How Loud are Nikon DSLR Camera Shutters?

As a professional event photographer, one of the concerns I have had over the years is how loud are Nikon DSLR camera shutters. For the types of events I shoot, they often have moments when the click clack of a camera shutter would be very intrusive (speeches at podiums and weddings, toasts, slideshows, etc…). Because of this, I always try to use a full frame camera with the quietest shutter if I know that I’m likely to encounter these types of situations. Other events are not shutter noise sensitive (soccer games, dancing, red carpet, etc….).

There are many anecdotal accounts of camera shutter noise levels. If you look in the forums on other websites, you will encounter many threads discussing what camera is the loudest and which is the quietest. For example, on the date I wrote this post, at DPreview.com, I searched “Shutter Noise” within the Nikon FX camera forum and it found 1,021 threads containing discussions concerning Nikon shutter noise levels. (https://www.dpreview.com/search/forums?query=shutter+noise&forum=1021)

Because of this and based on my own curiosity, I decided to measure the shutter noise levels of the current full frame Nikon DSLR cameras using a sound meter. The resulting measurements are in decibels.

The results of the measurements are presented in this graph (in decibels):

Graph of shutter noise levels of Nikon DSLR cameras in decibels

Even though the Nikon D610 is no longer part of Nikon’s current FX DSLR lineup, I havnt’t sold mine yet, so I left it in the test results.

The results paralleled my anecdotal assumptions prior to doing the test, with the only exception being that the D610 was slightly noisier than the D850 by a millimeter, a surprising result. I included the Nikon Z9 (even though I no longer have mine) and even if I never owned a Z9, I knew what the result would be since it’s the first interchangeable lens mirrorless and shutterless camera among all the brands.

One thing I would like to mention is that the results suggest that the cameras are fairly close in noise levels. In real life, that is not quit accurate. Believe me, there is a big difference between the Nikon D780 (or the D7500 for that matter) and the D6. The D6 shutter is so loud that I can only use it in situations where noise levels are not an issue. If the D6 shutter noise was more discrete, I would use that camera pretty much all the time, the autofocus and resulting photos are that good!

In summary, I can now see with empirical certainty why I always choose the Nikon D780 as my go to event camera body. It has great autofocus, low image noise, is light weight, the body is relatively small for a full frame camera, and above all else, it’s shutter is quiet. And as an extra bonus, I can always through the D780 into mirrorless mode (which I do often) where the decibel level drops down to 71.9!

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions.