My M2 was too loud

[Fabian]

Hello

Last weekend I was out on the BMW International Open ( big german golf tournament), and although taking pics was forbidden I took some occasional pictures because everybody was doing it.
When Langer stepped up to make his drive I didn't want to disturb him so I shot during his practice swing. There were hundreds of people looking but it was really silent. When I tripped the shutter it sounded like a bomb going off. The security came over immediatly and told me to put the camera away.
Everybody was looking at me and I was really embarassed.

Since then I am afraid that my shutter could need a cla, but I never heard another m to compare it. So I don't know if its loud for a Leica.

BTW Langer did great that day so I don't think I bothered him anyway.

Fabian

[Ash]

My M2 has a noticeabley loud shutter. I had a Contax that was quieter.

Mine needs a CLA, but then again other's M's haven't been THAT much quieter. Bad luck sometimes. Happened to me before too.

[colyn]

Sounds like it's time for a CLA.

I just did a sound test with my M's by standing approx 10-12 feet away while my daughter tripped the shutter. I never heard any of them..

[kully]

It needs a CLA, I can't hear my M2 shutter 10-12 feet away same as Colyn, probably even less than that outside.

[Ash]

You're forgetting golf. It's soooo dead quiet you can hear ants in the grass

[kully]

Cheers Ash

My only experiences with Golf have involved my swearing loudly and very rudely before, during and after the swing (and when the ball does a pea-roller 2 feet down the grass). You could fire a Pentax 67 and not hear the shutter.

[ferider]

Maybe it needs a CLA.

What might help more is a Luigi case.

Roland.

[rover]

The shutter may be fine. They are not silent you know.

[Brian Sweeney]

I fitted case dampens the sound on most cameras. My CLA'd M3 in its fitted case is very quiet. But, Not as quiet as my Retina IIIc.

I doubt you will risk this embarassment again, but a fitted case does make a big difference.

[colyn]

Originally Posted by Brian Sweeney

My CLA'd M3 in its fitted case is very quiet. But, Not as quiet as my Retina IIIc.

The Retina is going to be quieter since it is a leaf shutter..

[Brian Sweeney]

The Leica is quiter than my Voigtlander Prominent. Not all leaf shutters are quiet. The Retina IIIS and Leica are about the same. I Cleaned the IIIS shutter.

[Ash]

True. My Leica M2 is loud, but the Polaroid Prontor Press shutter I have is louder.

Then again, the Nettar 515 and Rolleicord are silent. You might want a TLR for the next time you're at an event like golf. At waist level your camera is inconspicuous. You're more likely to get great shots on 6x6 too

[matt fury]

My Retina IIa seems much quieter than my M4. ...well, on the shutter release, anyway. Winding the next frame on that thing is L-O-U-D.

[Nick R.]

Compared to a hexar AF all Leicas are loud. Get one if you want to shoot quality quietly.

BTW, I was watching the BMW open on the golf channel, maybe I saw you in the crowd.

[pvdhaar]

Although the M's make less noise than cameras with a metal focal plane shutter, they're not absolutely silent. In fact they're no match for a leaf shutter camera.

But the most intriguing aspect is that the lens makes a difference!

Without any lens mounted, my M4 is really audible. Put on the collapsible FED and there's a slight reduction in sound. Mount the CV25 and it's somewhat muted, and put on the 50 Hexanon and it's muted even further. Long story short, the heavier the lens, the less sound the M4 makes..

[Carzee]

Originally Posted by ravinder_walia

It was probably more the reaction of the people around you looking at you than what Langer may or maynot have heard.

It may have been more of a ripple effect, with the guy next to you looking over and then the guy next to him etc.

Was this Sunday afternoon? It was all peaceful and quiet out in my yard... and then I heard a loud shutter click.


I would've put the camera away and protested to the security people that it was only a gimicky ring-tone and switched off the phone.

[aizan]

a cla won't significantly reduce the volume of the shutter. if you really need quiet, you can always pick up a hexar af for such occasions.

[WoolenMammoth]

Leica's have this reputation of being "silent" but it by and large is a pedestrian comparison made to an SLR with a mirror slapping up and down. There is a curtain, its moving and it makes plenty of noise.

Your camera may very well need a CLA but by no stretch of the imagination would I use the fact that some people heard your camera at a silent golf tournament to be an indication of your shutter's integrity. Under those circumstances you might have drawn attention with a rollei tlr.

food for thought.

[40oz]

the thing to do is to cough loudly immediately after the shot. Anyone who heard it will immediately hear the cough, and think it was rude of you to cough right then. They'll totally forget you took a picture, and you just smile on the inside

[Marc-A.]

Originally Posted by aizan

a cla won't significantly reduce the volume of the shutter. if you really need quiet, you can always pick up a hexar af for such occasions.

Agree with that! Hexar AF is amazingly silent. More silent than my M2 are Kiev 2/2a ...Contax II/IIa... Other very very silent camera, though not RF: Rolleiflex!
You have many options my friend!
Marc

[szekiat]

i have a cheaper option. Go look for a blimp. Used to use those for stage work and trust me, even boom mikes can't pick up an SLR in a blimp.

[40oz]

Originally Posted by szekiat

i have a cheaper option. Go look for a blimp. Used to use those for stage work and trust me, even boom mikes can't pick up an SLR in a blimp.

LOL!



oh, you meant somthing like this:
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/con...id=7-3408-3436

I was thinking this:
http://www.goodyearblimp.com/basics/camera.html

I was serious about the coughing though. Sounds stupid, but it works.

[WoolenMammoth]

Originally Posted by szekiat

i have a cheaper option. Go look for a blimp. Used to use those for stage work and trust me, even boom mikes can't pick up an SLR in a blimp.

well, this is nonsense. I mixed production sound for feature films for just about a decade and in that time there wasnt a single set photographer that I permitted to shoot on set during takes. With a blimp you still will always hear the shutter: most shutter noise is actually transmitted directly down the barrel of the lens and while a blimp most certainly helps with the sound of any camera, it does %100 nothing to address the sound coming out the lens which has been, in my experience, way too loud to work on a stage during takes. A blimp is fantastic if you are shooting on a street or on a loud set, but its still not going to buy you silence on a soundstage and not by a long shot.

What would make a good blimp more effective (but still obviously cant address lens transmission) is lining the blimp with vinyl rated with a really high transmission loss coefficient. Of course this would add a bunch of weight to the blimp, but would also increase its effectiveness quite a bit. You definitely get into diminishing returns, however, as addressing the sound coming out of the lens is a tough fact to contend with. When we can hear the gate on a panavision camera, rest assured we are hearing the clunk of an slr no matter what.

[giellaleafapmu]

Originally Posted by Fabian

Since then I am afraid that my shutter could need a cla, but I never heard another m to compare it. So I don't know if its loud for a Leica.

BTW Langer did great that day so I don't think I bothered him anyway.

Fabian

Leica M's are famous to be silent but I know of several cameras which are in fact much more silent. For istance the Hexar with silent mode is more silent and also the Olympus XA is. Maybe Leicas were the most silent cameras when they first appeared but they are not now.

GLF

[Rob-F]

Fabian: If you are going to make a habit of this, consider either: An M7; mine is definitely quieter than my mechanical Ms; or the Digilux II. With the beeps turned off, mine makes no sounds at all! There is no click at all during the exposure. Dead quiet.