New generation lens - are they too quiet

Title says it all really, I find the silent fast focusing motors in the modern lens somewhat unnerving - I miss grind and clonk. Although my eyes tell me it is working as it should I have difficulty in persuading myself that it is really OK for it not to have made a noise and to have finished before I have registered that I have initiated the action. It is good to have the quick shift option, guess all makes have this but I would like just a little noise to show it is making some effort.

Sure I will get used in time but I find it quite a relief to use one of the old grind and bump lens.

Bit like a car, would you rather have it making a terrible noise expecting something to go wrong at any minute, or quiet and smooth so as not to annoy. The Nikon range of lenses have what they call "silent wave motors" which are extremely quiet, but the couple of Sigma lenses I own make a lot more noise but then again cheaper. So its a trade off of price against quality.

Its mainly a question of what you get used to and a quiet lens has distinct advantages

Bazza

Personally I prefer the newer quieter ones

It's an odd debate isn't it.

Not quite the same, but similar are SLR bodies. My 300D makes a laboured clunk when taking photos, the 5D is better, and sounds more positive, but my 30D makes the most satisfying clunk when taking photos, better than any Film or dSLR body I have used

It is in no way relative to picture quality, but it does make you feel good

It is what you are used to and an inbuilt dislike of change, we do get used to the new, remember when I first moved from a typewriter to a word-processor all of a sudden I could not type, the rhythm had gone and the typos were raised to an impossible level.

Now I was not suggesting for one moment that the new lens are not excellent and optically superior and the ability to be able to change instantly from AF to manual is wonderful but I do feel I have lost one of my senses I can no longer use sound to know my lens is doing it's job.

As you say imagine a totally silent body, no click, how would not know when you had finished, unthinkable.

NO Quiet is good

Steve

I'm all for quiet lenses although there's something strangely comforting about the whirr clonk of the IS/VR on a long lens.

This is quite an important issue, depends on your style of photography I think. I have lenses that have these silent wave motors and they tend to be quiet, and just recently acquired an older lens (at a bargain price) that whirrs away like made.

If you were a wedding photographer, you wouldn't want the intrusive noise, nor I would guess if you were yards away in a hide waiting for some rare creature. out 'on the street' (in da 'hood!) with all the city noise, nobody hears my lenses whirring away. Sounds like it is a lot more strain on the mechanics of the camera and the battery to be driving heavier mechanisms.