I’m writing this article in late August, a little while after World Photography Day. I spent a part of the weekend at a giant meetup held by Jamel Shabazz and there was a gentleman who used to shoot a lot of sports. With him, he brought his Canon 1DX camera and fired a few frames. I turned around and expressed to him how much I missed the sound of actual camera shutters. I’m not talking about mirrorless cameras, the only one that I really loved the sound of was the Leica M9 — and even that’s in retrospect. The original Sony a7 and the Olympus Pen EP1 also had beautiful shutter sounds. But today, modern cameras are too quiet and have lost their way.
Giorgetto Giugiaro is a famous Nikon camera designer who made something that was designed to have the silhouette of a gorilla in the dark. This was a time when cameras were proud products and not afraid to walk into a room and let everyone know who they are. But years of wedding and event photographers have demanded that our cameras be as quiet as possible. And now, we need to really tip the scales in the other direction.
If you’re a studio photographer or a different type, you’re appreciative of the quiet shutter and the sound of a flash popping. Photography has become too little of a sensory experience. But adding in the sound of a shutter and the sound of a flash make it more holistic of an process.
Canon 5D series cameras like the 5D Mk IV had a quiet shutter setting on the drive mode. I adored this so much more than something like the Sony a9 III. That camera has a global shutter, and it makes the process of shooting kind of odd. You can’t feel the shutter and unless I’m shooting with a flash, it’s sometimes hard to know if I’ve even shot the photo.
Digital photography feels soulless these days because it’s getting rid of many of the sensory experience that makes it so appealing. We’ve already gotten rid of the scent of film and developer to a certain point. So why can’t we bring back the sounds and tactile feelings of shutters?
And more importantly, it might actually teach photographers how to handhold cameras properly and not rely on image stabilization all the time.