Professional photographers and silent shutters in their cameras

I can't believe this, an electronic device that I actually opened up with interest, my manual!  

As I was browsing pages, I see that my Canon 5D has silent shutter shooting.  This had me thinking to all the press meetings, news coverage, etc., where you see photographers photographing someone or something important and all their shutters being so loud.   Especially during important press meetings with people speaking, why isn't everyone using silent mode on their cameras?  

Liem Stailey wrote: I can't believe this, an electronic device that I actually opened up with interest, my manual!  

As I was browsing pages, I see that my Canon 5D has silent shutter shooting.  This had me thinking to all the press meetings, news coverage, etc., where you see photographers photographing someone or something important and all their shutters being so loud.   Especially during important press meetings with people speaking, why isn't everyone using silent mode on their cameras?  

 A few points here; 

1. Early silent shutters are/were garbage. Canon is guilty of claiming to have sent shutters on a couple of their DSLRs and they weren’t any more silent. 

2. Most cameras don’t have them. 

3. Silent shutters can affect your IQ at high shutter speeds (1/320 and above in many circumstances. At 1/800+ it’s quite obvious and can be spotted below that 

4. Causes banding in certain lighting, like stage lighting 

Most of the meeting allowed free fire shooting before and after
a working session. Getting people all together on a same pict is
more interesting than a single person addressing the assembly.

G'day Liem

Any dSLR with a mechanical mirror assembly will have a k-plunk attached to every use of the mirror / shutter. However mirrorless cameras can use their electronic shutter option to shoot 100% silently whenever needed.

I do it regularly in live theatre photography - use the EVF not the rear LCD screen, no klunk, no light spread to annoy others and away we go. Magic !

Phil from the great land Downunder
www.flickr.com/photos/ozzie_traveller/sets/

To the OP:

+1 on the above.

Silent? That's going to be only the most recent 5D model(s), which you don't specify in your post. And it matters. My cohort that has a mk IV showed me the other day, and it wasn't completely silent

SLRs have a mirror and a shutter, That's the way they've always worked. Digital didn't change that. You can't use something you don't have.

MIrrorless systems with EVFs can be completely silent by opening the shutter and sampling the sensor to grab an image. See Sean's post above about how that's not so great in every case.

All that said, my new Nikon D850 has a truly silent mode (although it requires the use of the LCD screen because it has an OVF) which is one of the reasons I bought it. Good for classical concerts and recitals. But only because this is a hybrid model. It will be the mirrorless systems that will provide this feature in the long run.

N.B. some of us like the sound of the mirror and shutter.

G'day all

As Gary says ... we like the sound of the shutter - and for us with mirrorless / EVF systems, the camera creates a klunk noise [on/off or variable volume] to keep us happy so that we know that the damn thing actually is awake rather than asleep! There are very few occasions when I have needed complete silence - mostly is it 'quiet' conditions where the 'click' level is reduced to the point that only I hear it at the moment of shutter actuation

I have not experienced focus issues & light-banding issues with my Panny cameras during stage-lit performances. Here's a recent one from a US tribute group touring Oz ...

Phil from the great land Downunder
www.flickr.com/photos/ozzie_traveller/sets/

I shoot Fuji mirrorless, which shutters are quiet enough to use without having to switch to the electronic shutter.  (This is of course subjective, as what I think is quiet may not be considered quiet by someone else.)  Quiet can also be found in the leaf shuttered cameras of my Fuji X100 and Leica film cameras.

Dunno about now, but back in the film-only days, camera makers sold "sound blimps", big, fat housings which fit over much of the camera to deaden the sounds.   

garyrhook wrote: … my new Nikon D850 …

Congratulations, welcome to the club!

Unlike transportable electronic cameras with very little sensing units, skilled cams use a mechanical shutter. this can be thanks to the very fact that it takes it slow to review out the knowledge from an outsized device chip. A mechanical shutter cuts off the sunshine so the knowledge is often reviewed out for cupboard space on a South Dakota card.Easy electronic shutters will reset, subject, and readout a sensing unit row by row, however, this technique causes what's referred to as a rolling shutter unit, since the rows don't seem to be exposed at the precise same immediate of your time.It is possible to create sensors that have a support store which allows the information from every picture element to be at the same time stirred to temporary storage whereas the information is scanned out. this can be expensive and can also raise the noise within the exposure.Profits are that the best quality still photos need a mechanical shutter that invariably makes some sound.

mariablassingame wrote: Unlike transportable electronic cameras with very little sensing units, skilled cams use a mechanical shutter. this can be thanks to the very fact that it takes it slow to review out the knowledge from an outsized device chip. A mechanical shutter cuts off the sunshine so the knowledge is often reviewed out for cupboard space on a South Dakota card.Easy electronic shutters will reset, subject, and readout a sensing unit row by row, however, this technique causes what's referred to as a rolling shutter unit, since the rows don't seem to be exposed at the precise same immediate of your time.It is possible to create sensors that have a support store which allows the information from every picture element to be at the same time stirred to temporary storage whereas the information is scanned out. this can be expensive and can also raise the noise within the exposure.Profits are that the best quality still photos need a mechanical shutter that invariably makes some sound.

I suspect that English is not your native language nor your strong suit.    But I think I got it ... even though I did get a bit lost around South Dakota looking for a cupboard.

Nikon Shooter wrote:

garyrhook wrote: … my new Nikon D850 …

Congratulations, welcome to the club!

+1 I was going to say the same thing except I'm not there yet!  Still on the horizon for me.  

… in the meantime, do like I did while waiting for it:
download and study the manual!

G'day Maria

Thank you for your rather long message - I also struggle to comprehend all of your meaning and relevance. However, if English is not your primary language, good on you for being here and please continue offering your opinions.

My Panasonic cameras - small sensor & m4/3 cameras - each have a combination of mechanical / focal plane and electronic shutter and I can menu activate which type of shutter I want to use in certain situations.

Maybe in years to come when your next camera is a mirrorless body type, you will also discover that you can choose this option as well

Hope this helps
Phil from the great land Downunder
www.flickr.com/photos/ozzie_traveller/sets/

GaryA wrote:

mariablassingame wrote: Unlike transportable electronic cameras with very little sensing units, skilled cams use a mechanical shutter. this can be thanks to the very fact that it takes it slow to review out the knowledge from an outsized device chip. A mechanical shutter cuts off the sunshine so the knowledge is often reviewed out for cupboard space on a South Dakota card.Easy electronic shutters will reset, subject, and readout a sensing unit row by row, however, this technique causes what's referred to as a rolling shutter unit, since the rows don't seem to be exposed at the precise same immediate of your time.It is possible to create sensors that have a support store which allows the information from every picture element to be at the same time stirred to temporary storage whereas the information is scanned out. this can be expensive and can also raise the noise within the exposure.Profits are that the best quality still photos need a mechanical shutter that invariably makes some sound.

I suspect that English is not your native language nor your strong suit.    But I think I got it ... even though I did get a bit lost around South Dakota looking for a cupboard.

And Phil did make some extremely good points that I also endorse ... Thank you for participation and welcome to the forum.

Just feels weird to take a photo and not hear a shutter going click.  Sorry, kind of like driving an electric car vs gas powered, I like the noise.