Noisy D5200

Started Feb 13, 2013 | Questions thread
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Re: Noisy D5200
In reply to Isit13, Feb 14, 2013

Isit13 wrote:

Forgive me if i am wrong but would it be possible that the sound of the camera is largely dependent on the body material? Since my pop has an Olympus OM-4 film camera which is largely out of metal, does a very subtle slap sound, whereas my D3100 does has a very clunky like noise when taking a shot?

Absolutely. The old metal bodied film cameras were totally metal, including the mirror box, which not only helps muffle the sound, but stops much of it from being generated in the first place. AFAIK all of the DSLRs built today have a plastic mirror box, which does little or nothing to muffle the sound and may actually magnify it.

If not the material, could it be some sort of "play" in the mechanical parts that raise the mirror and lower it that produce the louder noises?

A big part is the difference in sound levels was a result of  film SLRs (like the OM-4) incorporating cloth horizontally moving shutter. These were nicely quiet with very little shock. The vertical shutters, (especially the metal ones), produce noticeably more noise and shock an is the reason I got rid of my Konica Autoreflex T3, back in the day.

The other thing to remember is that these old SLRs were manually cocked and wound with a finger lever for one shot at a time only, so the mirror return springs could be designed to avoid high mirror speeds. Also, there was no automatic cocking for the next shot, which is all necessary when shooting at high frame rates, as DSLRs do today.

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- Jon

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