Is... is that really a LEICA you have?!?!?!

[ocean7]

Last summer I was visiting my homeland - Belgium that is - and while I was walking the city where my parents live I noticed a group of workers who were obviously on strike, a cultural thing there. They were shouting, holding unions flags, etc. A group of PJ's came to photograph them and I also though it was the time to pull my M6. Of course all the PJ's had big DSLR's with big white guns attached. I shot a few frames and then I realised one of the other photographers was staring at my Leica, as if he was asking himself "what the heck does this dumb a** with such an oldie"? He obviously knew what an M6 was cause he was a professionnal press photographer, and of a certain age. I smiled at him looking at his heavy gear, and he smiled back at me with a touch of nostalgia in the eyes 🙂

 

[srichmond]

Hm.
Your ego hears: "You are a fine man with exceptional taste and I am in awe of you"

His words translated: "You have money, if I suck up to you, you may spend some of it in my shop"

LOL! So true... This made me laugh.

 

[Hacker]

Older folks who see me with my Leica, will give me the secret nod of approval, that kind of silent communication where words alone can fail.

For the younger set, I get the feeling that I'm being looked down upon, that is, I really don't know much as I'm not carrying one of those huge DSLRs.

 

[Florian1234]

For the younger set, I get the feeling that I'm being looked down upon, that is, I really don't know much as I'm not carrying one of those huge DSLRs.

That's exactly the thing I face with a friend of mine who shots Nikon D50 and most of the time makro to get "nifty" flower photos. 🙄😀

 

[bcostin]

There's a very similar thread today on APUG about Rolleiflexes. 🙂

Oddly enough I've never had anyone comment on my M3. Maybe the leather half-case disguises the Leica-ness. But last month I was in a local music store when the owner, in his 50's, asked if the camera on my wrist was a Contax. Alas, no, it was a Yashica Lynx 5000.

 

[literiter]

A beautiful old steam train does tours near where I was on vacation. It was stopped at the train station for a while when I spotted it. There weren't too many people around it so it seemed a good photo op. I had two cameras with me, my F3 and my grand old Super Ikonta C (6x9). It seemed to me the Ikonta was more suited to the era, as well; big black train..big black camera.

I took the Ikonta and found a good spot for the picture and managed a few shots. An elderly gentleman approached me and motioned to my camera. He knew exactly what it was. He said it was good that I was taking a picture of a old train with a old camera. It was "appropriate' he said.

 

[Doug]

Two camera-store incidents come to mind... One, must have been the mid-1980's when my Minolta CLE was fairly new, and I walked into a camera shop in the downtown mall in Bellevue WA. The clerk recognized the camera, gushed all over it, asked questions about how I liked it etc. I had to change the subject to whatever it was I was shopping for.

Second at the mall in north Seattle where I had brought in my Bronica RF645 because I was looking for just the right bag for the kit, and there again the clerk was enthusiastic about how nifty and unusual it was to see one. Nice to have store clerks who know and like neat film cameras!

I'd experienced this gushiness before, though, in the few years after 1970 when I bought a new Honda 750 Four. Only 4-cyl motorcycle on the market then, and about the fastest thing on 2 wheels. When I stopped for gas it wasn't unusual for the station clerk and/or another customer to come over to drool on it. Got a bit annoying after a while answering 'how fast have you had it up to?' Kind of a relief when the faster Kawasaki 903 came out...

 

[Ronald_H]

He didn't know that I also have a Canon DSRL, and that the digital look, process and result have led me to use film again.

It's that I shoot Nikons myself, but otherwise exactly the same reason. And I just bought a Leica, a 1966 M2. No comments yet.

 

[pevelg]

I've owned mine (M6TTL) for maybe a month or so, used even less as I was acquiring lenses. I went to a house warming part and a young gentleman (18?) asks me in disbelief: Is that a Leica?!?!?!
Me: Yup.
Him: Wow, that is like the greatest camera ever, the best quality.
Me: Yup.
Him: Ya, I saw one in a movie. There was this girl holding a camera, and she said "this is a Leica" (with a ? accent).
Me: Hmmm.
I walk away and he continues to look in admiration. 🙂

 

[Gary B]

I went to an eye clinic to help a friend out and laid my chrome M8 on the counter. The lady behind the desk commented the that it looked like a well cared for old camera. One of the eye technician that was close by said to her, “Yea, it’s about 6 months old”. Some people out ther know more than you think. This was in March of 2007. He also wanted to fondle my camera. I let him.

 

[mhv]

Once I entered a bookstore with my Kiev 4a on my shoulder, perused some books, and was about to leave when the store owner, sitting at the cash at the entrance told me: "Hey Contax guy, I think you scared the Leica guy that was here because he just left when you arrived!"

Not only could he spot different cameras, but he knew about brand wars... Of course, I had to mention that I had a Kiev, but a Kiev is a kind of Contax after all...