Do people recognize your Leica M?

Never with an M camera.


Although recently I was shooting a girl in a Chelsea club stairway with my IIIf and the Imarect finder attached. She said "I feel like I'm being examined by my doctor" but she kept on posing and I kept on snapping.

Aside from that instance people are not concerned about my camera type. They just like having their picture taken. I've never to date encountered an uncomfortable situation taking pictures in public. My guess would be that maybe some of you look or act creepy when taking snapshots resulting in undue dialog.
 
I've never been stopped by anyone, but I did notice one guy recognize my M3. You could tell he was very excited to see it, but never struck up any small talk with me. Now my Hassy is a conversation starter when I'm out and about!
 
Never stopped and asked by anyone. General public in Hong Kong don't recognize(or don't know) what Leica M is. They only know about digital cameras(Nikon, Canon.........etc). Non-photographers think that all people use digital nowadays, while photographers only care if their digital gears are the most updated models. Even though they see the red dot, they will think it is a Leica D-Lux............. something. It seems that it is hard for them to understand/share why someone still use film cameras. Kind of sad.

It only happened once that a middle-age guy saw my silver MP and stopped for 0.5 second looking at it. But he left without saying a word. Then it happened once that I was stopped by a few guys, not because they could recognize it was a M3 I was holding, but because they wanted to stop me shooting in their market place. It was a very rude and unpleasent experience.

Like it or hate it, this is Hong Kong.
 
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I was lugging a Canon P and 35/2,8 and a museum lady in Taiwan said: Is that a Leica? I had to admit it was a Canon. No one else has asked anything about the camera I use, but I see very few rangefinder users, especially of the Leica/Canon type.
 
Never.
My M5 absolutely gets ignored.

Curiously, people freak out over my LC1. They come up & ask if it's a film camera. An Australian gentleman came up to me because he thought it was an M8. Strange.
 
I live in L.A. So far, I've had three people ask me about my camera, but after covering the Leica logo up with a black sticker, I've had no one ask me about my camera other than the occasional "nice old camera" line.

I use to shoot with a DSLR, and people would notice my camera and it really took the fun out of shooting. That's why I love rangefinders. It's discrete, quiet, and off people's radar screen.
 
Most of the time (~ 10 times/year or so), people mistake other rangefinders I carry around (Canonet, GTN, Minister, FED2 etc) for a Leica. Funny, really. That brand name and the glamour(?) connected to it has made a deep impact in generations.

/R
 
Interesting. Brought my 'new' Leica M2 to work the other day. Quite some colleagues are into photography there although my job has nothing to do with it. They were mostly fascinated by it.

The 'uninitiated' mostly commented how heavy it was and I heard quite a few comments along the lines of: 'We used to have one of those at home'. To which I responded: 'I don't think so' 😀 But I asked them to go through granddaddy's attic, just in case 😉

Since I went back to shooting film, I have come to the conclusion that no-one shoots film anymore. Yes, there's people like us, let's call them enthousiasts. But the general public? Only people who haven't got a clue about computers and/or have a good film camera they see no need of replacing (but will when it breaks).
 
If you want attention and don't think you are getting it with your current Leica. Buy an M6 "King of Thailand" and take it for a walk in the dodgy end of town...
 
Every single time in Japan ... in bars, on the street, in shops "Is that a Leica ?" Doesn't matter if it's my M3, M4-P or IIIf. With my Hasselblad or Rolleiflex it is impossible to get away without at least one person asking / commenting...
 
Odd, isn't it? Nobody at work notices or cares - even the guy who does a charity wildlife calendar each year (with a huge DSLR) never passes a comment.

Rarely in the street someone will notice the M6, and when they do it's just "nice camera mate" or similar.

there have been three instances in the last few years where anyone noticed it was a Leica. At the Chelsea Flower Show on members day, a wizened old pro struggling under the weight of 3 DSLRs and huge tripod, stepladder and the bag from hell made the effort to comment about my MP "nice to see a M6 actually being used". When he looked closer, he would not believe it was a MP as he had never seen one. We chatted for a couple of minutes and he stumbled off to the next celeb shot.

In Barcelona, I was shooting a small church festival in a little out of the way square when a guy going the other way in the crowd (with a Nikon f4) noticed the MP - he did a classic cartoon "double-take" and nearly fell over. Unfortunately, he decided not to stop and speak, and we were swept along by the crowd, never to finish the unstarted conversation.

Recently while shooting the street art in Manchester, I had a comment from one of the organisers. He had a Canon DSLR set up on a tripod to record the event and the reactions of passers-by. I produced the M6 from my pocket and he literally took a step back, saying something like "wow, a real camera!". he then proceeded to pump me about was I a pro, where could he see my work and so on - very flattering.

Nobody, but nobody ever notices the Barnacks.

I do notice the gear of other people, but it's rare around here to see another RF (or anything that is not digital), let alone a Leica (unless the RFF crew are in town, of course!
 
Yes, it happens a few times a year.

But the really funny bit is when people recognize me (from books and magazine articles, and I suppose from the website nowadays), and say hesitantly, "Excuse me... are you... um... er... Roger Hicks?"

It's only happened a handful of times -- under a dozen -- but often they say, "Well I thought it looked like you, and then I saw the Leica, and I thought, 'it must be'."

Cheers,

R.
 
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Another thought: We have all seen the pics of Scarlett Johansson with her M6. Maybe it says something about us that we even notice the Leica around her neck 😀

That having said, my friend Laurence started using her father's battered Pentax Spotmatic. It looks dead sexy on her. Here she is figuring out my lensbaby on her Nikon D50 😉

laurence.jpg
 
Once again. Leica is nothing compared to the rolleiflex tlr.
THAT thing makes EVERYBODY stare, and at least 70% comment/ask. I dragged it for three weeks through South Africa...From the aussie tourists in Drakensberg to the bar owner in Kimberley and the park ranger in the Kalahari, all kind of people commented on it.
I bought a set of AA batteries for my macro-only banged digital, at Cape Point, and the girl at the counter (TLR hanging in my neck): "is it for that old camera? i'm not sure if it will work coz it's digital battery"🙄

The M2? naw... Once every twenty occasions when i have it, somebody makes a comment or a longer look, mostly if i know the person.
 
I have had my M Leica for only a few days, the second day I had it I was wandering around the center of town taking pictures and a guy recognized it but he was so busy looking at it from about 4 meters away he didnt notice the person he walked right into. That was funny.
 
actually I had it the other way around the other day. Had my M7 in my hand and this guy saw the Leica dot then asked me, "so which one of the Panasonic camera is it?"

I went all silent .......
 
2REP said:
actually I had it the other way around the other day. Had my M7 in my hand and this guy saw the Leica dot then asked me, "so which one of the Panasonic camera is it?"

I went all silent .......
Click to expand...

I heard a similar question twice now, "Since Leica was bought by Panasonic, are "Leica" cameras still available new ?" ... :bang:
 
Most people notice-but people in Toronto are trying so hard to be cool that very few say anything. A Rolleiflex, however, gets lots of comments.

I hate it when people post really wide images that force me to scroll sideways to read other posts.
 
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