HU: RFs and film SLRs spotted in Manhattan!

[ch1]

I just got back from lunch. As I sat down at a table with a friend of mine I saw a fellow at another table just packing up his camera - the shoe-mounted VF was a dead give away. I went over and asked and sure enough - he was shooting a Bessa R right here in midtown Manhattan - land of the digi-tourists!

Not only that, walking around after lunch I spotted a young woman with what appeared to be a Nikon N-65 and then, a fellow sporting a Nikon FM2!

All of this blatant film shooting going on. I tell you, it's getting out of hand! 😀

 

[oftheherd]

Just one more reason not to go to Manhatten!!??

🙂 🙂

 

[Benjamin Marks]

Now, now. Don't beat up on Manhattan . . . even those of us currently living in Vermont can get a little defensive.

 

[Jabash]

I'd say in the past 6 months I have seen at least three people carry RF. And that is just walking from train stations. One day I was on the train (see my gallery photo N Train) and the guy across from me pulls out a Bessa. I eventually sit down next to him and pull out my Konica Hexar AF. I almost missed my stop b/c because we were both geeking out with the cameras. I told him about this site and always wondered what the other passengers were thinking. 😕

 

[einolu]

I was excited when I saw a M6 TTL and what could have been a Summilux on Newbury Street in Boston the other day. Sadly my Bessa R was sitting at home waiting for a 35mm Skopar.

🙂

 

[Wayne R. Scott]

I went to lunch today and I saw 3 people.

Wayne

 

[oftheherd]

Now, now. Don't beat up on Manhattan . . . even those of us currently living in Vermont can get a little defensive.

Awww. I put in two smiles because no big teeth smilies showed up in the smiles window. No offense was meant.

 

[f/stopblues]

The only RF I've ever seen around these parts was sitting on a camera store shelf, except for one other time, but he was across the street and I couldn't really tell. The M3 that was sitting on the shelf at Crick when I was deciding about my R2A is still sitting there, and that was months and months ago. It's overpriced anyway.. I asked a guy how long it had been there and he said "oh, a few days". My rear end! Come to think of it, I don't even see that many people with cameras at all unless they're snapshooting the wife in front of a Plaza fountain or something.

 

[broadie]

manhattanite here, and I use an RF pretty much everyday! Every so often I see a dude pull out his M6 or his hex. We'll give each other a nod of understanding, and continue on our way.

 

[MikeyGaGa]

Thanks,bro:

For giving this AARP card-carrying old fart a ray of hope.

Mikey GaGa

 

[MelanieC]

The other day I had dinner at a sushi place in my neighborhood. There was a girl there who looked college age or maybe a bit younger and she had a rangefinder of some sort hanging around her neck -- looked like something small with a fixed lens.

 

[Magnus]

Time: 11:00 sharp
Location: Munich, Marienplatz "Glockenspiel"

appr. 3500 tourists taking pictures of the "Glockenspiel" all holding their cameras appr- 30cm from their heads, and all at the same time ... and none of them are Leica "0"

I roam the streets of munich, both center as outskirts and meet and see lots and lots of photogrpahers... all of them digital.

The only analog photographer I have ever spontaniously met in Munich was a guy at the Octoberfest last year using a Nikon FM3a

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

The only analog photographer I have ever spontaniously met in Munich was a guy at the Octoberfest last year using a Nikon FM3a

The only analog photographers I've seen in "the wilderness" outside of any immediate circle of friends were: a) one toting a Nikon FM-something at the Louvre two years ago. I had to wait for over half an hour for him to get done, though, his fluorescent bright red baseball cap was a major distraction; b) one with a Leica M7 and 35 Summicron, at a recital performance, and I think she was a little confused by my Canon 50 f/1.2 (perhaps she thought it was a Noctilux?)

 

[broadie]

Really? I see analog photographers a lot in NYC. Oldish men with nice Nikon SLR gear, or youngish artistic-looking females with old manual minoltas or that sort of thing. RFers are fewer and further between, but I do see some Leica wielders every grey day, less often hexars, but pretty much never any other breeds. I say this but I do stress that these are obviously the rediculously small minority compared to digi photographers...I guess you just acquire an eye out for them.

 

[ywenz]

NYC is like the photo capital or the world. If you're going to see RFs and film SLRs, more often you'll see it in NYC than anywhere else.

 

[ch1]

NYC is like the photo capital or the world. If you're going to see RFs and film SLRs, more often you'll see it in NYC than anywhere else.

Well yes, but you'll also see tons upon tons of digi-toting tourists!

And, as with cell phones, the digi P&S's seem to reduce people's etiquette and common sense.

The other evening my wife and I attended a concert at Carnegie Hall. In the past I would never see someone "break the rules" and use a flash on a camera in the house. Now, with the digis, they are flashing all over the place. So far limited to before the performance and at intermission - but the trend is disturbingly clear. Indeed, a few weeks earlier at a Jazz @ Lincoln Center concert someone did start shooting during the performance!

Oh well, it was nice to see some film gear today - I like to think that such users are more "serious" with their shooting.

 

[ywenz]

You see all those NYC based photo blogs? Many of them use film. You can't assume that every person with a camera in NYC is a tourist.

In fact, when I was walking around with my M6 in NYC, some guy gave me compliments to my camera and directions to the Leica museum.

 

[bmattock]

Some of us are from podunk. We come to NYC just to hassle the police.

 

[ywenz]

Why hassle the police? You folks in Podunk have it good in that no terrorist is gonna attack your main street billiards.

 

[bmattock]

Why hassle the police? You folks in Podunk have it good in that no terrorist is gonna attack your main street billiards.

We have no billiards.

"Folks, we got trouble. Right here in River City. With a capital T, which rhymes with P, and that stands for Pool."

We had to stamp it out. Thank goodness, decency prevailed.

Seriously, in this town of 40,000, we have 142 churches. No bars.

Of COURSE I have to go to NYC and pick on police officers. There's nothing else for it.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks