How do you refer to your camera?

How do you refer to your camera?

  • 'He'

    Votes: 4 4.5%

  • 'She'

    Votes: 24 27.3%

  • It's a piece of kit you strange person and as such it's an 'it'

    Votes: 60 68.2%
  • Total voters
    88
I don't know why but when I read a post with someone talking about their camera and throughout the entire post the camera is referred to as she ... I cringe a little! :p
 
italy74 said:
yes I see the "camera obscura", used with first pinhole methods. However here we are adopting the western (latin, to be precise) conception of the whole thing. French have for example a male translation "appareil de photo" as I guess Germans ("DER Fotoapparat",male, but they have also "die Kamera") and other languages might refer with a different "sex" to it.
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I think the real term is "camera oscura" without a "b". Am I wrong?
 
I call mine Snookums.

Edit: ... and then there are a few that I call by names that I probably shouldn't post here.
 
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Camera obscura
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about a photographic device. For other uses, see Camera obscura (disambiguation).


The camera obscura (Latin veiled chamber) is an optical device used, for example, in drawing or for entertainment. It is one of the inventions leading to photography. The principle can be demonstrated with a box with a hole in one side (the box may be room-sized, or hangar sized). Light from a scene passes through the hole and strikes a surface where it is reproduced, in color, and upside-down. The image's perspective is accurate. The image can be projected onto paper, which when traced can produce a highly accurate representation.
 
Size matters

Size matters

Mine are referred to by size (but all gender neutral):
"The big camera" is the 4x5
"The medium camera" is the Mamiya 6
"The little Bessa" is the R4
 
I call my Leica "Harvey Milk", and I call the lens "D'Artagnan". I have two larger cameras that I call "Lord Bendover", and "Ponce de Leon".

Unchristened bits of photo apparatus are all temporarily named "Akbar Del Piombo" until I hold a formal naming ceremony.

I spend a great deal of time deciding on appropriate names. I once had a camera named "Nancy", but it was unspeakably rude and was demolished in a fit of pique.
 
Ahmed Poltroon said:
I call my Leica "Harvey Milk", and I call the lens "D'Artagnan". I have two larger cameras that I call "Lord Bendover", and "Ponce de Leon".

Unchristened bits of photo apparatus are all temporarily named "Akbar Del Piombo" until I hold a formal naming ceremony.

I spend a great deal of time deciding on appropriate names. I once had a camera named "Nancy", but it was unspeakably rude and was demolished in a fit of pique.
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What a coincidence....
 
I asked Leica what it would cost to repair the R5, which was eating batteries and behaving erratically. They have just sent me a quotation totaling £852 and a few pennies.

I now call it the ****ing doorstop...

Regards, David

EDIT: I feel a lot better now. A problem shared is a problem halved. I wonder if they'll take £426...
 
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I am guilty of anthropomorphizing many of my possessions, my car and computers chief among them. My cameras however are always gender neutral. Instead, I refer to them by the model, and possibly a descriptor where I have more than one. For example, the IIIf, or the black F2.
 
David, I had a Leica R4s years ago. Leicafying Minolta SLR's was an experiment that failed. It's been in a landfill for about twenty years now. Good riddance! A door stop would be a constant reminder of the wasted money.
 
Like projectbluebird, I name my vehicles and computers, but my cameras just go by M6, Retina, T3 etc. Perhaps I see the cameras as inert tools while the vehicles and computers seem like sentient beings with minds of their own sometimes.
 
PICHA said:
I think the real term is "camera oscura" without a "b". Am I wrong?
Click to expand...

Ciao
as someone else has already hinted, the latin expression "camera obscura" is related to the very beginning of photography, while the subsequent (italian word) "camera oscura" (and the english equivalent dark room) is related to the place where images (especially b/w, since for colours you need mini labs due to the very narrow range of temperature + 0.1°C which has to be kept steady during works) are currently taken from rolls, developed and printed as most of you do for yourself.
 
I call it "my precioussss...". Just kidding! I don't call it anything. I've never had to refer to it except on this forum.
 
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