Which is the Quietest M? (pre-M7)

[al_kaplan1]

Gotta luv ya George! Thanks for validating my suppositions. I also suspect that a camera held in your hands and pressed agains your face would project less sound than a camera on a table top tripod sitting on a wood table. You're forgiven for getting printouts of the sound levels!

[m_.]

boy, all this leica sound is making me a bad headache...

[george_b1]

Mike - The meter was used in a vertical orientation, just as I do for placing speakers. In this case, the microphone was on the level of the center of the camera body and located about 4' behind the rear of the camera (right in the center line of the film "reminder" dial). I used 1/50, as I believed that would avoid the "whirr" of the timer at lower shutter speeds, but would provide two discrete sounds. viz, the first curtain opening, followed by the second curtain closing.

 

I was "left eyed" from 1945 until a couple of years ago when I developed an ulcerated cornea in the left eye. I had to switch to the right eye (painfully <g>), and - - subjectively - - I can hear a difference in the loudness of the shutter, as the camera no longer is pressed against my face, with the left rear of the camera firm against my skull.

[george_b1]

OOPS! The microphone was four inches behind the body - - not four feet (I'm a lousy typist)

[melvin_bressler]

By coincidence, when I read this post, my IIIa, M7 & 3 were all empty, so here I sit, clicking away at different speeds, and quess what: no discernable difference, except that the IIIa has a clear 'mechanical' sound, while the Ms just click. "Tests" were at 1/60, on up to 1/1000.

But, I was at a party Friday night, using the M4, and I never heard the shutter at all. Most shots were at 1/60 or 1/30. I think that is the real test

[Rob F.]

Douglas K wrote: "I learned in physics that 3db is about the smallest change in sound level that is noticeable. So will people now stop arguing about this?"

 

To take the first point first: 3dB is about the smallest change in sound level that can be noticed under casual conditions, by a naive listener. 1 dB is the smallest difference that can be detected by a naive listener under laboratory conditions. Audiophiles with practiced hearing can hear differences smaller than that.

 

Will people stop arguing about this? I doubt it, Doug.

[vidom]

This thread doesn't make much sense to me. The noise of the shutter depends a lot on the state the shutter is in. I went to a Leica dealer and had a look on quite a few used M-Leicas recently (which ended up with me buying a perfectly working M3 that looks like it was used by a war photog for all of it's 38 years - but cheap it was!), each of the M bodies had a different sound, some of them were actually quite loud. I also had a IIIf body CLAed recently which was significantally quieter afterwards. I presume that new or recently serviced shutters are the quietest ones, never mind which M they are in.

 

Peter