Silent Shutters: It’s time, Nikon and Canon

I brought this up in another area of the forum, but put it in the wrong place.

Anyway, watching the live meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un was exciting, but those shutters are horribly distracting.

They might as well pass out bubble wrap to everyone in the room and yell “go” as the two presidents meet and talk to reporters.

It’s time to require silent shutters at press conferences. Canon and Nikon need to do this now.

Isn’t it the mirror that makes all the racket whacking around inside the camera?

So....Mirrorless?

Yes, it's the mirror, but they can have the mirror and make it silent if they apply themselves in that direction. But it's going to go mirrorless anyway.

More importantly, I'd like to see organizers of press conferences ban shutters that make sound.

EOS-Mike wrote in post #18643569
I brought this up in another area of the forum, but put it in the wrong place.

Anyway, watching the live meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un was exciting, but those shutters are horribly distracting.

They might as well pass out bubble wrap to everyone in the room and yell “go” as the two presidents meet and talk to reporters.

It’s time to require silent shutters at press conferences. Canon and Nikon need to do this now.

That's purely opinion.

I have 3 cameras. One can go silent. But I prefer shutter, for several reasons. A lot of people want to know when cameras are going to work around them. And it also let's subjects know a photo was taken so they can relax or switch pose.

So the "horribly" thing sounds like a load of"crock" from my point of view.

Cameras have been in use with shutter sound for so many decades now, that people have acclimated to it. Silence is a cool option. But personally, if I was a politician, I would absolutely want to know when someone is taking my photo at every event.

EOS-Mike wrote in post #18643569
I brought this up in another area of the forum, but put it in the wrong place.

Anyway, watching the live meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un was exciting, but those shutters are horribly distracting.

They might as well pass out bubble wrap to everyone in the room and yell “go” as the two presidents meet and talk to reporters.

It’s time to require silent shutters at press conferences. Canon and Nikon need to do this now.

Ban the press from a press conference - theres a novel idea.

EOS-Mike wrote in post #18643569
They might as well pass out bubble wrap to everyone in the room and yell “go” as the two presidents meet and talk to reporters.

In this case, I'd be all for that.

mdvaden wrote in post #18643681
Cameras have been in use with shutter sound for so many decades now, that people have acclimated to it.

They've acclimated to it so much that sound effects people for TV and movies sometimes add a mirror slap sound for cameras that don't have a mirror.

But what about certain world leaders who no doubt derive narcissistic pleasure from the sound of so many mirror slaps?

Think of those poor world leaders, man!

john crossley wrote in post #18643683
Ban the press from a press conference - theres a novel idea.

Not that novel. I'm pretty sure Trump had that idea a while ago.

I couldn't care less about something being "annoying" or not.

All I care about are the results - the photos that I take away from a shoot. . And Canon's noisy DSLR shutters often keep me from being able to get as many quality images as I could get if they were noiseless.

Many skittish birds and mammals get freaked by the shutter noise. Sure, there are animals that don't seem to mind it at all. But there are plenty of others that definitely do mind it, and flee at the sound.

It sucks to have to put the camera in "Silent Mode" (I think it's mirror lockup or something?) because that keeps me from being able to shoot bursts at the full frame rate, and I sorely need all of those frames when there's action to be captured.

I honestly don't think that Canon has been trying very hard to make their DSLR's shutters and mirrors as quiet as possible. . It seems like they don't think it will affect sales, and that some people actually like the sound that the shutter makes. . Sheesh! . It shouldn't ever be about what we like (in terms of user experience), it should only ever be about the results that we get and what our photos are like.


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I bet at some point event organizers will start to require silent shutters in order to grant press access. It just wasn’t a realistic option before.

Would love an option for magnetic drive leaf shutters and digitally linked range finders for my Canon gear to offer increased flexibility. (I really can't stand electronic view finders for the most part.)

Tom Reichner wrote in post #18643989
I honestly don't think that Canon has been trying very hard to make their DSLR's shutters and mirrors as quiet as possible.

Maybe true on the lower end models and older cameras but my 5DIII has an excellent silent (well very quiet at least) shutter mode.

At last years UBS Golf Open in Hong Kong I was told off by Justin Rose's caddie.... because I was crouched next to a Nikon shooter. While my camera was silently thwap thwaping away unnoticed the Nikonian had a mirror assemble from an old second world war machine gun which he proceeded to fire a burst of as Justin's opponent was putting.

Shutter sounds mean your important. They like the sound.

Shot an event over the weekend. 5D3 & 6D. One of the performances was dead silent. The audience was actually quiet, which is a first. Usually someone's coughing or playing with something which masks shutter noise to some extent. Got a few irritated looks. My better half pointed out the 5D3 was audible on the other side of the venue.

I shoot continuous, usually 3-4 frames at a time of a single subject. Parents like the shallow DOF thing so there's AF to consider and performers invariably make unflattering faces as they progress through a routine. I switched to silent single on both cameras and tried to space out shots when I was behind an audience member. Took far fewer shots than usual. Addressed the noise but I missed a lot of good moments by a fraction of a second I would have otherwise had.

It's a choice. Maximize your chances of getting the best picture possible or accommodate the audience. Mirrorless may be the answer.