good working example with a good semi silvered mirror almost impossible to find and then they would be very difficult with their dark viewfinders to focus in a theator.<br>

I'm going to move this to classic cameras as the FD forum is not the best place for this question</p>

[ishi_p]

<p >I think most any rangefinder is going to be quieter than an SLR, No mirror. The quietest is going to be a rangefinder with a leaf shutter, not focal plain. </p>

<p > </p>

<p >The Agfa Ambi Silette has got to be a quiet one I think. It also has interchangeable lenses. Like some of the better Kodak rangefinders.</p>

<p > </p>

<p >My om1 is pretty quiet, but not much quieter than a Nikon. </p>

<p > </p>

[Andy Collins]

<p>I guess I don't consider the FE's shutter to be loud, but typical of slr shutters from that time. If you've visited this forum recently you know a lot of us love Minolta SLRs. The XE series and XD series bodies have quiet shutters which were built in cooperation with Leica, and they're incredibly smooth. Another pretty quiet shutter is the one in the Pentax ME-Super.</p>

[Rob_the_waste]

<p>I don't think it's the shutters that you have issue with, but rather the mirror slap. Some SLR's do a better job of damping the mirror slap than others. As Ishmael said, rangefinders don't have a mirror that flips up and down. I have a Yashica 35 and a Hiyoca which are both rangefinders with leaf shutters, and both are almost silent. The biggest differences being the Yashica has a 1.9/45mm lens and a top shutter speed of 1/500 second, and the Hiyoca having a 2.8/45mm lens with a top shutter speed of 1/300 second. The Hiyoca's Kendor lens has a yellow tinge to the reflections which might suggest the use of lanthanum in the glass (it's very sharp). In addition, the rangefinders have bright lines in the viewfinders, and they're much brighter than an SLR which was already pointed out.</p>

[dave_s]

<p>If you are really determined to use an SLR, like if you need telephoto lenses, you might try this. Find an older mechanical SLR that permits mirror lock, like a Canon FTbn or something, and mount a separate shoe-mounted viewfinder on it, like an Imarect or one of the Soviet copies. Focus using the reflex viewfinder, and wind the mirror out of the way. Then compose using the shoe-mount viewfinder, and shoot.</p>

<p>You'll still have the noise of the focal plane shutter, and it won't be anywhere near as quiet as the leaf shutter in a Canonet or a Rolleicord/flex.</p>

[john_shriver]

<p>Olympus OM series?</p>

 

[Matthew Currie]

<p>A candidate for Dave Sims's recommendation would, unfortunately, probably have to have its flash shoe centered with the lens, which I guess disqualifies the otherwise ideal Nikon F3, which has a pretty quiet shutter and a mirror lock. Unfortunately, the flash shoe is over the rewind knob, making sideways parallax a nasty problem.</p>

<p> </p>

[sw12dz]

<p><a href="http://www.photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00TIoB">http://www.photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00TIoB</a></p>

[richard_oleson]

<p>OM1 and OM2 are very quiet for SLRs but I would not use them in a theatre. The quietest camera that I have for this purpose is a Canonet QL17 ... near silent both on firing and on winding. It has a fixed 40mm semi-wide lens, you'll have to be OK with that.</p>

[fred_c1]

<p>Before you ask the same question for the 4th time, go get a Retina Reflex, Voigtlander Bessamatic/Ultramatic or Zeiss Ikon Contaflex.</p>

[longname]

<p>The OM10 is the quietest one I have.</p>

[vijay_nebhrajani]

<p>It isn't so much about the loudness of the sound, IMHO, as it is about the quality of the sound. A higher frequency sound, or perhaps a clatter thereof sounds worse than a single, lower frequency thump. Most 35mm SLRs are about equally loud - and I have measured them loosely by connecting a microphone to a cathode ray oscilloscope, but a Leica R6.2, or a Minolta XD-11 sound quiter because their sounds are lower frequency and more coherent. A Canon AE-1 makes a fast sequence of high pitched clicks and whirs, and sounds much, much louder. A Nikon F5 isn't bad, and the Olympus OM-4T sounds quite quiet.</p>

<p>A Nikon FM2N sounds clattery, an F3 sounds precise, a Pentax LX sounds clanky, an ME-Super sounds loud but authoritative. A Canon New F-1 sounds loud and precise but a little clattery, an AE-1 is the pinnacle of clatteriness. A Contax S2 sounds surprisingly like a Nikon FM2N and a Pentax MX sounds tinny because of high frequency tinkling sounds it tends to emit.</p>

<p>But the best sound is that of a Leica R6.2 - sort of like a cough-wheeze; which I find gets overlooked by others far more easily than say the sound of a Yashica T-4 Super. Perhaps with the H1N1 thing going the Leica R6.2 is not that good a thing. Cough-Wheeze and you have a hundred people turning their heads...</p>

<p>It isn't all about decibels, as you perhaps gather.</p>

[Andy Collins]

<p>Vijay, excellent and quite interesting summary!</p>

[andylynn]

<p>I got an XD11 a few days and I'm a bit impressed by how quiet it is. (Actually I'm impressed by everything about it so far.) It's a notch quieter than an SRT and a notch and a half quieter than an X-700. But if you want even quieter you probably want a rangefinder. No mirror.</p>

[daniirwan]

<p>A quiet SLR? Is there such a thing? My advice is to go for a rangefinder. If u can afford it, a Leica...quietest shutter I've ever come across. Or a Yashica Electro 35 will do, I have one..and when u press the shutter, you'd be hard pressed to know when it does!</p>

[alex macphee]

<p>I'm of the same view as Dani. I have over a dozen SLRs, and none of them is quiet enough for theatre use (where permitted). My rangefinders, on the other hand, are quiet, some whisper-like (like the Yashica Electro mentioned), others at the slighly louder end of whisper, like the Bessa R3A. The Yashica Lynx 14e is very quiet (at least, mine is), and an f/1.4 lens is pretty useful in indoor conditions. That's a fixed lens, of course, and much depends on how important interchangeability is to you. I find a fixed lens surprisingly un-limiting. My Lynx has a fairly good split image patch, though I make it a habit to focus up on a few choice items and note the distances, so that I can set rapidly via the scale if I have to. The Lynx is not small, however. It's hard to fault the Leica recommendations you have had.</p>

 

[richard_oleson]

<blockquote>

<p>Before you ask the same question for the 4th time, go get a Retina Reflex, Voigtlander Bessamatic/Ultramatic or Zeiss Ikon Contaflex.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>?? I've got all three of these, and they are among the loudest shutters that I have. </p>

[george_shihanian]

<p>Check some of the Olmpus OMs. Sorry that I don't recall which ones are the quietest, but a few of them have mirror lock up. Probably the OM-4T or OM-3 or 3T since they have some mirror damping features built in, IIRC.</p>

[chuck_foreman1]

I've seen some good proposals here. Very Impressed with Vijay Nebhrajani ear analysis.

My quietest is indeed the Minolta XD11/7. I've also noted over the years recommendation for the

Olympus SLRs. I also noted a tendence here to drift towars other camera otions and let me second some of these. The Yashica RF Lynx 14€ is fast, big but very quiet. For ambient shooting this is a great performer. This is a classic" camera forum so many noble cameras are mentioned here. Rich Oleson commented on the virtues of the Canon/Canonet Series 1.7 and other poster mentioned the Contaflex; a mirror focusing but "between-the lens" shutter. The shutter is quieter and the later Super B is probably on par with the Minolta but the earlier Contaflex I have sound like a revolver without ammunition. Cool Sound but definitely not quite quiet. The quietest focal plane cameras are probaly

the Leica RFs. The Contax IIa when serviced is also quiet.

[daniirwan]

<p>Oh ya, I forgot all about the Yashica Lynx 14e! The shutter is way quieter than my Electro 35 GT! In fact, it's so quiet I hardly know if it's triggered or otherwise, haha. It's big and heavy, but that f1.4 lens is to die for!</p>

[Andy Collins]

<p>The Canon QL17 (GIII or not) is very quiet as someone already mentioned. Another shutter I love to activate is the one on the Retina IIa. It's not necessarily the quietest but it's amazingly smooth and subdued. Plus the camera's pretty good too! The Retina IIIc is quiet but to me it's not as satisfying in its feel as the IIa. Don't forget the Olympus RFs, all the way from the Oly 35s of the 1950s to the 35RD/DC/SP and the wonderful but currently <em>way</em> overpriced 35RC. Great lenses on all of these along with very quiet and smooth operation.</p>

[Johnny Martyr]

<p>quiet classic 35mm slr's<br>

--olympus om1<br>

--pentax me/me super/mx<br>

--nikon fg (although i hate these cameras)<br>

quiet classic 35mm rf's<br>

--anything with a leaf shutter!<br>

--yashica m/lynx series<br>

--yashica electro series<br>

--olympus 35 series<br>

--voigtlander vitessa<br>

--agfa optima series<br>

--agfa silette series (silette itself means small and quiet)<br>

--kodak retina series<br>

the list goes on and on!</p>