Apparently, even street musicians know Leicas!

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vrgard

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So I'm in Santa Barbara on business. After my afternoon meeting I decide to walk around the farmers market going on in front of the hotel I'm staying in. Carrying my M3 I notice a street musician playing some sort of lute type instrument. I give him that "okay to take a picture?" look and he nods and keeps playing. After I take the shot (was getting dark so no guarantees I got anything - thought I should mention that before someone asks) and start to wander away I hear him call out to me, "hey, what kind of camera is that?" I turn back and step over to him saying, "it's a Leica." His immediate response, "I KNEW it! What is that, an M6?" To which I say, "no, nothing that new. It's an M3 from 1959. The one that started it all." His parting comment as he shakes his head at me, "Bloody hell!" (in a bit of a british accent).

Not sure why I'm sharing this story but I was surprised that he not only claimed to recognize a Leica, he knew enough to ask if it was an M6. This from a guy playing a lute on a sidewalk. Kinda cool, I thought.

-Randy
 
Carrying my MP one day in downtown San Francisco the hot dog vendor where I got my lunch admired my camera and said he had an M6.
 
I am a physicist by profession and sometimes I find people on the street can surprise you. I once had a elderly bus "boy" come up to me in breakfast grill and start talking to me about quantum electrodynamics. It was near Harvard Square, so there must have been an interesting story there. Another time I was having gas put in my Volvo by an attendant in a small town in a remote area of northern Chile -- this was back when Chile was a 3rd world country. The talkative gas jock noticed some computer-printed countour maps inside my car and asked me if they were maps of "Nubes Interstellar" (Interstellar Gas Clouds) - which they were!
 
During my last Saturday street shot in Jerusalem a lady in her 50s selling some food and beverages in the kiosk on the street instantly recognized my M3 commenting on such nice looking camera (perhaps she meant so Classy one in our digi days).
Even she did not identified M3 as a model, she made an educated guess as Leica...
 
Apparently even Leica photographers know lutes.

Apparently even Leica photographers know lutes.

I’m more impressed you knowing it was a lute

:D
 
I often find I can have perfectly good conversations in English with street sweepers in an out of the way Portuguese city, but not at the bank or main post office.

Nobody knows Leica though, although some people have 'advised' me to get a Canon APS etc like theirs because it's the best.
 
It's my beat up hasselblad that attracts the most attention - mainly nostalgic memories from people who remember the quality of results a good 120 neg can produce. It amuses me that their DSLRs are both heavier and larger than the 'blad.
 
ClaremontPhoto said:
I often find I can have perfectly good conversations in English with street sweepers in an out of the way Portuguese city, but not at the bank or main post office.

Nobody knows Leica though, although some people have 'advised' me to get a Canon APS etc like theirs because it's the best.
Click to expand...

Yes! The bartender in Lisbon had way better english than the reception desk (he was from southern Africa) but he couldn't crack that barrier.

Murray , Brisbane
 
David Murphy said:
I am a physicist by profession and sometimes I find people on the street can surprise you. I once had a elderly bus "boy" come up to me in breakfast grill and start talking to me about quantum electrodynamics. It was near Harvard Square, so there must have been an interesting story there. Another time I was having gas put in my Volvo by an attendant in a small town in a remote area of northern Chile -- this was back when Chile was a 3rd world country. The talkative gas jock noticed some computer-printed countour maps inside my car and asked me if they were maps of "Nubes Interstellar" (Interstellar Gas Clouds) - which they were!
Click to expand...


Is it just me, or does anyone else have visions of Atlas Shrugged when reading this post?
 
I got my nikon fm2n and leica m3 recognised.A zorki and canon7 were mistaken for leicas.
I was asked "is this a rollei" about the Autocord.
 
My town (Bisbee, Arizona) is a winter haven for snowbirds (visitors from places around the world where it's cold).

On day last winter I was standing in front of the coffee shop on Main Street with a Kiev 4AM hanging from my neck, when a big guy came by, glanced at the camera, and said in Ukranian, "Where the hell did you get that?" (later translated by his wife). I replied, "From a guy in Canada." She translated. Suddenly he smiled and shook my hand and spoke for about 30 seconds. I turned to his wife, expecting an extensive translation. All she said was, "He likes your camera, he used to have one."

Ted
 
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