Motor drives, then and now -- any quieter?

[alexfoto]

I can't live without the sound of my beloved MD4 in F3, i don't care if its loud, i use in street photography and without auto wind i lost pictures.

[dances_w_clouds]

That's some feat! Mine is decidedly the opposite. I wonder if there was a certain batch that is quiet, or if it's just the age of the motor/electronics that makes it loud (and some age worse while others age better?)...

What I have noticed is the more use they get the louder they are. Probably something with the wear on the gears. I never knew they were quiet at all until I picked up the last winder.

[Markster]

Hrm... maybe they need a CLA? <insert puzzled scheming smiley face here>

[Markster]

Well I took it apart... The motor itself doesn't seem to be the loud part... There's a large metal wheel (the last of many gears) that connects to the camera crank shaft. It has a bearing at one end with ball bearings in it. It also has some more inside, but I cannot remove or open it up, but with a careful aim I think I could get some oil under the inside of it.

Then there are 3 more plastic gears held on by C clips (not again! my old nemesis!) that may or may not be contributing to the noise. I think if I can get some penetrating oil or something I can lube this up to the point of working quietly. If I remove half the frame attached to the servo motor and trigger the camera, it's much quieter than if it's attached to that last gear. It's also somewhat of a mess. Some old dried gue/gunk in areas and so forth.

So overall, it takes a bit of effort, and you'll need to re-glue the faux-leather exterior, but you just might be able to give your winder a homegrown CLA.

Cool, no?

[AgX]

If I remove half the frame attached to the servo motor and trigger the camera, it's much quieter than if it's attached to that last gear.

So, by vibration isolation (damping) between static parts you might achieve some noise reduction.

[BradleyK]

Winner must be the rewind on the EOS-1, used to dread it going off during press conferences. Used to get a few nasty looks from TV and radio..

My nominee for the loudest and most obnoxious motor-drive: the MD2/MB-1 on my F2AS/F2A/F2 bodies - loud enough to wake the dead. The rewind function on one of the drives sounds like a chainsaw (I keep postponing a CLA for the beast, and it remains in working order, so...) For the least obtrusive: the Nikon F5 in its "silent" mode (quiet enough to warrant only passing attention when shooting wildlife).

[Mark Crabtree]

I can't live without the sound of my beloved MD4 in F3, i don't care if its loud, i use in street photography and without auto wind i lost pictures.

This thread has inspired me to get my MD4 working. I got it with an F3, but have never had a charger for the Ni-cads, nor a AA pack. I rigged up a charger and got enough juice into the ancient batteries to at least determine that the drive is working. I plan to buy a AA pack for it next week.

I'll be posting a recording to the "most silent Nikon" thread. F3 w/MD4 certainly was not the winner, but I'm kind of hooked on it now. A very nostalgic sound.

[dances_w_clouds]

Hrm... maybe they need a CLA? <insert puzzled scheming smiley face here>

Thats all good but I go to my local camera dude and question that very CLA item and I get a blank stare which made me VERY uneasy. What I was thinking there must be a hobby shop with a motor that can be adapted to work. Not a fuel fired motor but the option would be there....

[Ken N]

The sound of the MD2 on the OM-4Ti or OM-3Ti is a thing of beauty. It is so aggressively quick that the sound doesn't last very long at all and it was always known as being pretty quiet. The F5, though, takes it to another level of silence. But part of that is the change in transport.

[Nicholas Lindan]

The Nikon F4 also has a quiet mode. The camera is pretty quiet in normal mode, much quieter than an F3/MD4.