How often do you see other RF users around?

[Nikon Bob]

I have seen none locally in a few years discounting going shooting with a fellow RFFer. I was a approached by a couple, while with my wife, in Minnesota because of the IIIf around my neck. We had a nice talk about Leicas.

Bob

 

[schaubild]

Living close to one of the tourist centers in Switzerland I see RF and MF users regularly. Thousands of digis, but also guys that carry Leicas and up to Fuji 680, 617 and even two LF shooting tourists last summer.

When taking images in Arches NP last spring I met some French tourists using Rollei TLR's. Was a very nice chat 🙂

 

[taffer]

I think I spotted once a M4-P or M4-2 user shooting while walking down the Ramblas...

Argh, M4 which makes me think on the M4 deal I missed here...

Oscar <crawls away, crying...>

PS: Now that I think, in the same Ramblas, a Canonet user.

 

[nksyoon]

Also saw a Asian tourist in Berne, Switzerland in October last year with a Contax G and 21/2.8. His wife had an SLR.

 

[lushd]

Going about with a Leica IIIa or a Zorki 1 is a great way to meet new people. When carrying either of these I am often engaged in conversation by curious people. They are always very nice and friendly. The M6 (black) attracts no attention at all from anyone.

 

[wilt]

Met a tourist this summer on the streets of my hometown, Lund in southern Sweden, carrying a Plaubel Makina. Couldn't resist commenting on his camera, which led to an interesting chat with this nice gentleman from Germany.

 

[iñaki]

Hey, Inaki

I spent some wonderful time up in the Basque country, took some wonderful pics too. Where do you live, near San Seb?

100 km. aprox. to San Sebastian, in Santurtzi, near the city of Bilbao. San Sebastian is a beautiful an elegant city with wonderful gastronomy.

You could post some photos in your gallery 😉

 

[James Burton]

Also saw a Asian tourist in Berne, Switzerland in October last year with a Contax G and 21/2.8. His wife had an SLR.

I saw a guy with a Mamiya 645, waving it around like a P&S once at Lunar New Year in Chinatown here. Looked right heavy to me 🙂

James

 

[dostacos]

yesterday my youngest son and I when to the Los Angeles Zoo. I took my BessaR and a S1a pentax with a 70-210 zoom, Jacob had his Pentax spotmatic also with a Vivitar 70-210 zoom

We saw a few serious DSLRs lots of little digitals and ONE other film camera, another spotmatic held by a man in his sixties. 🙁

what REALLY got me was the teen girl who said to a friend "Wait, I got to get a picture of that THING" she then held up her CELL PHONE at a Zebra :bang: :bang: :bang: :bang:

 

[DougK]

I don't think I've seen anybody else with an RF while I'm shooting around here (although I know there are a couple of folks on the forum in my area), most folks with cameras are toting some form of digital rig these days. However, every time I'm out with my Bessa or my TLRs, I always draw smiles from the older folks I encounter quickly followed by "Hey, I had a camera like that once...."

 

[rbiemer]

In the last week, I ran into a guy using an Argus C4. He was frankly astonished that I knew to ask if he was shooting the C4 or the C44. And I was a little surprised that he was not much impressed with my Bessa R. I think the Bessa was too new for him.
Thursday I was at my bank waiting in line and the elderly woman in front of me turned and nodded hello when I got in line. And then just stared at me. She finally said, "I'm sorry to stare at you but your camera reminds me of my late husband's cameras. I don't see those any more. Is that german?" We had a brief chat during which she also mentioned "all those boxes of cameras and stuff" her hubby left behind. I was quite proud of my self for not grabbing her and demanding to know what she had done with those boxes 😀 I did say to her that I hoped some one in the family would make good use of all that stuff(I figured that was better than"I'll give you a hundred bucks for all of those boxes"!) and she told me her son was using the cameras. I have to be honest: I was hoping she would say something like"Oh dear, I just don't know what I'm going to do with all those boxes. Would you be interested in them? I reallly need to get them out of my tiny apartment..."
Rob

 

[taffer]

Good story Rob, thanks for sharing, I seriously think you did the most truly honest thing possible.

Do you have her number ?

...

🙄

 

[existrandom]

hello all,

the most often-used photogaphic tools used in the place i live is... alas mobile phones... even in grave themed protest marchs like memorial of June 4th masscare, or the recent anti-WTO thing, the young folks would pull out the mobile phones and take pictures standing in front of the march with a "V" sign

the next often-used tools are pocket size plastic DCs; you see so many of them nowadays in all sort of social gathering and tourism

so if you have something like a film camera, they would think you are a "pro" and friendlier folks would come to ask you, rather curiously, "is that called a single-lens-reflex camera?"

while the journalists are all using Canon/ Nikon DSLR with all these motor and flash and big long zooms; with an M around my neck rather make me stands out; and i took advantage that i am NOT a reporter to coverrs shots they wouldn't have make: i go into the crowd, the vibe - i supposed that would be one of the main idea behind the RF design

people who knows what a RF is, look at me puzzled, because i am not fondling & caressing the camera like they do with their M7 or MP... you can sense that in the way they look at you

going back to the question, last time i saw one using a RF was just 2 days ago, my brother uses an XA ;-)

 

[ricpr]

Funny story..... Last week I was browsing in an antique shop. My wife and 15 yo son come up to me and say "Hey there is a really old man in the next aisle who looks just like you". I'm in my 30's, so they had my attention. Could I look that old?!? Puzzled, I go to the next aisle and there he is.....he is in shorts and a button up shirt with an Argus C44 and light meter around his neck. I had my Canon 7 and old GE light meter and was dressed the same. All we did was stare at each other and 45 minutes later the highlight of my weekend had passed. He was a Korean War vet. I had my Vietman vet father-in-law with me and the three of us just sat and talked while the ladies shopped. If only all shopping trips ended this way. The Canon RF was a good conversation starter. This was the only time I have ever seen a RF in use and was probably the best conversation I have ever had with someone I had just met.....outside of the wife of course.

 

[existrandom]

ricpr,

the story of yours would have a lot of echo... cameras of sophication (or having a look of sophication) is somehow more often than not being identified as a manly hobby, or fetish object of some sort...

my evil is to spread the germ to every friend around me, i hand my camera to my friends and let them handle it and show to them how it operates... and they are amased to see through the optical VF, and then i make them shoot a few pictures.... a few weeks/ months later, they will suddenly come ask, how much would that cost to have a camera like yours... ha! and now they have gr-1s, cannonet 17, hi-matic 7s and XA etc, etc; boys and girls

 

[marknyc]

Here in NYC you see quite a few. I see film cameras probably every day, and RF's quite a bit. Saw a guy with a Leica yesterday in the park actually and have seen several others during the last month around midtown. Of course, living and working here (I work on 42nd street) you literally see tens of thousands of people every day and a disproportionate number of them are tourists and/or photographers, so it raises the odds. As for digitals, I am probably not exagerating to say that I see hundreds people shooting photos every day (about 25% of them aimed up at the Chrysler Building).

-- Mark

 

[dmr]

I think of myself as somebody who's aware of other cameras, but I must admit that when I see somebody else with a SLR, I often don't notice if it's film or digital. The older classic models which I'm familiar with (Nikon F, Pentax SP, et. al) I recognize immediately as film, but such things as the newer Canon models and even the newer Nikon models I don't recognize right off hand as film or digital. I should probably pay more attention.

When I do see a rangefinder or folder (not very often) I assume film.

And ... I usually assume almost anything that looks new and looks like a P&S is digital, although some of them may be film.

 

[Warren T.]

I see RF's now and then in San Francisco. One morning during my Tai Chi class in Golden Gate Park, I noticed a tourist "trying" to be discreet when he was taking pictures of our class with his late model Leica M. Of course, I spotted him and his technique immediately. It made me lose my concentration for a few moments 🙂

--Warren

 

[traveller]

Last September in Granada/Spain during a night visit of the Alhambra. I've been walking around with my D70, glad that my lens had VR, when a man with a small camera bumped into me. We started to talk because I wondered how he could take photos under this light conditions with a P&S. This night I got infected because, having tapas and wine, he showed me the difference between a P&S and his M 3 😀 .

 

[samdj1210]

Being a newbie to RF (1 Month now) I never really saw anyone using them, I guess i wasn't looking hard enough. But yesterday I went to Speakers Corner in London and took my Bessa R out. I saw two M3, one M4 and 3 people came up to me and started chatting about their RF's and lenses which I'm still not that hot up on. I nodded politely and listened to stories about how there Leica's have never let them down and that you are not a true photographer until you have mastered the rangefinder (These guys are passionate about there Leica's). I felt like I had joined some secret elite group.