An old SLR camera Asbjoern Andersen


You could reasonably say that recordist Chris Skyes went to great lengths to capture his new camera sound effects library:

Here's how a simple idea - and a passion for cameras - turned into a huge research project, weeks of recording at night, and ended up as an excellent collection of 3900+ mechanical sounds from 24 hand-picked cameras from the last century:


Written by Chris Skyes. Images courtesy of Chris Skyes.
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A few months ago, like most people on this website, I was running around thrift stores, looking for strange and unusual props that I could record.

As I was being stared at, undoubtedly due to me rattling what looked like a vintage purse next to my ear, out of the corner of my eye I spot a really old film camera, sitting on a shelf, untouched.

With the shop owner’s eyes pinned on the strange young man in the corner of his establishment, shaking all of his merchandise, I reach out for the camera, gently pick it up and lift it up to my face.

An Aiglon Reflex TLR (twin lens reflex)

It had obscure branding, Aiglon Atos-1 being etched into the leather case and onto the outside edge of the lens. It looked really old, and cool, and it smelled like my grandad’s suit, that he’s had since the 1950s.

I would later find out that I wasn’t that far off, as after some research, it turns out that it was most likely made somewhere in France in the 1940s or 50s.


Camera recording examples from Chris Skyes’ 20th Century Cameras SFX library


 

To the shop owner’s relief, I purchased it and left the store without actually breaking anything.

When I got home, I truly fell down the rabbit hole. I started researching old cameras, where they were made, how they worked, and more importantly, what kinds of sounds they could make.

A Kodak Six-20 Brownie D model

Over the course of the next few weeks, I ended up purchasing around 50 cameras, all manufactured between the 1930s and 1970s.

At first, I went through all of them, and set aside all the cameras that did not function to a satisfactory degree. Eventually, I ended up with 24 cameras which worked well, and sounded distinct enough from one another.

Fueled by an already existing passion for photography, I found myself researching into each of these cameras, and began writing a kind of informal eBook to go along with the library.

Once the research was complete, and I felt confident that I knew quite a bit about each device, I grabbed my gear, and thus began a two week process of recording the cameras at night. I’d wake up at 2 PM, start recording around midnight and then finish around 6 AM, and go to bed.

The night shift recording was necessary due to the nature of some of the mechanical sounds. Naturally, as these cameras were not specifically designed to make loud noises, I had to ensure the best recording environment, free of birds, people, and the creepy sound of Ice Cream trucks going past my house.

The library features recordings from cameras such as:

AGFA Isolette (1950s) • AGFA Silette (1960s) • AGFA Unknown Model (1930s) • Aiglon Atos-1 (1950s) • Atlas No 2 (1930s) • Beier Beirette (1970s) • GB Kershaw 110 (1950s) • Halina Viceroy (1960s) • Houghton Synchro (1930s) • Ilford Envoy (1950s) • Kodak 620 JNR (1930s) • Kodak Colorsnap (1950s) • Kodak Brownie (1940s) • Kodak Instamatic 25 (1960s) • Kodak Instamatic 155x (1970s) • Kodak Junior 1 (1950s) • Kodak Six-20 (1940s) • Minolta AL (1960s) • Pentax Asahi (1970s) • Photo Plait Splendor (1940s) • Polaroid Colorpack 2 (1970s) • Praktica Nova (1960s) • Voigtlander (1930s) • Zenit EM (1970s)

Additionally, after recording all the mechanical sounds, I also recorded old rolls of film being handled, and installed into cameras, but this will come as a separate update to the library.

After the recording sessions were over, I checked the length of the audio files, and choked a little when I realised that I had 9 hours of audio files to comb through, edit, and tag with juicy metadata.

https://twitter.com/SKYESAudio/status/985976911108165635

A few more weeks later, by the grace of the audio gods, the editing was complete. I finally found myself standing in front of my DAW, staring at 159 tracks, comprised of about 3900 sounds.

Now this was the crucial moment. I felt this immense desire to just get the library out there, and finally get it over with. But no, after all this time I put into editing and recording, perfecting the metadata was essential.

More sounds from SKYES Audio:

20th Century cameras is just one of the SFX libraries from Chris Skyes and his SKYES Audio label. Here are some of his other libraries:

  • Door Sound Effects Abandoned Doors Play Track 124+ sounds included, 53 mins total $120

    Finding the right door sound can be a pain, thus Abandoned Doors was recorded with that need in mind.

    All the 1400+ sounds were recorded in abandoned mansions and houses with unique sonic characteristics, in stereo, usually from two perspectives (inside the room and in the hallway), allowing you a great deal of choice and offering sonic diversity.

    Additionally, splitting the stereo tracks into mono will give you two more slightly different perspectives on each sound.

    The Abandoned Doors library offers a multitude of door recordings, ranging from heavy wooden doors found in turn of the century mansions to cheap old doors in an abandoned warehouse, being opened, closed, slammed, knocked on, kicked, banged on, and even hit with a bat.

    Whilst most door libraries simply name files ‘door open 01’, etc, Abandoned Doors has been carefully tagged with rich SoundMiner metadata and multiple keywords, giving you a clearer image of what a file contains just by reading the title. For more information on what kinds of sounds are present in the library, feel free to consult the metadata file down below.

    Also, if you’d like to know more about how I recorded this library, read my blog post here.

    If you have any questions about this library, feel free to quickly send me an e-mail. I tend to reply within minutes.

    Buy Abandoned Doors today and augment your sonic toolbox with over 1400+ door related sound effects, recorded at 24bit/96kHz in unique and inaccessible locations.

  • Water & Ocean Sounds Black Sea Play Track 30 sounds included, 30 mins total $50

    Discover everything from the peaceful sound of waves gently streaming through slippery rocks, from inside a hollow, beached buoy, and on the beach, directly facing the sea, to the full force of mother nature, being recorded from twenty feet above, as massive waves crash onto a cliff face, salty water permeating the air

    The 30 separate audio files, free of seagulls, people, or ships, will provide you with a variety of pure and colourful recordings, which you can never have enough of. They bring character to any scene you might choose to lend them to, at the fraction of the cost and time required to go out and record them yourself!

    In addition to that, every single file in this library has been carefully tagged with rich, descriptive SoundMiner metadata, which will save you time when navigating it and allow you to finish projects much faster! The metadata consists of intuitive, visual keywords which allow you to more quickly and efficiently find the files you need!

    This library is useful for, but not limited to: Feature Films, TV Series, Short Films, YouTube Videos, Games, Meditation, and more!

    Also, if you’d like to know more about how I recorded this library, read my blog post here.

    If you have any questions about this library, feel free to quickly send me an e-mail. I tend to reply within minutes.
  • Drones & Mood Sound Effects Aberrant Drones Play Track 79 sounds included, 409 mins total $50

    Discover nearly 7 hours of individually flavoured, hauntingly musical and ever-evolving drones, packaged neatly into 79 of the kind of audio files that you can never have enough of.

    In many ways, Aberrant Drones is the sister library of the Augmentation Elements library, as it provides you with the creative tools required to augment your sound design.

    Whilst the Augmentation Elements library arms you with tools such as whooshes, risers and stings, allowing you to sweeten specific elements of your sound design, the Aberrant Drones library allows you to augment the mood of an entire scene. Each audio file is populated with richly descriptive SoundMiner metadata, making it easier than ever before to sift through hours of abstract drones.

    This is why the metadata is usually described in terms of feeling and mood, like so:

    Drone,Sci-Fi,Abstract,Cacophonous,Glowing,Impending Doom
    Drone,Sci-Fi,Abstract,Textured,Vibrating,Oscillating,Anxiety

    Augment your creative tool-box with Aberrant Drones, and transform your sound design work!

    For really in-depth reviews, check out the articles on 344audio.com and strongmocha.com

    If you have any questions about this library, feel free to quickly send me an e-mail. I tend to reply within minutes.
  • The Dot Matrix sound effects library is made up of two parts: A full 3-minute recording of an Epson LQ 570 dot matrix printer at work and 511 short files meticulously edited to isolate each movement that the device makes whilst printing. These movements have been categorised into 5 different folders:

    1) Short bursts, with 295 different variations
    2) Double bursts, with 25 different variations
    3) Triple bursts, with 98 different variations
    4) Long bursts, with 45 different variations
    5) Servo sounds, with 48 different variations

    The recordings have not been manipulated in any way other than being edited into smaller files, as to not limit your options when using the sounds creatively.

    In total, you will receive 512 .wav files, each containing SoundMiner metadata, recorded at 96k/24bit in order to allow for a high level of manipulation.

    If you have any questions about this library, feel free to quickly send me an e-mail. I tend to reply within minutes.

Even though I do my metadata as I go along, there is always a crucial step at the end where I perfect it and make sure it’s consistent not only throughout the library, but across my portfolio of libraries.

I spent a few days figuring out how to best describe the mechanical sounds, making sure I was as precise as possible, and checking spelling and numbers over and over.

An Asashi Pentax Spotmatic F Shutter release

Additionally, in the spirit of the library, I shot buttery smooth slow-motion B-roll of the cameras featured in the collection, and used it for the library preview.

And then, finally, it was over. The library was packaged, ready, and looking pretty. After consulting with Asbjoern about details here and there, with a mighty push of a button, the library went live.

If you want to grab a discounted copy, the library’s introductory discount will run until the 1st of June.

A big thanks to Chris Skyes for giving us a look at the making of ’20th Century Cameras’! Check out the full library below:

 

 
  • Discover the obscure sounds of 24 film cameras designed between the 1930s and 1970s. Carefully organised into 159 files, the 20th Century Cameras library offers over 3900+ sounds recorded at pristine 24bit/96kHz, thus allowing you to not only use the mechanical sounds of the cameras for their intended purpose, but also for sound design.

    In order to help you navigate through the plethora of sounds available, rich SoundMiner metadata has been carefully crafted in order to describe the sounds as simply as possible, using multiple keywords and terms, where needed.

    The library contains mostly mechanical sounds, such as the sound of shutter release at different shutter speeds, knobs, latches, wheels, and more, in addition to some Foley sounds as well.  Due to the age of the cameras, most of the shutter release sounds have slight variations between them, even at the same shutter speed.

    The library also comes with a free eBook which can be viewed and downloaded here.

    In addition to the SoundMiner metadata sheet down below, the eBook provides information as to how older cameras work, and more details as to how each of the cameras recorded for the library work. The book goes into a fair bit of detail as to what sounds each camera offers, without getting too technical.

    If you have any questions about this library, feel free to quickly send me an e-mail. I tend to reply within minutes.

    If you would like to hear more, here is a slightly extended version of the video preview:

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=q96-SPsUSZw

 
 

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THE WORLD’S EASIEST WAY TO GET INDEPENDENT SOUND EFFECTS:
 
A Sound Effect gives you easy access to an absolutely huge sound effects catalog from a myriad of independent sound creators, all covered by one license agreement - a few highlights:

  • Cinematic & Trailer Sound Effects Four Elements – Elemental Magic Play Track 3050 sounds included, 251 mins total $112.49
    FOUR ELEMENTS - Rock The Speakerbox Professional SFX

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    Unleash the raw power of fire, water, earth, and air with this comprehensive 9 GB sound library featuring 3050 high-quality sound effects across 630 files. Whether you’re designing cinematic soundscapes or enhancing video games Four Elements delivers the tools you need to harness the energy of the natural world.

    Construction Kit – 2443 Sounds

    A treasure trove of raw, organic, and processed sounds including seamless loops divided into Fire, Water, Air, Earth and Explosion categories. Customize every detail with an extensive selection of sound components.

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    A collection of ready-to-use sound effects divided into Attack, Bend, and Explosion categories for quick integration into your projects. Perfect for high-energy scenes and immersive storytelling.

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  • Bicycle Sound Effects Skid and Drift Play Track 755 sounds included, 78 mins total $56

    Are you looking for skid sounds for your next action movie? Well, this sound library is made for you.

    “Skid and Drift” is the result of 4 years of recording work. It is a complete collection of skids from various vehicles, recorded from multiple perspectives, on all types of surfaces, and in high quality (dirt, dry and wet concrete, gravel, etc.).
    You will find skids from race cars recorded during the French National Drift Championship, skids from go-karts, motocross bikes, bicycles, skateboards, ice skates, rollerblades, as well as foot skids.
    These sounds were recorded in both stereo (XY and ORTF position) and mono, depending on the case, using the following microphones: Schoeps CCM4, Neumann U87, DPA4061, Lom MikroUsi. All sounds are recorded in 24-bit. The sampling frequency is 48kHz for scuffing footsteps sounds, and 96kHz and 192kHz for other recordings.

    The metadata is precise and complete. All sounds are in UCS format.

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  • Mechanical Sound Effects MicroMech Play Track 1800+ sounds included, 72 mins total $40

     MicroMech is an expressive collection of tiny, non-motorized mechanisms.

    Recorded by Nathan Moody in great ultrasonic detail, this collection of quiet and delicate sounds can become robotic limbs or fingers, weapon mechanisms, gun reloads, crafting or equipping sounds in a game, high-tech gadgets, superhero armor, clockwork steampunk artifacts, door latches, or any other metallic articulations you can think of.

    It pairs perfectly with Studio Obsidian’s Analogue Ordnance library for high-tech weaponry mechanism sounds.

    An hour of clicks, rattles, ratchets, trills, clacks, and slides will fill your sonic projects with mechanical filigree and mechanized finesse. Props include antique and vintage cameras, can openers, dictaphones, high-end fidget toys, and much more. Each recording in MicroMech has many performance variations, making them perfect for game audio projects.

    All sounds were recorded dry with a hypercardioid microphone and an ultrasonic-capable omni microphone into Millennia preamps, blended together for a punchy, full-range tone while preserving ultrasonic content.

    Get big sounds from small sources with MicroMech!

Explore the full, unique collection here

Latest sound effects libraries:
 
  • Car Sound Effects Golden State Mustang Play Track 130 sounds included, 28 mins total $44.71

    This sound library is a collection of various actions with game audio in mind from a Ford Mustang 2021 Ecoboost convertible, recorded in parts of rural California in November 2024.

    The Mustang features a 2.3L Inline-4 (I4) turbocharged engine, which was quite the character captured with a lot of emphasis in the multichannel recording session.

    For help to record this beauty I enlisted the aid of my friend Diego Hodge who helped with both his arsenal of microphone options, rigging up the ‘Stang, and planning for the session. You can learn more about Diego’s work here: https://diegohodgeaudio.com/

    The library contains captures of idling, all the way up to 5000 RPM and beyond. Both single rev cycles as well as laying on the pedal for a consistent, sustained loop was a key part of our capture log. We even tried some sporadic flares of the engine in the style of Fast and the Furious, so your scene/game can be complete with that classic aggressive turbo-charged muscle sound to signal to the competition that you mean business.

    For the rest of the session, we captured some burnouts, some close-miked details of the tire on dirt roads, the classic passbys at various speeds, as well as the typical foley and actions associated with vehicles: doors, windshield wipers, buttons, etc. The microphones used: Clippy EM272M and Primo EM258 capsules from Micbooster for the car interior, a pair of Tascam TM-78 condenser mics in the engine bay, a pair of ND468 dynamic mics on the exhaust, and the Rode NTG5 shotgun mic.

    The content is offered in 96 kHz 24 bit for the engine recordings and 192 kHz 24 bit for the actions performed inside the vehicle. Polywavs are naturally provided for the multichannel mic arrays. This library is fully UCS compatible and Soundminer-friendly with richly embedded metadata. It contains 25 WAV files in total with a runtime of close to 28 mins of audio.

    Thank you for listening. I sincerely hope you enjoy my work and have lots of fun making new creations for the world to hear! Also be sure to post or send me what you’re working on with the assets. Attribution is appreciated, but not required.

  • Drones & Mood Sound Effects Electromagnetic Drones Play Track 171+ sounds included, 108 mins total $49

    Electromagnetic Drones is a collection of 171 recordings that capture the invisible electromagnetic landscape produced by electronic devices. Using the Soma Ether, a specialized wide-band receiver, we captured hums, pulses, and static produced by phones, microwaves, fridges, TVs, computers, Wi-Fi routers, and more. Unlike traditional radios that filter out interference, Ether acts as an “anti-radio,” capturing a broad spectrum of electromagnetic activity from hertz to gigahertz, revealing the sonic textures generated by electronic equipment.

    The library features both raw recordings directly from the Soma Ether device, as well as designed sounds, giving you a versatile range of textures to work with. These recordings were transformed into deep, evolving drones, ranging from gritty industrial hums and eerie, synth-like tones to rhythmic machine pulses and dissonant, unsettling tones.

    Captured at 192kHz, these sounds maintain exceptional clarity, allowing for extreme pitch manipulation and creative sound processing. With its dark, atmospheric qualities, Electromagnetic Drones is well-suited for horror, suspense, drama, sci-fi, and experimental sound design in film, television, and video games. Whether you need haunting ambiences, dystopian textures, or immersive low-frequency drones, this collection provides a rich sonic palette drawn from sounds of the electromagnetic world.

  • Explosion Sound Effects Massive Fireworks Play Track 815 sounds included, 350 mins total $29.99

    Massive Fireworks – 815 files of Commercial Fireworks sound effects, at varying distances and intensities. From small pops and sparkles in the distance to screeches and bombastic mortar fire front and center. Massive Fireworks comes in at over 5 hours and 50 minutes of short and long displays of fireworks for every occasion. Recorded during several New Years and Holiday Celebrations. Massive Fireworks’ filenames are in the Universal Category System format with additional Metadata baked-in.

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  • Forged in Fury Vol. 1: Modular Sounds for Epic Combat

    Break down, customize, and master every detail of your combat effects with Forged in Fury Vol. 1, a collection of 394 brutal sounds in 192kHz/24. Includes katana, heavy axe, metal claws, and layer-by-layer edited vocals for total control.

    🔪 Katana (193 sounds):
    Double whooshes, precise slashes, impacts, blood splatters.
    Mix layers of edge and secondary effects (e.g. combine a quick whoosh with a feminine scream).

    🪓 Heavy Axe (96 sounds):
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    Combine the roar of metal with the sounds of breaking bones.

    🔗 Metal Claws (37 sounds):
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    Ideal for fast movements and surprise attacks.

    🗣️ Male & Female Voices (68 Sounds):
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    More about the pack
    – Intuitive file naming
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    – Totally mono compatibility
    – All sounds have several variations.
    – Use your imagination and feel free to use any sound for a other than the one described, remember that the world of sound is totally subjective.

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  • Explosion Sound Effects Mini Fireworks Play Track 40 sounds included, 24 mins total $6.99

    Mini Fireworks – 40 files of Commercial Fireworks sound effects, at varying distances and intensities. From small pops and sparkles in the distance to screeches and bombastic mortar fire front and center. Mini Fireworks comes in at over 24 minutes of short and long displays of fireworks for every occasion. Recorded during several New Years and Holiday Celebrations. Mini Fireworks’ filenames are in the Universal Category System format with additional Metadata baked-in.

    Looking for a Massive amount of Fireworks sound effects? We offer ‘Massive’ sound effect libraries as companions for all of our ‘Mini’ sound effect libraries. All recordings are unique to each library with no overlap. Go Mini today, and upgrade to the corresponding Massive library later, when you need more of that particular sound effect.

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