In your opinion, what are the best modern 35mm film SLRs ever built?

McDiesel · Jun 1, 2022

The Achilles heel of all SLRs has always been their acoustics. Most of them make an absolutely awful sound when a photo is taken. The mirror slap is often sharp, tinny, cold and unpleasant. I am afraid of getting the ear cancer when using one. When accompanied by the pig-fucking whine of an auto-winder, it creates a face-punching situation!

Therefore, a candidate for the best SLR must feature a lower, velvety, gentler shutter release sound and no motorized winder.

In my search for a tolerable SLR I have been limited to the F-mount by my pre-existing collection of great F-lenses. The best I could do was the Nikon F3. Its audible footprint is a step up from the FM/FA series, and it makes the camera usable outside, which is a great accomplishment for any 35mm SLR. I am yet to find one which can be used indoors though.

Yep, Nikon F3 is the one.

4season · Jun 1, 2022

When best possible viewfinder accuracy is a priority, concentrate particularly on the top-tier camera bodies offering 100% viewfinder coverage of film area: Single-digit Nikon F*, Canon EOS-1*, etc.

Sirius Glass · Jun 1, 2022

Moose22 said:
I used a fill flash to great effect back in the early 90s. Even had someone crap on me for using a "non pro" camera, but one of the reasons I liked it was that I worked at a place where people wanted a souvenir. I'd take shots of people always in shade, always in mid-day sun in the mountains. I always got good, nicely lit shots where you could still see the scenery, and sold a couple photos a week.

Crap on my non-pro camera all you want, I paid for my film and developing with those shots.

I haven't use an N80, but I'd love one. If I didn't have about 4 more cameras than I need right now.

The N75 and N80 provide the user the ability to use fill in flash with great ease.

Sirius Glass · Jun 1, 2022

McDiesel said:
The Achilles heel of all SLRs has always been their acoustics. Most of them make an absolutely awful sound when a photo is taken. The mirror slap is often sharp, tinny, cold and unpleasant. I am afraid of getting the ear cancer when using one. When accompanied by the pig-fucking whine of an auto-winder, it creates a face-punching situation!

Therefore, a candidate for the best SLR must feature a lower, velvety, gentler shutter release sound and no motorized winder.

In my search for a tolerable SLR I have been limited to the F-mount by my pre-existing collection of great F-lenses. The best I could do was the Nikon F3. Its audible footprint is a step up from the FM/FA series, and it makes the camera usable outside, which is a great accomplishment for any 35mm SLR. I am yet to find one which can be used indoors though.

Yep, Nikon F3 is the one.

What is wrong with the sound of a shutter? I like a shutter that says "I am here!" Hasselblads make a nice heathy TH-WACK!! Press cameras were there to be heard. So were Graflex's.

Cholentpot · Jun 1, 2022

McDiesel said:
The Achilles heel of all SLRs has always been their acoustics. Most of them make an absolutely awful sound when a photo is taken. The mirror slap is often sharp, tinny, cold and unpleasant. I am afraid of getting the ear cancer when using one. When accompanied by the pig-fucking whine of an auto-winder, it creates a face-punching situation!

Therefore, a candidate for the best SLR must feature a lower, velvety, gentler shutter release sound and no motorized winder.

In my search for a tolerable SLR I have been limited to the F-mount by my pre-existing collection of great F-lenses. The best I could do was the Nikon F3. Its audible footprint is a step up from the FM/FA series, and it makes the camera usable outside, which is a great accomplishment for any 35mm SLR. I am yet to find one which can be used indoors though.

Yep, Nikon F3 is the one.

How. Dare. You.

The Canon T50 is not a animalistic whine! It is a ROAR of POWER!

I AM ENTRY LEVEL CANON HEAR ME ROAR!

wiltw · Jun 1, 2022

OP needs to come back and update us with HIS definition of 'modern'. Some of use have tried to characterize features that the OP would deem to be must-have features for his definition of 'modern'. Otherwise there will be more pi$$ing contests about what is or is not within the realm of consideration.

McDiesel · Jun 1, 2022

ROAR is great. Hasselblad's CLACK-PHOOK is also awesome. In fact, all medium format SLRs are fine, sure they're louder but the timbre is deeper. It's the tinny metallic mirror slap of 35mm SLRs that's disgusting, like dropping china on the floor. The F3 sounds better because it's closer to medium format.

Cholentpot · Jun 1, 2022

McDiesel said:
ROAR is great. Hasselblad's CLACK-PHOOK is also awesome. In fact, all medium format SLRs are fine, sure they're louder but the timbre is deeper. It's the tinny metallic mirror slap of 35mm SLRs that's disgusting, like dropping china on the floor. The F3 sounds better because it's closer to medium format.

Praktica MTL3 says it's not china. Is a cast iron pan dropping on a tin roof.

MattKing · Jun 1, 2022

I love the sound of an OM-4T shutter in the morning. It is the sound of victory!
With all due apologies to Robert Duvall.

wiltw · Jun 1, 2022

McDiesel said:
The Achilles heel of all SLRs has always been their acoustics. Most of them make an absolutely awful sound when a photo is taken. The mirror slap is often sharp, tinny, cold and unpleasant. I am afraid of getting the ear cancer when using one. When accompanied by the pig-fucking whine of an auto-winder, it creates a face-punching situation!

Therefore, a candidate for the best SLR must feature a lower, velvety, gentler shutter release sound and no motorized winder.

I have always found autowinder noise to be especially grating. While I have an autowinder for my OM-1, it got little actual usage.

Some time ago I had done noise measurements including cameras I thought to be relatively quiet (Olympus OM), some other mechanical beast SLRs from the 1960s, and two dSLRs including the 5D(c). It is true that some seemed noisier, but the metered level was surprisingly similar! My take on it is that the characteristics of the noise are VERY important to our perception, even if they are not different in level.

1976 Olympus OM-1: 50dB
1984 Olympus OM-4: 50dB
1964 Topcon Super D: 55 dB
1965 Topcon D-1: 57dB (this has the Copal Square horizontal travel shutter (c.1964) which is more similar to Canon dSLR shutters.
Canon 40D dSLR: 46-50dB, 48dB Live View shutter release, 50dB Live View focus
Canon 5D dSLR: 50 dB

Huss · Jun 1, 2022

McDiesel said:
The Achilles heel of all SLRs has always been their acoustics. Most of them make an absolutely awful sound when a photo is taken. The mirror slap is often sharp, tinny, cold and unpleasant. I am afraid of getting the ear cancer when using one. When accompanied by the pig-fucking whine of an auto-winder, it creates a face-punching situation!

Therefore, a candidate for the best SLR must feature a lower, velvety, gentler shutter release sound and no motorized winder.

In my search for a tolerable SLR I have been limited to the F-mount by my pre-existing collection of great F-lenses. The best I could do was the Nikon F3. Its audible footprint is a step up from the FM/FA series, and it makes the camera usable outside, which is a great accomplishment for any 35mm SLR. I am yet to find one which can be used indoors though.

Yep, Nikon F3 is the one.

Guess you've never used an F6. Everything is so damped and quiet. It just feels and sounds so .... expensive. Which it is.

Charles Escott-New · Jun 1, 2022

In my eighth decade I have stumbled across the best film outfit I have ever owned. I sold my F5 and bought an F6 which I use with two G lenses, a 24 1.8 and a 50 1.4. A foretaste of Heaven.

McDiesel · Jun 1, 2022

@Huss you are right I haven't. But I assume it's in the same ballpark as their latest DSLRs? I used to be a Canon guy back in my digital autofocus days, and I was shocked by how much worse the manual-focus 80s era SLRs sound compared to my EOS bodies. I guess they all eventually figured out how to make well-damped mirrors.

grat · Jun 1, 2022

manfrominternet said:
For my potential 35mm film camera, advanced metering would be vital as I like to use slide film (along with lower speed negative film). Considering that I primarily shoot at night and on cloudy days, the ability to use a lower shutter speeds handheld would be terrific.

Late model Canon EOS body with a decent image-stabilized lens. Even the older Canon IS lenses can buy you 4 stops of speed handheld. AF speed will vary depending on the lens, but USM lenses are shockingly fast at focus. Metering is fairly standard, but I've rarely had complaints, especially if you use AE lock.

The eye-controlled focus sounds like a gimmick, but works surprisingly well. The eye-controlled DOF preview on my EOS 5 is something I never thought I'd use, but I find myself using it frequently.

grat · Jun 1, 2022

McDiesel said:
The Achilles heel of all SLRs has always been their acoustics. Most of them make an absolutely awful sound when a photo is taken. The mirror slap is often sharp, tinny, cold and unpleasant. I am afraid of getting the ear cancer when using one. When accompanied by the pig-fucking whine of an auto-winder, it creates a face-punching situation!

You would so hate the Fuji GX680.

Personally, I don't have a problem with either my FT-1 or my EOS 5. Both sound like "a camera", since I grew up the 80's, and "*snik*clik* *whrrrrrr*" was very common.

Paul Howell · Jun 1, 2022

N 80, well that true, for the cost of a F6, 2 N80s, a 24mm, 28mm, 50 1.4 and 105. For landscape and street photography why a F6?

waynecrider · Jun 1, 2022

Cholentpot said:
How. Dare. You.

The Canon T50 is not a animalistic whine! It is a ROAR of POWER!

I AM ENTRY LEVEL CANON HEAR ME ROAR!

madNbad · Jun 1, 2022

Let's wander in a different direction. After spending some time looking at the OPs work and in one post the idea of possibly a rangefinder was mentioned, the answer is a M7 with a 35 Summilux. Modern, good metering, ability to use hand held in low light, fairly accurate framing. Checks all of his boxes and is quiet as a bonus. Lets continue to discuss this amongst ourselves.

waynecrider · Jun 1, 2022

Since you’re looking to do some low light photography, you only need to look at a couple of different things in your search, the feel of the body in hand, that in doesn’t get in the way of taking the picture, and most importantly how good the stabilized lenses are.

wiltw · Jun 1, 2022

madNbad said:
Let's wander in a different direction. After spending some time looking at the OPs work and in one post the idea of possibly a rangefinder was mentioned, the answer is a M7 with a 35 Summilux. Modern, good metering, ability to use hand held in low light, fairly accurate framing. Checks all of his boxes and is quiet as a bonus. Lets continue to discuss this amongst ourselves.

waynecrider said:
Since you’re looking to do some low light photography, you only need to look at a couple of different things in your search, the feel of the body in hand, that in doesn’t get in the way of taking the picture, and most importantly how good the stabilized lenses are.

...and a fat enough wallet to afford to buy the Leica M7 with suitable FL lens. from about $3300 to 43000 (body only) on eBay currently

Cholentpot · Jun 1, 2022

waynecrider said:

The MD for the F is a whisper by comparison. The EOS series cameras sound like something flopping around. That Xerox tearing sounds was replaced by the thwap of a yellow pages.

Cholentpot · Jun 1, 2022

Artist-Photographer said:
Really?
The EOS 1N, even with the PDBE1, is so quiet that it has been used in private investigation applications.
Used with mirror lock-up, you will not hear anything appreciable, certainly not "flopping around".

I was talking about the film advance. I never used the 1N, might be velvety silent. Maybe I'll have the honor of using one some day. As for the 70-200 2.8, Yep. It's heavy. No other way about it.

NortheastPhotographic · Jun 1, 2022

Artist-Photographer said:
The 1N is a one-step mechanism e.g. trigger and wind with no lapse or decay. Challenging to notice anything at all with the PDBE1 drive.

It is probable that a few very early EOS bodies were nothing to write home about in terms of their function or for that matter, longevity. The EOS5 I bought in 1995 lasted only 8 years before fatigue set in, requiring a new rear door latch, lens release button, mode control dial and display driver repairs. All up, that cost as much as the camera new!! It went into the the bin in 2003 or 2004.

The EOS-1 had only the single point for focus, and the 1N had just that weird line in the middle of points. The EOS3 and 1V have more modern point spreads.

You also do have to give it to Canon re glass of that period. Those 1.4 and 1.2 lenses are amazing. Nikon zooms were less than stellar for a while, and it took years for them to build out impressive AF-S primes. Now, however, the Sigma art lenses would be the ones I'd buy. They're as good or better than the on-brand stuff, and a loooot cheaper.

madNbad · Jun 1, 2022

wiltw said:
...and a fat enough wallet to afford to buy the Leica M7 with suitable FL lens. from about $3300 to 43000 (body only) on eBay currently

If I had an extra eight grand lying around, I would buy a M7 with a 35 Summilux.

Huss · Jun 1, 2022

waynecrider said:

wiltw said:
...and a fat enough wallet to afford to buy the Leica M7 with suitable FL lens. from about $3300 to 43000 (body only) on eBay currently

So worth it.

In your opinion, what are the best modern 35mm film SLRs ever built?

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