Autofocus film SLR with good mirror dampening

ediz7531 · Dec 30, 2021

Hi all,

I'm looking for an auto-focus 35mm film SLR camera. These days the only manual focus 35mm SLR I really enjoy using is a Leicaflex SL2, in large part because the mirror clap on that camera is so well damped. I know this seems like a vague/subjective criterion, but wondering people thoughts. The Nikon F4, F5, and F6 come to mind. Would a prosumer model like the F100 be noticeably less refined in this one category?

Thanks!

Ed

Sirius Glass · Dec 30, 2021

The F100 is lighter but not a light weight. I prefer it to the F5 and F6 due to the weight and because I do not shoot machine gun style. I would not recommend using any camera door as a hammer, but the F100 door is not as strong as the F5 and F6.

Paul Howell · Dec 30, 2021

Minolta 800SI, 7XI, 9XI, 7, and 9. Not quite as good the 600SI.

Christiaan Phleger · Dec 30, 2021

Well if you are at the point of wondering how much damping different camera have then you should be locking up the mirror anyway and then you have some operational issues that can affect the speed and handling when making exposures. Having used all three; F6 is the most 'dense' shutter damping feel to it. The F4 has a bit of a 'twang' in the middle shutter speeds, from the tungsten balancers, you can hear it on the single exposure, it doesn't bug me but some may not take to it. The F4 has a cable release socket on the left side, so any old mechanical shutter release works rather than forgetting the electronic ones that the F5/6 need. Those of us using multiple bags across 35mm/MF/LF can appreciate just storing a mechanical release into each bag.

Helge · Dec 31, 2021

The F80/N80 is ridiculously well dampened and light as a feather.
And it’s cheap as chips and 95 percent the camera F100 is for the amateur.

Basically the mirror action feels like a cotton ball very carefully being put down on a table, only in a fraction of a second.

Probably the best overall AF film body there is. Ugly and generic as sin, but a pleasure to use once you’ve set the various code settings to turn off the damn focus light and other misc stuff.

Sticky rubber is cleaned with alcohol, lint free rags and half an hour.

film_man · Dec 31, 2021

The best I ever had in that regard was the Leica R8. But no autofocus on that one! From the AF bodies I owned the Nikon F5/F100 and EOS 1V/1N/3 are all pretty much the same. The 1V has the shortest blackout of them all (and faster and most accurate AF). The Canons do sound more high pitched and electronic (especially the 3) but the recoil in the hand was the same. The Canon EOS 30/Elan7 was pretty smooth too and extremely quiet as well. The F100 is very smooth too, and I'd say has marginally better AF accuracy than the F5.

If you want Nikon get a F100. If you want Canon I'd get the 1N or 1V depending on money available. The 3 is a great camera but is the loudest of them all. Not that it actually makes much difference when you're outside on the street.

Nicholas Lindan · Dec 31, 2021

Of a slew of Nikons I own, the softest mirror action is an N75/F75. The whole thing is plastic, including the mirror frame & mechanism - less moving mass means less shake when it stops.

The old Leitz Visoflex was pretty gentle.

I found AF useful when waiting for cataract surgery. Since then it's pretty 'meh'.

ic-racer · Dec 31, 2021

Any of them should be fine. The only 35m camera I have encountered with noisy mirror is my Edixa Reflex.

Sirius Glass · Dec 31, 2021

Helge said:
The F80/N80 is ridiculously well dampened and light as a feather.
And it’s cheap as chips and 95 percent the camera F100 is for the amateur.

Basically the mirror action feels like a cotton ball very carefully being put down on a table, only in a fraction of a second.

Probably the best overall AF film body there is. Ugly and generic as sin, but a pleasure to use once you’ve set the various code settings to turn off the damn focus light and other misc stuff.

Sticky rubber is cleaned with alcohol, lint free rags and half an hour.

So now I have become just an amateur. I am so sad.

gone · Dec 31, 2021

The F100 has a loudish shutter, unfortunately.

I'm with the op, a loud shutter is a real bummer on a camera, and my Leicaflex Standard had the best sounding shutter of any camera. The N80 has a very quiet shutter, and if you're willing to trade a pleasant sounding shutter for a quiet one, I recommend the N8008s. You can certainly hear it, but it reminds me of the 80's and 90's news event when you would hear all those Nikons going off.

The Leicaflex 90 2.8 Elmarit is on my N8008s now w/ an adapter, makes for a sweet combination, and the high point viewfinder is great for glasses wearers.

mshchem · Dec 31, 2021

Sirius Glass has the right formula. F100 if you want a great camera that is light. F5 if you want a battle hardened top pro camera. I use the F5, I have a couple bodies, they are heavier than my medium format cameras when you attach a 70-200.
I have a friend who bought a N80 new, it failed in a couple of years. Still, finding a good used one for cheap is great.

SLRs are plentiful now, stock up while they are cheap

pentaxuser · Dec 31, 2021

I don't suppose that any of the mirror noises were ever recorded for decibel readings or were they? That's what counts, isn't it assuming that dampening effect = noise? Otherwise it is not clear to me how the OP is able to judge and rank our opinions except that the F80 so far seems to get the most votes for quietness

OP, how important is it that we confine our opinions to the range of Nikons you mention in your original post i.e. the F4,F100,F5 and F6 ?

pentaxuser

BobD · Dec 31, 2021

In this regard, none can compare with the Canon EOS RT. The mirror never moves at all.

Sirius Glass · Dec 31, 2021

momus said:
The F100 has a loudish shutter, unfortunately.

I'm with the op, a loud shutter is a real bummer on a camera, and my Leicaflex Standard had the best sounding shutter of any camera. The N80 has a very quiet shutter, and if you're willing to trade a pleasant sounding shutter for a quiet one, I recommend the N8008s. You can certainly hear it, but it reminds me of the 80's and 90's news event when you would hear all those Nikons going off.

The Leicaflex 90 2.8 Elmarit is on my N8008s now w/ an adapter, makes for a sweet combination, and the high point viewfinder is great for glasses wearers.

What is wrong with a loud shutter? It is not like we take photographs in a library. There are a number of high end cameras with a good THWACK!

Sirius Glass · Dec 31, 2021

mshchem said:
Sirius Glass has the right formula. F100 if you want a great camera that is light. F5 if you want a battle hardened top pro camera. I use the F5, I have a couple bodies, they are heavier than my medium format cameras when you attach a 70-200.
I have a friend who bought a N80 new, it failed in a couple of years. Still, finding a good used one for cheap is great.

SLRs are plentiful now, stock up while they are cheap

That is what I did with Hasselblads and now people grip that the cannot afford them.

wiltw · Dec 31, 2021

A couple years ago I tested with a sound level meter and posted this mix of analog and digital cameras, info in Photrio

Olympus OM-1: 69 dB (cloth horizontal travel shutter)
Canon 5D: 69dB (metal vertical travel shutter)
Canon 40D: 69dB (metal vertical travel shutter)
Olympus OM-4: 71dB (cloth horizontal travel shutter)
Bronica ETRSi: 71dB (MF leaf shutter)
Topcon D-1: 72dB (Copal Square metal vertical travel shutter)
Topcon Super D: 72dB (cloth horizontal travel shutter)

mshchem · Dec 31, 2021

Sirius Glass said:
That is what I did with Hasselblads and now people grip that the cannot afford them.

My problem is I've stockpiled everything photographic. My spare utility room is so full of extra darkroom stuff and light stands it's barely navigable.

mshchem · Dec 31, 2021

wiltw said:
A couple years ago I tested with a sound level meter and posted this mix of analog and digital cameras, info in Photrio

Olympus OM-1: 69 dB (cloth horizontal travel shutter)
Canon 5D: 69dB (metal vertical travel shutter)
Canon 40D: 69dB (metal vertical travel shutter)
Olympus OM-4: 71dB (cloth horizontal travel shutter)
Bronica ETRSi: 71dB (MF leaf shutter)
Topcon D-1: 72dB (Copal Square metal vertical travel shutter)
Topcon Super D: 72dB (cloth horizontal travel shutter)

Oh Super D meter on the mirror sweet! I briefly had a D-1 before I fell into the Nikon snare. Topcon made (makes) great cameras and today everything but cameras.

Huss · Dec 31, 2021

Not counting manual focus SLRs because the question was about AF ones, I've recently used Nikon F75, F80, F100, F4, F6.
Nothing compares to the F6 for dampened action. I've never tried an F5 but I would assume it would be close.

Does it matter? I just this with my F6, Sigma Art 35, hand held at 1/8 sec. I would not be able to do that w any of my other SLR cameras.

pentaxuser · Dec 31, 2021

Sirius Glass said:
What is wrong with a loud shutter? It is not like we take photographs in a library. There are a number of high end cameras with a good THWACK!

Well nothing per se except that the OP seems to have concentrated on noise as his prime "no-no" for what maybe Nikons or may be other makes as well but as I said it isn't clear whether dampening which he mentions specifically equates to noise and he has yet to clarify matters as far as I can see

pentaxuser

Scott Micciche · Dec 31, 2021

The Nikon F6 is, by far, the most refined and damped.

ediz7531 · Dec 31, 2021

pentaxuser said:
I don't suppose that any of the mirror noises were ever recorded for decibel readings or were they? That's what counts, isn't it assuming that dampening effect = noise? Otherwise it is not clear to me how the OP is able to judge and rank our opinions except that the F80 so far seems to get the most votes for quietness

OP, how important is it that we confine our opinions to the range of Nikons you mention in your original post i.e. the F4,F100,F5 and F6 ?

pentaxuser

Thanks all! Lots of food for thought. @petaxuser, I wouldn't necessarily restrict to Nikons. I'm just not as familiar with other SLR brands that are not Nikon/Pentax/Leica.

I would assume too that mirror dampening correlates with noise, but I imagine the type of shutter curtain matters too (?) I'm no expert. This is indeed a subjective matter. I would love to have a decibel reader, but I don't.
Since you are presumably a Pentax user by your user name, one Pentax that comes to mind, which I love to use with the exception of the mirror clap, is the SV. Lovely camera, but I have trouble not being distracted by that clap! The film advance is so so smooth, however.

@Huss that's impressive that you took that at such a slow shutter speed!

pentaxuser · Dec 31, 2021

ediz7531 said:
Since you are presumably a Pentax user by your user name, one Pentax that comes to mind, which I love to use with the exception of the mirror clap, is the SV. Lovely camera, but I have trouble not being distracted by that clap! The film advance is so so smooth, however.

I have a MZ7 and was never aware of it having much of a noise but as I do not use other makes I cannot make any comparison

pentaxuser

Sirius Glass · Dec 31, 2021

Not a bad place to start: Nikon/Pentax/Leica

Paul Howell · Dec 31, 2021

My PZ1 is really quite, con par with my Minolta 9, odd as it sounds, as even more or as lest as quite is the Sigma SA7 and 9. Too bad the viewfinders are yellowing.

Autofocus film SLR with good mirror dampening

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