Turn off shutter noise?

T

timbook2

Veteran
Is it posible to turn off the most ridiculous shutter noise when taking photos? I find it sort of superfluous to produce the sound of a mirror jumping up and a film rolling by when this camera does none of the two movements!
I looked all over the menues and was not able to turn this noise OFF. Did anybody find a way ?
 
Correct - the GH1 has a mechanical shutter and there is no noise to turn off. The shutter actually has 2 metal curtains, each one comprised of 3 (I think) sliding sections that overlap each other when the shutter is either open or closed. The two curtains are normally stored beneath the lens opening so there is nothing between the lens and the camera sensor. That's why you see the sensor when you take the lens off.

The shutter noise comes from what happens when you take a picture. (Note that the shutter is never used with video.) To get the selected exposure time both curtains rise up above the lens opening. Then the first curtain drops down at the same time the camera starts reading data from the sensor. This starts the exposure. Then the second curtain drops down after a delay = the selected shutter speed and the camera stops recording from the sensor. The noise you hear is all that mechanical motion coming from the 2 curtains going up and down.

This is a drawback that my previous Sony DSC-R1 did not have, and that camera took spectacular stills. It was also completely silent (when you turned off the electronic shutter sound some people seem to like) which is a nice advantage when photographing wildlife.

My hope/expectation is that the GH1 follow-on (whatever it's called) will not have a mechanical shutter. Sony proved that mechanical shutters are not needed with the R1 years ago. Frankly I could never figure out why the GH1 has one. (But at least they got rid of the flapping mirror.)
 
Thanks a lot for these explanations. While I am sure you(bbinnard) are correct about the 2 curtains, I still hear 2 distinctive noises which to me sound like a mirror flapping up and the film being spooled, so I was convinced it was some sort of sounddesign....
 
I don't think there's any fake noises on the GH1. ;) But I kinda do like that silly noise on my P&S sometimes...especially when I can't see the LCD screen very well...so that I actually know when it takes a picture. lol

It's easy to forget just how noisy a 35mm camera can be....here's my Olympus OMG with auto winder attached in comparison to my GH1...both shooting at 1/60th shutter speed...the OMG sounds like a printing press!

Let me see if I can embed YouTube correctly...
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I AGREE
 
Thanks! That's funny!

When I pressed the shutter on the Pentax K-x at Future Shop ( owned by Best Buy ) everyone shopping in the camera dept froze for a sec! KLOPP!! I didn't dare press it again!
 
swyzlstyx said:
Thanks SO much for having a sense of humor here....I was worried that I'd get called out on my sound levels or exposure...and I was just trying to make something funny! ;) My mother drank a lot of wine. lol
Click to expand...

Naw I liked it too, both Funny and Relevant. :happy:

-kap
 
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