I think the guys at the camera store were making fun of me today

[ChrisN]

Somewhere I read or heard a nasty quip to use in a case like that: "I have this because there's a reason why I am the customer and you are the clerk."

I've spent time on both sides of the counter. There's no excuse for that behaviour from sales staff. The last time I got that treatment, I walked out, went back to work, and phoned the manager of the shop to explain to him exactly how his staff behaved and why I would not shop there again. He aologised, and thanked me for informing him.

The brick & mortor shops complain that the internet is driving them out of business. I think it's compounded by their failure to provide superlative service and build customer loyalty. Let's face it - much of our photography-related purchasing is discretionary.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Actually it's fairly easy to get a 35mm for a Leica cheap:

CV Color-Skopar 35/f2.5 Pancake - $379 new
CV Nokton 35/f1.4 - $579 new

Did you miss those accidentally? Admittedly they're some thirty to fifty percent more than you'd pay for a 35/2 or equivalent from Canon or Nikon, so being a rangefinder user is still an expensive hobby, but it's still less than half of what you quoted.

They're both more than the average American earns in a week. I forgot them, but they're not cheap either. Nikon and Canon make 35mm f2 lenses for their SLR systems that cost about $300 new.

 

[Keith]

Abjective manner. I dig that, even if it is a typo.

LOL ... I just realised what I did there!

 

[rxmd]

They're both more than the average American earns in a week.

Technically that's not true; $379 times 52 weeks is $19,708, firmly at the lower end of the second quintile. (Median annual income for the US is $26,036 averaged across working and non-working household members over the age of 14. The median takes care of balancing the few super-rich out of the equation.)

Whether that means anything is another matter, but you brought it up.

If your point was that buying Leicas and new lenses makes for a comparatively expensive photography experience that not everybody can afford, I think everybody will agree, but the point is kind of banal in the first place.

Zumbido's statement about marginal utility is much more to the point, I think. When I got into photography and rangefinders in particular, my annual income in Germany was well under $10k. In the rangefinder-plus-35mm ballpark you brought up, that meant Zorkis and Jupiter-12s. If I had bought a Leica and a new lens instead, I would not have got what I paid for - definitely not in terms of enjoyment, and most probably not in terms of getting acceptable pictures. So the point is not that Leicas are expensive, but that they are much more expensive than other equipment that gets you acceptable images, too - unless your standards are so high that you don't consider those Zorki-plus-J12 pictures acceptable anymore, and that's exactly where it becomes a luxury.

 

[David Murphy]

You will find many Leica admirers among the general public if you carry your camera around on the streets enough. The guys in the photo store either know Leica is very good, but probably can't afford it, or suffer some other delusion common to the unsophisticated which comforts them.

 

[deirdre]

While walking away I heard one of them say:

Leica. For the photographer that wants to pay a lot for a name.

Then they all laughed.

Whatever one might say about my local camera store, this would not be one of the things you'd hear. When I went in to get a cable release for my M8, they immediately helped me more than they had before.

I know that if I had the money to get an M9, I'd buy it from a place that didn't have the kind of attitude problem your local store displayed.

FWIW, my local store has one of the best publicly viewable Leica camera collections anywhere, so I don't think they'd hire someone with a 'tude about Leica unless they were a Hasselblad snob. 🙂

 

[Chris101]

Don't worry. I make fun of my students. None-the-less, they are all pharmacy and medical students and will be making 3X my salary in a few years.

The fact that they are totally stupid today, will change radically very soon. Or as Forrest Gump didn't say: "Stupid is as Stupid doesn't."

Those camera store guys are at their best ever job. Thirty years from now they will be reminiscing about their time at the store.

Oh wait. Thirty years from now, I'll be dead.

Damn.

ps, love my pix, it's my immortality - see below:

 

[sc_rufctr]

If it really bothers you, you could find out who owns the store and write them a letter describing what happened.
As the owner of that store they have the right to know how their customers are being treated by their employees.

... Once you put something like that in writing the owner will do something about it....

You probably wont get an apology so don't expect one but at least you stuck up for yourself and did something about it. 😀

 

[Neare]

OP, you're the one out using the camera they're not, let them sit behind the counter and talk about photography while you're the one actually doing it. Ignore those who judge, I wonder how many people take Daido seriously when they see him out shooting?

 

[reiki_]

You're like a bunch of children on the first day of school. It's impossible for everyone to like you or your interests , so just suck it up and go shoot film.

 

[Keith]

You're like a bunch of children on the first day of school. It's impossible for everyone to like you or your interests , so just suck it up and go shoot film.

That's harsh! 😛

 

[rxmd]

That's harsh! 😛

Don't worry. In participating in the discussion he's just like the cool kid on the first day at school - all smart and "not everybody will like you anyway, suck it up", but for the next ten years he'll be hanging around on the same schoolyard with all the others, trying to get them to play with him 😛

 

[reiki_]

Dang 🙂 . I didn't sleep right.

 

[braver]

?..or suffer some other delusion common to the unsophisticated which comforts them.

ouch 😛

Seriously, this is why brick and mortar stores go bankrupt. Sometimes it's nice buying stuff in a real store, and the guys at the local camera shop love Leicas: the owner used to shoot weddings with them (he actually went all misty eyed when I bought my m6 😉 ) and the other guy totally respects them even though he can't do his macro flower thing with them. This is why they get to sell extremely expensive and lucrative sets to the 'high rollers' from the embassies, the doctors and the lawyers. On the other this week another chain of electronics stores went kaput in Holland, they didn't offer a price advantage, they didn't offer choice, while they did try to bull**** you into a purchase.

 

[igi]

what's HDR?

Nevermind, you are an enlightened one😉

 

[sc_rufctr]

You're like a bunch of children on the first day of school. It's impossible for everyone to like you or your interests , so just suck it up and go shoot film.

It's not about everyone liking you or what you're into...

It's about the sales people in that camera showing respect for a customer.
When people laugh at me I find that offensive... It's rude and disrespectful.

It hasn't happened often but every time it has I have tried to do something about it.

 

[damien.murphy]

I told a friend that I had picked up a 35mm lens for my leica. He told me I must be spending money hand over foot. I don't think people realize there are decent buys out there on the used market.

Yes, the economics of it really cracks me up sometimes, especially when you see all those enthusiasts walking the streets with lens cannons hanging from dslr's. The odds are that the same people who claim they could never afford a Leica, probably have at least three- four grand invested in photo kit already, and in many cases much more.

By the way, you would wonder if the poster would have had the same experience, had he been someone who was a Hasselblad shooter, which are also not exactly cheap (although more so these days).

Camera stores can be pretty strange places sometimes, and the home of many extremely strange and quirky opinions, when it comes to sales staff. I once walked into a camera store in a prominent location here in Dublin to enquire about a lens, whereupon I was gawked at almost contemptuously, at the mere thought that they would just have the lens in stock, and how incredulous of me to think a non-kit lens would ever be anything but a specialty order item. Needless to say my euros walked out the door faster than me.

 

[nzeeman]

there are too many leica stereotypes and many of them dont have much truth in them-i was using fsu rangefinders my whole life-one day i found really affordable leica body in ugly cosmetic condition but with perfect shutter. i bought it and really it is much easier to shoot than fsu-easy focus,not ripping film,even exposure... and it is not for rich only-i get 250eur monthly here in serbia and i managed to buy one... so those seller just talk crap-btw all those ff canons and nikons arent cheap either...

 

[Sonnar Brian]

what's HDR?

It's HDDR.

High Density Digital Recorder.

I simply do not have this kind of problem. The salesclerks at the Local Ritz, now closed, "looked-up" to Leica and older cameras in general. I gave a couple of Rangefinders, TLR's, SLR's, Polaroids to them- mostly college Kids. Share the excitement. The technician in charge of the 1-hour processing lab at Sam's, set him up with Konica. Going to drop off an 80~200 zoom to him as i pick up my film today. Have not given away any Leica's yet, but they certainly enjoyed seeing them.

 

[dave lackey]

Well, the first thing I would do is walk BACK in the store, ask for the store manager and ask him if it is his/her policy to hire such rude and un-professional people. Then, take the discussion anywhere you want because he is like a fish on the hook at that point but I would not leave until I talked to HIS boss and came out with a sincere apology.

Without this, what else are they saying about you and other customers? Why put up with this crap?🙄 Make them famous, I would.

But that is just me.