Pushbuttons that have good tactile feedback are also making a rather loud "click" when they switch. This could be a problem when operating the AXIOM Remote while filming.

Membrane switches are from the way they are built almost silent but have the disadvantage that they are much less durable and depending on mechanical stress will break sooner than classic pushbuttons.

There are also products that are specifically called "silent push button switch", big distributors do not carry them in their catalogs though.

Checking which switches are used on existing Cameras:

DSLRs: mostly clicky pushbuttons
Canon C300: mostly clicky pushbuttons (http://irc.apertus.org/index.php?day=13&month=01&year=2015#86)
Sony EX3: mostly membrane switches, some rather loud clicky pushbuttons

sebastian added a subscriber: Bertl.Jan 14 2015, 1:36 PM

I'm impressed you're thinking about the noise of the buttons- I doubt a angle camera manifacturer has ever thought about that!

Generelly every pro camera I've worked with (including Alexa, Amira, Red One & Epic plus most of the pro Sony range from the last ten years and film cameras before that) have gone with 'clicky' buttons.

I suspect this is because they're more robust. While there is something to be said for going for silent buttons inlay practical situations a noisy button isn't likely to be an issue: in drama you'd wait for the next take to change a setting. In docs the locality is noisy enough to hide the click.

I suspect the main deciding factor is that while 'silent' buttons are a nice idea - it'd be much worse to have a critical button fail mid way though a shoot, so people would generally prefer robust over quiet...

thanks for the feedback, we will head for the long lasting clicky ones that feel good then :)

Okay, cool - although bear in mind I'm a cameraman not a sound recordist - they may have different opinions. Having said that one of great advantages of the Axiom is that it's open source - if people hate the noisy buttons they can go and make some silent ones...

interesting switches

http://www.omron.com/ecb/products/sw/21/b3m.html
http://www.omron.com/ecb/products/sw/26/b3j.html (i have one of these, great tactile feedback. i will bring it to the next ergonimics meeting)
http://www.omron.com/ecb/products/sw/22/b3wn.html

does anyone know which switches are used for the aaton cantar-X2 ? especially the small ones
how does these small buttons feel? how much pressure do they need?

Great!

I ordered a wide selection of switches with different operation force from 0.6N to 24N that we should also soon be able to test.

sebastian moved this task from Backlog to Mechanical on the AXIOM Remote board.Nov 22 2018, 1:57 PM

Research push button optionsOpen, NormalPublicActions

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Research push button options
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