Re: [Leica] Fast mechanical shutters

[Jeff Moore <jbm@instinet.com>]

At 05 Apr 1998 22:40:18 -0500, Eric Welch <ewelch@ponyexpress.net> wrote:

> Well, I could put up with a tiny bit more noise if it meant that I could
> get 1/100 flash sync. Otherwise, I hope they leave it alone.
> ==========

For a rough approximation of the character of noise from a modern Leica 
shutter...  (at least for half the action, the shutter-open phase)

 - Grab an M6 and a R8 (I know we all have at least one of each, right!) :-)

 - Set the M6 to B and wind

 - Set the R8 to manual, B.  Flip the mirror-lock switch.

 - Wind the R8;  mash its shutter-release once, to raise the mirror; wind
   again.

Now you're set to compare come comparable noises, with the R8's mirror
flipping factored out.  The R8 shutter-close always has mirror return 
piggybacked on it, so we'll just listen to the opening phase.

Ready... try each.

Not too much difference in amount of sound, is there?  There's a difference in 
*character*, certainly: the M's slightly-muffled but more bassy `click' versus 
the R8's `snick'... but (and, yes, the shutter *close* is also significant) it 
doesn't seem that a modern high-speed electronically-timed focal-plane 
shutter, *as now used already by Leica*, makes much noise.  SLRs just make a 
huge racket because of the mirror.

If the Leica folk come up with an M with a shutter allowing faster sync and 
faster top speed, throw in TTL flash metering and, sure, optional 
aperture-priority automation while they're at it, and leave other stuff well 
enough alone, I'll be in line to buy one.  Not as my only M, but certainly as 
one which would be better suited to some situations than the current classic 
designs.  Gosh, a shutter-speed dial big enough for all those fast and slow 
speeds might have to hang over the front a bit, where it might be easy turn!

Though... given the skill with which they incorporated a whole buncha stuff in 
the R8 while still making it feel like a coherent whole rather than a bag of 
feature bullet-items, I could see our Solms elves going a few steps farther.  
If they did it all *juuust* right, they might be able to pull it off without 
completely offending *all* of the current faithful:

 - The combined framelines have no fans I've been able to identify;  they're 
   an artifact of the camera's development history.  If new lenses kept the 
   mechanical keying for the omnibus framelines, but added ROM contacts to 
   notify new cameras of precisely what focal length the lens actually had, 
   individually-selected framelines or even a zoom finder (if they could keep 
   it improbably bright and maintain some space outside the lines the way we 
   like it) could be possibilities.

 - A small, slow, exceedingly quiet built-in winder might be possible.

 - Sacrilege, I know, but I wouldn't kick a right-front handgrip bulge out of 
   bed.  (Get your minds out of the gutter!)

But no attempt at AF.  There are Contaxen for that.  AF often frustrates the 
poo out of me.