Camera Silencer?

Hello there!

To make a long story short, I’m currently have my broken foot and ankle in a cast and I’m going to be on crutches for 2-4 more weeks. I’m bored out of my tree, so to pass the time I’m going to attempt a few photography “experiments”.

I’m currently working on a DIY “camera trap” using a Canon EOS M3 running the Canon Hack Development Kit (CHDK). I’m running a “motion sensor” script on the camera and my plan is to set it up to capture some photographs of the birds in the backyard. My 10-year-old son helped me install some additional bird feeders earlier this week and in locations where I thought we could setup good shots. Today was our first attempt and aside from needing some minor changes to the camera settings, we only have one issue: the birds are scared of the camera shutter sound!

I’m currently using my longest focal length (200mm), but I was really hoping to eventually get closer and use wider lenses to vary the shots.

Now I’m trying to come up with a simple and cheap solution to silence the camera. I don’t need it to be completely silent, just enough to muffle the shutter sound enough not to scare the birds. I don’t want to spend much money, change cameras or spend a lot of time building an elaborate solution.

I’m wondering about wrapping a towel around the camera and lens (securing it with tape) to muffle the sound and/or perhaps using some spare pieces of styrofoam to line a cardboard box that could be placed over the camera. Has anyone ever tried something like this before?

Can someone suggest a simple solution?

***

For those that are wondering how our first attempt...  I watched this guy was hanging around the feeder for quite a while today. He would seem to fly off whenever the camera would fire. He eventually figured out that if he flew to the feeder from the top or the bottom, the camera wouldn’t fire. I still did get a few shots of him. My shutter speed was too slow today, so I’ll definitely correct that next time. Here is my favorite shot from today. it’s a bit quirky but I sort of like it.   I think with some fine tuning to our approach, we might be able to get some interesting shots in the future.

S_V wrote:

I’m currently working on a DIY “camera trap” using a Canon EOS M3 running the Canon Hack Development Kit (CHDK).

Well that's very cool!  I didn't notice that CHDK supports that camera.  I use CHDK on a fleet of Canon PowerShots, but I used ML on my EOS M.

... Now I’m trying to come up with a simple and cheap solution to silence the camera. I don’t need it to be completely silent, just enough to muffle the shutter sound enough not to scare the birds. I don’t want to spend much money, change cameras or spend a lot of time building an elaborate solution.

I’m wondering about wrapping a towel around the camera and lens (securing it with tape) to muffle the sound and/or perhaps using some spare pieces of styrofoam to line a cardboard box that could be placed over the camera. Has anyone ever tried something like this before?

Can someone suggest a simple solution?

A towel seems like a good thing to try.

Styrofoam doesn't absorb sound -- you'd want something more spongy, and it's easy to imagine a cardboard box actually amplifying the sound. Speaking of amplifying vibrations, if you have the camera mounted on something that could vibrate, just making a "deader" mount might make a difference (e.g., some aluminum tripods will resonate). However, if the sound is coming from the camera and not being amplified by its mount, perhaps the trick is not to quiet it, but to deflect the sound away -- I wouldn't be surprised if a single piece of cardboard with the lens poking through would bounce most of the sound backwards, away from the winged subjects....

Simplest solution is to use a camera with a electronic shutter mode. Most mirrorless cameras seem to offer this now.

petrochemist wrote:

Simplest solution is to use a camera with a electronic shutter mode. Most mirrorless cameras seem to offer this now.

Nothing like that supported by CHDK....

On the other hand, I have a fleet of PowerShot SX530 HS that zoom to 1200mm equivalent and the leaf shutter in them is very quiet. As Canon factory refurbs, I paid $130 each. For example, here's a rather awkward array we built last year using 18 of them:

And here's one running our TDCI (Time Domain Continuous Imaging) software:

Well CHDK has an partial M3 port. It's not fully functional, but works enough for my purposes here. The benefit of the M3 is that I can adapt my L lenses. I'm using CHDK because there is not Magic Lantern for the M3.

I wondered about the "deader" approach as well.  I may try instead of the insulated box.

That is quite the rig you setup with the arrays!

Here are some older articles on how to make a DIY blimp work-alike to deaden sounds:

• http://www.whistlerweddingphotos.com/pelican-case-camera-blimp/
• http://silentpenguin.blogspot.com/2008/06/kyles-sound-blimp-tutorial.html
• https://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-to-make-your-canon-7d-or-lesser.html

Thanks for the links!

Wrapping towels around the camera had very little effect in reducing the noise.

I'm eventually going to build myself a box similar to the first link your shared. I've already purchased a hard cased storage box for a power tool from the local classified ads, which i think should work quite well for an outer case. I may not be fully waterproof, but i don't need it to be.  Now i need to locate some foam to fill it with and some type of filter/glass. I'm trying to do this on the cheap, so it may take some time to source all the materiel... Which is fine, because i don't think i want to undertake this project while still on crutches. Once if get it built, i'll probably respond back to this thread.

One thing to think of is with modern cameras that have wifi support is that you don't need to cut a hole in the back for the screen.  Instead you can control it remotely via your phone.  You probably do want some way for heat to leave the system.   If you are recording a movie live, you may need to turn off the sound in your phone.

Typically the lens cannot be zoomed by the phone, unless you have electronic zoom lenses.  On my Olympus and Panasonic system, there are 4 lenses that they made a few years ago that do electronic zoom, but nothing recently.  I find my compact cameras (LX10 and Stylus1 to be better since I can zoom the lens via phone).

If your camera has a touch screen, it can be helpful if you don't use the phone control to replace the arrow keys and shutter release.  I put cameras into various steampunk boxes, and I find it is simplest if I enable the touch screen to both set the focus point and take the picture (normally I only use the touch screen to set the focus point).

i have no solution for you... but that image was really good. curious to see the rest of that project. do you have the images on your website?

I sure do. In the end I built a case out of a “hard” tool case from a power tool. I cut out and removed the inside layer and used the outer case. For the foam, I salvaged it from a kid’s chair. Of course, I added the camo duct tape for effect. When closed, I can’t hear the camera’s shutter. I am still waiting on some parts to arrive, which should make the camera easier to mount and adjust. The setup is large (so it is not ideal to carry over long distances) but I really like the ability to swap out lenses; I really like the results I get with the 70-200…

The case from the outside. I have an arca swiss plate screwed to the bottom to mount to heavy tripod.

Look from inside.  Foam helps muffle the sound.  I have a rail system installed so the camera can move forward and backwards depending on the lens mounted.

I’m not under the impression that any of these shots are going to be published in National Geographic or anything like that, but I think they are showing some potential of what I could get in the future. Anticipating the shot and framing tight enough to avoid cropping too much also leaving enough space to avoid cropping birds is a challenge. I am still in the process of experimenting and improving my results. As requested, here is a smattering of different shots I’ve taken of the last few weeks.

absolutely amazing

my thoughts.

find an old sock, cut the bottom out and roll it over the lens housing