It’s a sound many of us either take for granted or have been conditioned to tone-out entirely, the ‘clack’ a camera makes when the mirror lifts and shutter fires. But there’s something magical about it.
Like the roaring exhausts of two supercars, no two camera shutters sound the same. They have their own personalities defined by the format, camera design and speed at which the shutter goes off.
To show off just a few distinctive voices of different camera models, Davin Lavikka of Lavikka Photography has put together a short video comparing the shutter sounds of a Pentax 645z, Canon 5DS, Nikon D810, Olympus OMD EM5 II and Sony a6000.
I wish the video was a little more comprehensive than the 50-second clip it is, because of the cameras tested, a few of them feature special shooting modes that are designed to dampen the sound, depending on the environment you’re shooting in.
In particular, David shows off the Canon 5DS in what appears to be the ‘silent’ shutter mode. This feature, first seen in the 5D Mark III slows down the camera’s mirror mechanism to create a more subtle sound when the shutter is pressed – a wonderful feature to have when shooting during weddings or other, more solemn circumstances.
That said, he does point out the quiet shooting mode on the Olympus OMD EM5 II, which takes the shutter from a charming putter to absolute silence.
Watching this also made me wonder if it would be worthwhile to create an online Wiki of sorts of the shutter sounds of various cameras throughout history. It could become an auditory museum.
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