[AndrewG NY]

The shutter/mirror noises plus the motor winders in the SF1 and 645N are pretty "impressive". A ME Winder 2 on, say, a ME Super also has a pretty impressive scream. P3n has a bit of a kind of hollow 'ping'. On the quieter side, the MZ-S has a nice little "zzzzip".

[titrisol]

I would beg to differ about leaf shutter cameras...the Mamiya RB67 has a very quiet shutter, but that massive screen-door-sized mirror makes a lot of noise. It's not just the shutter making all those sounds.

I was thinking more on a Rolleiflex or a Zeiss Ikon Contina/Contessa

[ChrisPlatt]

I love my Pentax SLR cameras, but none of them are truly unobtrusive.
Most of my photography is done with pocketable lens-shutter cameras.

Chris

[Ben_Edict]

The Pentax Scream Queen is the MX+motor drive. I have never heard any other camera like that. The LX on its own has a distinct "hollow" sounding mirror slap, but one simply must add the motor drive to get the full satisfaction out of it, when it whizzes away at 5 fps. Add the bulk magazine and the infamous battery grip and you can be ensured the undivided attention of any spectators around (though these last two ingrediences are visual ones…)

Ben

[unixrevolution]

I was thinking more on a Rolleiflex or a Zeiss Ikon Contina/Contessa

Those, or a Yashica Electro 35 or a Canon Canonet, yes absolutely. I just had to be contrary

[unixrevolution]

Would anyone be interested in contributing to a "Pentax Shutter release sound database" thread?

[Arjay Bee]

The shutter/mirror noises plus the motor winders in the SF1 and 645N are pretty "impressive".

Have to agree on the SF1 noise if it is the same as the SFXn of mine - to me it is one of the archetypal motordrive sounds that is the model for those fake shutter sounds on mobile phone cameras.
Which reminds me: - I was using my K20 in normal up to the face viewfinder mode and a friend commented 'hey that just sounds like a film camera' - no duh!

[brkl]

When I got back into photography with my K10D, I wanted a camera that had a 'proper' sound, a mirror slap unlike the Canon digital pocket shooter I had been using. Now my favourite sounds come from the Olympus XA, Yashica Electro GSN and Braun Gloria. The tiniest click of a leaf shutter.

[unixrevolution]

My GSN is too quiet....sometimes I think it hasn't done anything. I'm so used to SLRs, if the view doesn't go momentarily dark and the camera doesn't make a loud THWACK, I don't think it's fired.

The momentary darkness and sound of an SLR mirror slap are like a loud clicky keyboard...positive, direct feedback from the device that something happened as (or as not) intended.

[GeneV]

The Pentax Scream Queen is the MX+motor drive. I have never heard any other camera like that. The LX on its own has a distinct "hollow" sounding mirror slap, but one simply must add the motor drive to get the full satisfaction out of it, when it whizzes away at 5 fps. Add the bulk magazine and the infamous battery grip and you can be ensured the undivided attention of any spectators around (though these last two ingrediences are visual ones…)

Ben

My scream queen is the LX + winder, especially if there is a light load on the winder. I don't think the LX is particularly loud or unpleasant without the winder.

My silent king is a 1947 2x3 Graflex. It so much bigger than cameras that people are used to seing that they expect a satisfying report from it to know the photo has been taken, but the leaf shutter gives barely a clue.

[unixrevolution]

My scream queen is the LX + winder, especially if there is a light load on the winder. I don't think the LX is particularly loud or unpleasant without the winder.

My silent king is a 1947 2x3 Graflex. It so much bigger than cameras that people are used to seing that they expect a satisfying report from it to know the photo has been taken, but the leaf shutter gives barely a clue.

If you want to give them some sort of satisfying "picture has been taken" clue, get some flashbulbs for it!

[kunaalbhasin]

Some may like it, but the conventional wisdom is that noise produced by SLR cameras is objectionable.
At one time most manufacturers sought to make their models as quiet and unobtrusive as possible.

--

I feel otherwise. My film camera was quite loud and I did a lot of street photography and never had any objections.

[gofour3]

I had one of my KX’s out yesterday, taking macro shots of flowers. The garden was a sea of digital shooters and my KX apparently makes a lot of noise and attracted the usual attention.

I was using my K50/4 macro, so I was a couple inches from the flowers and heard this conversation behind my back.

Man talking to his wife: “Wow an old Pentax film camera, I can tell by the sound of the shutter. Looks like a K1000?”

Wife: “A film camera?” (Absolute horror)

I paused and showed him my KX and replied you’re close, same era but it’s a KX. I asked him if he had a Pentax, he said no but a family member used to have one.


Enough of that, so I turned to shoot again, his wife still staring at me like I’m a freak for shooting film. Silly digital shooters!

Phil.

[monochrome]

The K2 shutter is music to my ears!!

Phil.

+1, but the the K is sweeter!

(But there is something special about the Seiko Seikosha titanium stepless electronic shutter)