Dislike of 40D shutter "clunk".

Hi,
I have been in photography for many years, and my job for 14 years was taking motor racing , & bike racing photos, and selling them to the public.
I left paid photography, and do other things now.

I say all this because in 2002 I bought, and used for a while my Canon D60, which had a lovely smooth shutter and "motor wind" type sound.
Then last year I bought the 40D, and the first thing I noticed, and disliked, and still do, it the huge "clunk" type sound it makes as the shutter is depressed.
I have never been really happy with my 40D, and to me the strong "clunk" sound seems to add a vibration through the camera which results is alot of slightly OOF photos

I was used to taking photos of racing cars for many years without too many OOF shots, but trying to take photos of a moving hedgehog in my garden proved too much for me, and resulted in unsharp photos!

I dont think it's me, I think that the shutter in the 40D causes a vibration as it is depressed?
Any thoughts? Thanks.
Ben

When I read your title, I expected a post that was complaining about the quality of the sound that it makes. That insignificant point has been raised before. But your point about vibration may be valid.
None of my old EOS film bodies ever had any noticeable vibration from the shutter and/or mirror (there would have been some vibration, of course), but I can definitely feel the 40D's mechanisms shake the body a little bit sometimes. I am not normally conscious of it during shooting, but it raises the question of whether it might increase camera shake with marginal shutter speeds.

If the camera is hand held the shutter will almost certainly not make a big enough vibration to cause your photos to be blurry. If its on a tripod with a super tele it might be the tiniest bit possible, but i still highly doubt that the shutter has anything at all to do with blurry shots.

My T90s (pro film SLR circa 80s) shutter release is very smooth with an undectable hitch between turning the metering on and taking the picture, just a slight increase in pressure. This is in stark contrast to the 20/40D, which have a very obvious stop you have to go past before the picture is taken. The 40D forces you to apply slightly more pressure than the 20D.
Of course you will introduce vibration when you apply more pressure to get past that stop, and any vibration at all, no matter how small, will detract from image quality. Usually you wont be able to see it, sometimes you will. Cameras have mirror lock up and remote releases for a reason.

Also, the 40D sounds a lot more refined to me. The 20D shutter sounds quite clickety and clunky, while the 40D sounds smooth and a lot quicker in general. The mirror can also be distinguished from the shutter.

Sounds like the issue is the button, but its not a 100% guarentee.
Try buying a remote shutter switch and see what happens. Sure the sound might be louder than you might like, I've heard people saying that before, but never the shutter causing vibration. I say remote it, and then see if it continues!

I notice very little shutter vibration on my 40D's, though I could see there being a slight hint of vibration if you were using a very large unbalanced telezoom.

As far as vibration during panning, you'll see more problems from a 'bob' in your motion or inconsistencies in the track more than you will OOF because of the shutter. What shutter speeds were you using in these tests as well?

Hasn't been an issue for me. My handheld shots with the 40D seem just as sharp as with any of my other DSLR cameras.

the 40D's shutter sound sounds so much better than my old XT's ca-chink sound.

Use a 20D and you'll stop complaining about the 40D in a nanosecond.

alankey wrote in post #5998466
If the camera is hand held the shutter will almost certainly not make a big enough vibration to cause your photos to be blurry. If its on a tripod with a super tele it might be the tiniest bit possible, but i still highly doubt that the shutter has anything at all to do with blurry shots.

I agree.

Listen to the shutter on a 5D.

Music to my ears

My 40D shutter is a lot quieter and softer than the 30D I had.

There WAS an issue that some had with early copies of the 40D having a vibration that could be felt through the camera. Several folks sent theirs back to canon who added some foam strips to deaden the vibration. I have owned two 40Ds and one did have more of this vibration than the other, but I never saw an impact on the images.

You can always send it in to canon to see what they say.

I must say its one of the thing I hate about the 40d it sounds cr@p, when I first got it I thought there was something wrong with it.

Very interesting thread topic as I've been thinking along the exact same line since I purchased the 40D about two months ago. In another thread I brought up the issue of my 40D's "soft" images that I noticed immediately after having shot thousands of images with my previous 20D for years. I found the 40D's images to be softer in comparison to the 20D when shooting in lower shutter speeds.

I also noticed quite a difference in the shutter sound level and, particularly, vibration. I think what Canon decided to do when they engineered the 40D is to decrease the shutter sound due to so many people complaining about the previous models' noise level. I know I did because I shoot quite a bit in classical music concerts where noise from the 20D's shutter sound can be heard by everyone in the audience.

While I'm not an engineer I think what Canon ended up doing, in their attempt to "muffle" the sound a bit, was that they've actually aggravated the situation more by introducing, as a side effect, greater level of vibration upon shutter press. The 40D's shutter sound is definitely "plasticky" as I've reported before in other threads, and "jarring" in comparison to previous models. This past Friday I shot lots of pictures with the 40D at a classical orchestra event, and I just don't find the 40D's "lowered" shutter sound really accomplished anything whatsoever. It's still loud enough to add extra and disturbing "notes" into the musicians' performances. Fortunately I was sitting and shooting in the upper balcony enough not to disturb the musicians, but still I wasn't comfortable at all with the audience all around me. I felt apologetic with each "clunk."

I now actually prefer the older 20D's louder sound over the 40D, knowing that 40D's sound change didn't accomplish anything of significance (for me, anyway... other folks might love the change). At least the 20D's shutter press didn't make the body reverberate with the "jarring" effect.

One final note... I find it interesting that all of my pictures came out very sharp from yesterday's birthday party shoot for a next door neighbor. Is it due to the fact that I had a bunch of extra weight on the 40D like 580Ex on top of stroboframe with the off-shoe cord and my DIY diffuser dish -- all sitting on a monopod? No jarring effect with all this extra weight, and therefore, sharper images??

Since I can't shoot like this all the time, this might be a good time to finally get myself a grip for the 40D not only to hold extra batteries but to add some extra weight to counter the vibration....

I notice that I do have to be more careful at borderline shutter speeds when using my 1D II compared to the 10D for the same reason. The 10D is quiet and smooth while the 1D is more clacky and hard...it can move the camera if I'm not cautious.

Can't say anything about the 40D though as I haven't owned or tried one.