Quiet Please

[Morph]

Originally Posted by eeyore

As others have noted there is no practical way to "turn off" the noise of a DSLR or film SLR shutter as it is a real shutter opening and closing - that said it is extremly unlikely that shutter noise is going to scare off wildlife from a public bird hide - as if the wildlife tolerate the sound of feet shuffling, doors open and closing, hide flaps being opened or closed, tripods being set up, pagers going off , and birders talking each other on to the target (left from the tree 20 metres, down a bit , up a bit ...) then they are not going to be disturbed by the clicking of a shutter.

I can assure you that shutter noise does disturb wildlfe otherwise I would not have posted this article. I had sat for over an hour watching as a Little Ringed Plover slowly came closer and closer to the hide waiting for that perfect shot until these 3 came in, saw it, and started firing away and off it went. It was not the noise of them entering the hide they were very quiet, it was the shutter noise that did the damage. Perhaps we should be pressing Cannon, Nikon and co to produce quieter models.

[Jason Green]

I use a Fuji FinePix S5600 - and have all noises turned off! In fact I turn the sound off most electrical things that use sound effects. It is a prosumer/bridge camera, but still makes a moderate noise when focussing, and even a slight rolling sound when on Manual! It clicks when a photo is taken, too.

It's all pretty quiet, but that said, is unavoidable. I assume then that those who came in had compacts or prosumer/bridges?

Maybe you could have signs put up on the reserve/hide, asking visitors to put their cameras on silent.

[diggleken]

you can turn off compact noises as far as I know. Mine can anyway.
Perhaps they didnt want to be quiet - ''hey look at me taking smashing photos........''
Its soooooo annoying, this includes noisy show off gits in hides too. I avoid then come back when theyve gone , if I can.
I'm fully with you Morph.
Ken

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Jason Green

I use a Fuji FinePix S5600 - and have all noises turned off! In fact I turn the sound off most electrical things that use sound effects. It is a prosumer/bridge camera, but still makes a moderate noise when focussing, and even a slight rolling sound when on Manual! It clicks when a photo is taken, too.

It's all pretty quiet, but that said, is unavoidable. I assume then that those who came in had compacts or prosumer/bridges?

Maybe you could have signs put up on the reserve/hide, asking visitors to put their cameras on silent.

Originally Posted by diggleken

you can turn off compact noises as far as I know. Mine can anyway.
Perhaps they didnt want to be quiet - ''hey look at me taking smashing photos........''
Its soooooo annoying, this includes noisy show off gits in hides too. I avoid then come back when theyve gone , if I can.
I'm fully with you Morph.
Ken

yep you can turn off the "shutter noise" on compacts , bridge cameras, and pro sumers etc as it is just a sound effect - I have it turned off anyway on my compact as its irritating. However with SLR cameras the noise comes from the actual shutter firing , so apart from locking the mirror up you have limited options when it comes to combating shutter noise.

the only other thing i failed to mention above re dslr noise is not to shooot a lot of fast bursts when you dont have to - shooting sinles will just generate a soft click which isnt going to disturb anthing , but using burst mode generates the machine gun like click,click, click which might be more disturbing