Motor Drives -- How good is your ear?

cooltouch · May 25, 2017

I find it to be an all-too-frequent occurrence when watching a show on TV in which a camera is shown being used, let's say a recent show, like NCIS or something. The camera is plainly digital, yet the show's editor has seen fit to insert a sound that is very familiar to me whenever the camera's shutter is tripped. This sound is almost always that of a Nikon MD4 (F3) or MD12 (FE or FM or the -2 versions). Sometimes a Canon MD MA (A-1). Last night I was watching an NCIS episode, and it was clearly an MD4. But the camera was clearly a Nikon digital.

So, how often have you noticed this same thing? And have your ears become so well tuned to the sound of various motor drives where you can identify them by the sound they make?

Many motor drives just have the noise of their gear trains operating when the photo is taken. But the three motor drives I've mentioned above all make a characteristic whine, each which sounds different from the other.

Vilk · May 25, 2017

jen connelly even had an MD4 mp3 installed in her M6 in blood diamond

shutterfinger · May 25, 2017

I love the shutter sound/mirror slap that drown out the speaker at press conferences on live broadcasts.
I love movies/TV programs set in the 1930's that are time period correct except for the 1960's cameras.
I love the Ford that sounds like a Chrysler when they start it, tires that sequel on dirt roads, and hybrids that sound like Ferrari.

AgX · May 25, 2017

Cooltouch, in comparison to you I seem deaf...

All I can discern when there is a staged camera sound is that of the SX-70.

fstop · May 25, 2017

shutterfinger said:
I love the shutter sound/mirror slap that drown out the speaker at press conferences on live broadcasts.
I love movies/TV programs set in the 1930's that are time period correct except for the 1960's cameras.
I love the Ford that sounds like a Chrysler when they start it, tires that sequel on dirt roads, and hybrids that sound like Ferrari.

You forget cars with automatics making shift sounds like a manual box or a manual box constantly upshifting...

GRHazelton · May 25, 2017

shutterfinger said:
I love the shutter sound/mirror slap that drown out the speaker at press conferences on live broadcasts.
I love movies/TV programs set in the 1930's that are time period correct except for the 1960's cameras.
I love the Ford that sounds like a Chrysler when they start it, tires that sequel on dirt roads, and hybrids that sound like Ferrari.

Not to mention the "pop" when a flash bulb fires! Of the hundreds of flash bulbs I used back in the day, all were silent, save for an occasional faint crackle as the bulb cooled.

shutterfinger · May 25, 2017

I also love the NCIS episodes where they take 6 to 10 frames of the subject without moving the camera.

ac12 · May 25, 2017

I've given up on being anywhere near critical with anything on TV including documentaries.

I've see the SAME WW2 image as being in Europe and the Pacific ????
That made me realize that documentary editors are like TV editors, they just want a pix, never mind that it is WRONG. 99+% of the people won't know anyway.

I used to laugh at the incorrectly written scripts in the original Hawaii Five-0 that have the geography of Oahu all WRONG. They were probably written by a writer in Calif, with very poor knowledge of the geography of Oahu. And they never bothered to ask someone from Hawaii to check the geography references.
That is probably the same for Kojak and NY, Streets of SF, and any other actual location.

Cholentpot · May 25, 2017

I just annoy folks with my T50. First time I used it I thought the film was being torn.

cooltouch · May 26, 2017

Geez, it appears I've hit something of a raw nerve here . . . gotta agree with all the stupid mistakes film and TV directors and editors make, though. Like the bottomless 30-round magazines that are used with full auto assault weapons or machine pistols. Or tough guys continually jacking the slides on their pump shotguns, even though they haven't fired a shot between slide cycles. Or how about chase scenes where the cars have all that high-revving audio, but they're only doing, maybe 20 or 30 mph.

ron917 · May 29, 2017

My iPhone 7 camera, based on the sound, has a mirror, shutter and motorized film winder Makes no sense at all.

Andrew O'Neill · May 29, 2017

What makes me laugh is when there's a photographer in a movie with an 8x10 shown inserting the film holder, then looking at the back of the camera, and trips the shutter.

Andrew O'Neill · May 29, 2017

Anybody watch Godfather on AMC yesterday? I love the scene where the mobster grabs the 4x5 holder, pulls the film out, and scrunches it up in his hand, throwing it at the feet of the photographer.

John_Nikon_F · May 30, 2017

ron917 said:
My iPhone 7 camera, based on the sound, has a mirror, shutter and motorized film winder Makes no sense at all.

Got a MD-4 with alkaline batteries attached to your F3? Fire it. Compare it to your iPhone. There's your answer as to what your iPhone camera sound is.

-J

removed account4 · May 30, 2017

all i can think of is the that 80s pop tune by dwayne dwayne called goyles on film

mpirie · May 30, 2017

jnanian said:
all i can think of is the that 80s pop tune by dwayne dwayne called goyles on film

lol, i hope you mean "Girls on film" by Duran Duran?

MontanaJay · May 30, 2017

What are you going to do when you're trying to represent a silent technology in film?
Foley artists have to make a living too.

removed account4 · May 30, 2017

mpirie said:
lol, i hope you mean "Girls on film" by Duran Duran?

yeah, that's the ticket !

ron917 · May 30, 2017

John_Nikon_F said:
Got a MD-4 with alkaline batteries attached to your F3? Fire it. Compare it to your iPhone. There's your answer as to what your iPhone camera sound is.

-J

I don't have an MD-4, so thanks for pointing that out. Interesting, but still doesn't make any sense.

What would be useful is a way to make my F3 (with or without MD-4) sound like my iPhone camera sans sound effects. In other words, dead silent.

Patrick Robert James · May 30, 2017

I was watching something the other day that had the period correct Leica M3, but the lens on it was a Voigtlander....

I used to never notice cameras in films until I read a thread like this. Now I do. Don't know if that is a good or bad thing.

The other minor peeves are flashes that don't flash, people using manual cameras without winding them, being super close to the subject without refocusing which would be too impossibly close for a photo anyway, and the never ending roll of film.

cooltouch · May 30, 2017

Something else I've noticed that at first I assumed was just a transitional issue. Even after the pervasiveness of DSLR technology, especially among the press corps, it isn't unusual to see, during a press conference in a TV show, most of the prop cameras are still manual focus SLRs with handle-mount flashes. Many have no motor drives, but that doesn't prevent the editors from adding in motor drive sound effects. Details like this bother me because it shows either laziness, cluelessness, or stupidity on the part of the show's director(s) and editor(s).

AgX · May 30, 2017

Already in analog times inappropriate cameras were given to figurants.

Alan Gales · May 30, 2017

I recently saw a show that someone was taking spy pictures of criminals from quite a distance away. Instead of using a modern DSLR with a long or zoom lens they were shooting a Stereo Realist.

cooltouch · May 31, 2017

Heh, maybe the prop guy had a sense of humor!

ac12 · May 31, 2017

Although as George Lucas said, even in space where there is no air for the sound to carry, you need the sound for the movie effect.
... or all the space battles would be like a silent movie.

Motor Drives -- How good is your ear?

cooltouch

Vilk

shutterfinger

AgX

fstop

GRHazelton

shutterfinger

ac12

Cholentpot

cooltouch

ron917

Andrew O'Neill

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Andrew O'Neill

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John_Nikon_F

removed account4

mpirie

MontanaJay

removed account4

ron917

Patrick Robert James

cooltouch

AgX

Alan Gales

cooltouch

ac12

Motor Drives -- How good is your ear?

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