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Constructing a blimp for the A7R

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Vivek

Guest
Open challenge to anyone into this sort of things. I have been experimenting with noise containment of the A7R. It is possible but it is not easy to access even the shutter button. The body is too tiny plus the heat has to be dissipated via the small area. It is a difficult challenge.

Anyone willing to open up the camera to see if the shutter mechanism can be secured/dampened better? If I had any free review cameras at my disposal, this is what I would try to do.
 
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Vivek

Guest
I have no idea why you have to be a quickdraw and post something very off topic? :confused:

You have no idea what this thread is about, in case you have not realized it.

Unfortunately, the time to delete this this has expired otherwise I would have deleted it. If this forum is becoming an amusement for time wasters, I have no interest in participation.
 
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Vivek

Guest
FWIW, I have modified to stabilize the NEX-5N shutter mechanism as it is not screwed in on the top-there is simply no room! Adding an external cooling unit for some applications and dampening shutter noise in teh A7R are real projects for me. I do not appreciate the condescending time wasting posts or PMs.

Edit:

Here is what I wrote in Sony's blog:

Vivek wrote: November 3, 2013 4:43am

Sony ought to invest in hightech materials to suppress the (physical shutter) noise while enabling good heat dissipation from the tiny bodies. It will not cost much to do this. Think in that direction, please.
https://blog.sony.com/2013/10/a7-faq/
 
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Ron Pfister

Member
It was certainly not my intention to come across as condescending in my PM to you, Vivek. I was merely expressing my opinion, and I made every effort to be polite and objective about my concerns. I'm sorry to hear that you don't see it this way...

Best,

Ron

Edit: my suggestion regarding an aluminum underwater housing was quite serious. The relatively large surface area of such housings combined with the excellent thermal conductivity of the material make them quite efficient heat sinks. Might not work well enough above the surface, but definitely does below...
 
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tashley

Subscriber Member
Open challenge to anyone into this sort of things. I have been experimenting with noise containment of the A7R. It is possible but it is not easy to access even the shutter button. The body is too tiny plus the heat has to be dissipated via the small area. It is a difficult challenge.

Anyone willing to open up the camera to see if the shutter mechanism can be secured/dampened better? If I had any free review cameras at my disposal, this is what I would try to do.
When you get a review loaner, you have to sign for it saying you are liable and have insurance ...
 

Don Libby

Well-known member
I've done reviews on camera gear and the understanding is you break it you bought it. There's no way a manufacture or camera dealer would ever allow a reviewer to open a body to inspect it. The notion of loaning a camera or lens for review is just that, use it to capture photographs and give a review of how well or how badly it performs not to crack open the case to see how the inside looks or works.
 

GrahamB

New member
I'm curios Vivek, what application would you use a blimp shrouded a7r?

Most blimps I'm aware of are for motion video production, to prevent the camera noise from being recorded on the audio. I'm assuming you'd like to make the a7r less audibly intrusive for your street photography. Wouldn't shrouding the a7r in a blimp, making it larger, negate the very reason the camera is appealing, it's smallness?

In theory, a mirror wave generated and broadcast would cancel the shutter sound. The camera shutter noise should be constant, and may enable one to use a recorded sound rather than a processed real time sound generator. One may be able to make the camera silent, without modifying it's size.

There's of course many obstacles to successful implementation. Where does one place the speaker? How large must the speaker be, and at what amplitude must the broadcast mirror wave be to successfully cancel the shutter noise?

Graham
 
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Vivek

Guest
Graham, Thanks for your thoughts. :)

The recorded sound from A7R varies quite a bit depending on the environ, the way it is held and where it is placed. The other possibility you mention is (also) well beyond my current capabilities. But, the whole idea is to stretch that. Basically the dampening falls under two categories- passive or active. To explore the former, the camera needs to be opened up.

The weakest area in the camera is behind the tilt LCD. A thin plastic that forms the body cover (just tap the body lightly with a finger) although that is not where the bulk of the sound is coming from. It is mostly from the top.

Tim and Don: I suspected that might be the case. All I need is an additional body for tinkering (already own one). Opening and putting back a body does not mean it will be dead (at least not in my hands, not nowadays).
 

Nettar

New member
Yes, Vivek is right -- something to deaden the sound would be helpful in some settings. I used the A7R in a narrow, boxy tram the other day, and I don't tell a lie when I say that everyone on my floor of the tram (it had two decks) instantly turned to look at me. It was evening, and all the windows in the tram were closed against the cold. The shutter sounded like a rifle shot. I was almost as shocked as my fellow travellers.

I have used my Nex 5N in the same setting many times, and never had the same sort of attention; there the sound was almost inaudible. Nettar
 

Viramati

Member
Well I used to work as a set photographer in Italy and used to build my own blimps but that was back in the days of film (I used the nikon f801s). Anyway I made them out of expanded foam, lead and various filters etc. people laughed when they saw them as they looked a bit like some sort of bomb out of the 1st world war but they were silent!!
 
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