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Can you hear the shutter on the X1 ?

londonuk

By londonuk
in Leica X

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londonuk

londonuk

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I'm a stills photographer in film and TV and I've had enough of lugging around my D3's in Blimps (big soundproof boxes). I feel the non DSLR market now has good enough quality cameras for me to use in my work. I have two main criteria. 1) low noise at ISO's of 1600 2) Silent operation of camera so as not to interfere with the sound recordings.

My leanings are towards the X1, but don't know if it has the ability to shoot silently as it doesn't have a mirror.

Your advise as always is very welcome.

 

Neil Genower - Portfolio

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h00ligan

h00ligan

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It's nearly silent. I shot mine standing right next to a tv news crew and none of them seemed bothered. It's a VERY faint 'click' virtually inaudible imo. I think you'd have to mike it directly and purposefully to have it show up on anything but the most silent recordings..

 

I'd say this.. if you were alone in a church, you'd be hard pushed to hear it. It's extremely quiet, though not silent since it does have a mechanical shutter. I've personally never had a camera this quiet.. I've shot people on the street from 1 ft who had no idea.

 

Would slow AF or write times be a problem for you?

 

- go to about 1:25 and listen for the next 30 seconds or so. You can turn off the focus confirmation beep fwiw.

 

You have some great shots on your site from what I've already seen, that portrait of Sir Ian captures a very unique look. I'm going to enjoying looking through the rest of them!

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hoppyman

hoppyman

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From memory it actually plays a generated sound supposedly modelled on a cloth shutter Leica! I think that you can select that to off or quiet if you want. I can't say that I heard anything at all when I tried one. Don't forget that you are not holding the camera next to your face (if you don't have the external finder)

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Guest badbob

Guest badbob

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My hearing is good, up to about 13 khz. I can hear the soft click easily from 15 ft away in an apartment in the evening where the ambient noise is low. If it were 3 AM with no traffic down the road, I could hear the click from 30 ft away. But if you were in a place with people, even if the people were quiet and not speaking, I think the ambient noise would mask the shutter sound well at more than 10 ft. I did my tests with the timer set to 12 seconds so I wouldn't hear the click of the shutter button.

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londonuk

londonuk

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Thanks for taking the trouble to answer my question so thoroughly.

I was under the impression it had a "fake" shutter noise which one could turn off.

I guess I need to test it myself in the shop.

In most situations a very quiet shutter is fine, but I'm often in a small room with one to one dialog

and the slightest click could be heard by the mic. Also, it can sometimes be a distraction for the actors

and they'd "go for me" !

 

If you know of any other silent cameras of good repute, I'd be interested to know.

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phancj

phancj

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Thanks for taking the trouble to answer my question so thoroughly.

I was under the impression it had a "fake" shutter noise which one could turn off.

I guess I need to test it myself in the shop.

In most situations a very quiet shutter is fine, but I'm often in a small room with one to one dialog

and the slightest click could be heard by the mic. Also, it can sometimes be a distraction for the actors

and they'd "go for me" !

 

If you know of any other silent cameras of good repute, I'd be interested to know.

 

There's no "click" for sure, but if you want the electronic shutter sound you can turn it on.:)

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jsrockit

jsrockit

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Thanks for taking the trouble to answer my question so thoroughly.

I was under the impression it had a "fake" shutter noise which one could turn off.

I guess I need to test it myself in the shop.

In most situations a very quiet shutter is fine, but I'm often in a small room with one to one dialog

and the slightest click could be heard by the mic. Also, it can sometimes be a distraction for the actors

and they'd "go for me" !

 

If you know of any other silent cameras of good repute, I'd be interested to know.

 

It is the quietest camera I've ever used... you can turn off the recorded shutter sound and all you are left with is the faint click of a leaf shutter. They don't come quieter that this in digital camera land (as far as I know).

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tc4237

tc4237

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Its nearly silent but the sound of "click" or "clicks" can be heard when you're close to the camera...

if u have any compacts, take it with flash and it sounds similar (e.g. cannon ixs 200)... just a little quieter.. not much, jus a little...

 

if u are under a mic + low light, it would prolly make more "clicks".. in this intance, i guess your mic would be able to capture the sounds if you're near it...

 

best to test it at a shop on your own, under low light...

"quiet"/"silent" is subjective...

 

my 2 cents..

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fotografr

fotografr

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If you know of any other silent cameras of good repute, I'd be interested to know.

 

At the risk of being banned for blasphemy, I'd suggest you consider holding off until April 2011, when you can check out the Fuji X100 at about half the price. The high ISO noise might be quite a bit better and the lens will have a maximum aperture of 2.0 instead of 2.8. I do love my X1, but the Fuji X100 may trump it.

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phancj

phancj

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At the risk of being banned for blasphemy, I'd suggest you consider holding off until April 2011, when you can check out the Fuji X100 at about half the price. The high ISO noise might be quite a bit better and the lens will have a maximum aperture of 2.0 instead of 2.8. I do love my X1, but the Fuji X100 may trump it.

 

I thought the thread is on shutter sound? The X1 is the quietest I've heard by far.:D

 

I doubt anyone can make it quieter, unless it is completely silent?

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h00ligan

h00ligan

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At the risk of being banned for blasphemy, I'd suggest you consider holding off until April 2011, when you can check out the Fuji X100 at about half the price. The high ISO noise might be quite a bit better and the lens will have a maximum aperture of 2.0 instead of 2.8. I do love my X1, but the Fuji X100 may trump it.

 

Again.

 

No working prototype

No idea of image quality

Fuji still working on overall design

No price point

Larger than the x1 as it is now

Release date based on a non working prototype

No idea of availability.

 

So, we're more than 6 months away from the projected release of a camera with unknown quality, build, price, availability.

 

That's an awful lot of what if, and quite a bit more time to lug around. This guy is a working pro, even if he gets the x1 now, the depreciation shouldn't be that hard to swallow (granted if you won't sell over the internet it may take a while).

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fotografr

fotografr

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I thought the thread is on shutter sound? The X1 is the quietest I've heard by far.:D

 

I doubt anyone can make it quieter, unless it is completely silent?

 

From the OP:

 

I have two main criteria. 1) low noise at ISO's of 1600 2) Silent operation of camera so as not to interfere with the sound recordings.

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