Is that a .... ?

I passed by an older gentleman walking his collie & he stoped to ask if my Bessa R was a Leica. I didn't lie to him, but I told him it was a Voigtlander to sound more dignified I suspose.😱 I get lots of wow's when I carry my Zorki 2c. When I was at the tea party march in Washington this dude with a big DSLR & massive lens saw my Bessa L around my neck & said "that's an oldie" what film are you shooting?
 
happens with my 501CM, often 'wow, that look old! what year was that MADE!'

'ummm, 2003...'

also had a young guy stop his girlfriend from walking in front of my hasselblad while looking through the viewfinder aimlessly he said 'oh quick, stop, that guys shooting a movie' and they walked around the back of me, i just smiled and nodded.

i did meet an old photo enthusiast and school teacher a few days back who marvelled at the hasselblad and was even more excited when I pulled the IIIc out of my coat pocket and gaveee it to him to have a play with 🙂
 
haha funny reading this thread. makes me feel better this morning after not getting much sleep last night.

it's true that we often just have to humour people when they ask about our obscure gear.

i was gallery sitting a show i had on last month and one guy asked what i was shooting. the photos on show were shot with a hasselblad 500c/m and a leica m4-p.

he started telling me how he has an old leica m2 which he hasn't shot since his kids were born - close to 20 years. telling me how he's come close to selling it a few times but just recently has caught the photo bug again. i'm getting quite excited thinking i'm talking to a real character here (wondering what stories/images he might have) then he said, "i guess i should get it serviced. i don't even know if the shutter still works 'cause i don't have the right battery to put in it to test it out. "

i just said, oh that's a shame. good luck with that. i'm sure the service technician will help you out there....
 
nome_alice said:
"i guess i should get it serviced. i don't even know if the shutter still works 'cause i don't have the right battery to put in it to test it out."
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haha, still maybe it's been so long since he's looked at the camera he might have it confused with another he owns? i would have said 'oh, i thought that model didn't take a battery? you may want to take it out and have a closer look.'

i know a few relatively older gents (60-70, my dad especially) who forgets details like that (he's a bike / harley nut and sometimes get models / engine types etc confused in discussion. i've heard the retoric so often though that i have most of those details memorised, ha).
 
I was recently grocery shopping with my boyfriend and had to excuse myself for a moment to use the facilities. I handed my M6 to him for safe-keeping. When I returned he told me someone had walked up to him and related their fond memories of an M3 they once owned and that it was a garage sale find, how they wish they'd never sold it, and how much they missed it and yadee yadaa yadaa. After several minutes of this, the boyfriend finally had a chance to ask the guy, "What's an M3?". The guy pointed to the camera and explained the lineage. When I returned, he'd already left.

I should have written a Craigslist "Missed Connections" ad...
 
Great thread, this. The stories are making me smile. I did have one run-in about a month ago with a fella on the street. He is an older eastern European guy that sells little knick-knacks in a display on the sidewalk around here. I'd passed him many times before but he just never noticed my camera before. I passed and said hello and he burst out, "Oh a Leica! Nice camera!" and gave me a big thumbs up. I was kind of startled at first but returned a warm smile.

I almost approached a guy that was shooting with an M3 here on my street during the Labor Day festival but he was moving pretty quickly and I didn't want to bother him. I did squeeze off a shot of him though. I don't see many Leicas even in NYC.
 
I was on my way from Albania to DC last saturday and had to go through security again in Munich. The security guy asks me "sprechen ze deutsche?" and I say "nein". He asks me in english if he can check my bag and I say "ok". He takes out my M7 and says "Leica"........."sprechen ze deutsche?" Hilarious....I guess he never figured an american would understand quality german engineering other than in automobiles.
 
I get comments about a 1/3 of the time I am out and about with my black M7, but more when I am with my chrome Bessa R (usually, ironically, the comment is, "is that a Leica?"). But the camera for attracting comments is my Yashicamat 124, for which I have actually had a line of people waiting to comment (if two people are a "line") -- I once had four separate people come up to me asking about it in about as many minutes (in Venice, California).
 
I've had a few of these moments myself. Just this afternoon, while photographing with my Olympus OM1, some kid asked me if it was a Leica. I said, no.

He asked again, "A PEN?" And again, I said no before pointing out that it was an OM1.

But how about this: one time I was in the elevator holding my old, and I mean old, Zeiss Ikon Nettar - a folding camera no less. Seeing my camera, the woman standing next to me asked, "Is that a digital?" I just about nearly bursted ou laughing.
 
My best ones:

On my M2: "WOW, man!! that's a....a.... I mean that's a....film camera!!
":bang::bang:

on Leicas in general: "what do you use when you want color pictures?"

and my top one from a parent from the kindergerden of my son, before buying film so I can shoot the tender ones:

"Should I buy a regular film or a digital one?"

that's all folks...
 
Two great ones in one night:

Wedding anniversary I was asked to shoot. Had my Leica M2.

Number 1 : Nattering away as you do to the guests, one of them asks after I said yeah it's an old camera, 50 odd years old, "How do you plug that into the computer then?"

*whistles*

Number Two: Another photographer, Nikon D50 in hand, decent looking lens too. Asks me, "Wow that's an old camera, film of course. What is it? A Zorki?"

🙂

Just as well I don't get offended by these things. I may as well as said "No, but what the hell, sure it is dude! It's a Zorki!" 😀

Vicky
 
I have some friends who own a bar here, and they have events every week, not including the big game day celebrations. I went a few weeks back to this event with the Rollergirls and the Rolling Elvi (Mardi Gras Krewe of Elvis impersonators) and brought my m2 and Summarit. A girl at the bar struck up a conversation with me about my M2, we talk for a while. Anyways, now she keeps calling/texting me every couple of days.

Alas, I already have a girlfriend. Also, since my M2 was with me, I have pictures to document the event.
 
Tell her my phone number
I use an M3 and still single!

Mephiloco said:
I have some friends who own a bar here, and they have events every week, not including the big game day celebrations. I went a few weeks back to this event with the Rollergirls and the Rolling Elvi (Mardi Gras Krewe of Elvis impersonators) and brought my m2 and Summarit. A girl at the bar struck up a conversation with me about my M2, we talk for a while. Anyways, now she keeps calling/texting me every couple of days.

Alas, I already have a girlfriend. Also, since my M2 was with me, I have pictures to document the event.
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The major model railway, aerorplane, car and model soldier shop in Melbourne, harried sales assistant in his late 30s early 40s assisting my 12 year old with some obscure order. "Oh, that's an M2, I used to have one of those." It was indeed the M2. Months and months later when the order never came through we dropped in to chase it up. The junior assistant couldn't find the order in the book, but my original man on seeing us remembered the whole deal to the last detail. And, no, I didn't even have the M2 with me. OK I did have the M6. Moral: when your dad wants to bring along his old camera, let him.
 
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A trip to Glacier NP a couple of weeks ago was the first real "public" outing for my new M6-TTL and I was somewhat apprehensive about how people might react to it, having read about folks taping over the script, blacking out the red dot, and so on. So it was a pleasant surprise that apart from a German guy who said it was "cool" and then remarked that he liked "retro gear" (I guess 1998 is retro now), almost nobody gave it a second glance except in a couple of cases where they did double-takes and asked, "Does that take... film?" in a slightly incredulous tone, then sort of shook their heads and went back to ignoring me (I don't think I look especially eccentric). With the huge DSLRs and lenses that so many park visitors lug around I shouldn't be surprised the little Leica is so inconspicuous! (also it is a joy to carry all day compared to my D300 + 16-85 VR so that is an added bonus)
 
I was out shooting in Amsterdam with the Hasselblad and within one hour of walking around this older guy comes up to me and say "Ah is that a real Hasselblad? I had to ask because often they're fakes"..
Walking around one of the more trendy parts of the city (you know, the fixed gear bicycles and a hipster clothing shops) I also got a lot more stares than usual.
One other time another gray haired man was amazed to see me just walking around with that camera, he said how he always had wanted one since he was young but how terribly expensive they were. When I told him I got my set for about $600 he was shocked.. I wouldn't be surprised if he was hunting around on ebay that same day.

Oddly enough, I've never gotten any questions when I was out with the Leica.. granted, it's a black one with black lens and black dot, so perhaps a chrome camera would get more attention?
 
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