Nice camera!

[david.elliott]

Agreed Roger.

I mentioned it in another thread recently, but I think nobody is interested in my rolleiflex because they assume I am a surveyor. There is always a lot of construction going on in this area. I almost always use my rollei on a tripod, so it does rather look like surveyor's tools. 😛

 

[John Lawrence]

I sometimes get comments about my Leicas, but usually in places and at times when I'd least expect them. Once I was getting a cup of tea at an agricultural show, Leica in hand, when the lady pouring the tea started chatting about the camera. Another time I was photographing the London to Brighton veteran car run, and for a hoot thought I'd take a few shots with my Leica III. I'd taken about two pictures when one of the cars stopped, a chap got out and said, "is that an old Leica?" and thus a conversation started. I learnt from him that many veteran car enthusiasts were also interested in old cameras, old watches etc.

Of course studios are another place where comments about gear abound. I've lost count of the times I've taken a Leica out in the studio and heard, "borrow your Grandad's camera have you?" or "I'll go and get the flash powder"!

John

 

[MartinP]

I almost always use my rollei on a tripod, so it does rather look like surveyor's tools.

Bizarrely I had exactly the same comment about a Mamiya C3 in town here. I wonder if there is a mystery source of pictures of theodolites that people have seen somewhere - maybe an adventure film about surveyors ?

About the only other time anyone ever commented, I had my Zorki-1 mistaken for a barnack Leica when I was in Brussels using it as my weekend happy-snaps camera.

Both occasions were not really related to a good comprehension of specifically what older film cameras are, so there wasn't really any cross-media artistic curiosity going on, and if anyone said I was being arty I'd be the one looking astonished.

 

[gdmcclintock]

I like to sit at Times Square after work and photograph the wildlife. I usually shoot with a Leica M6 or M8. Occasionally I use a Fuji GW690III or a Voigtlander Bessa III. If someone asks me about the camera I am using, it's usually the Voigtlander.

 

[david.elliott]

Bizarrely I had exactly the same comment about a Mamiya C3 in town here. I wonder if there is a mystery source of pictures of theodolites that people have seen somewhere - maybe an adventure film about surveyors ?

That is pretty funny. If you find the adventure film, let me know!

 

[Sonnar Brian]

Also last week on vacation, using the pool in the evening, a man asked about my Olympus EP2 with the Nikkor 5cm F1.4 on it. Asked how I could be using a rangefinder lens on a camera with an electronic viewfinder.

He had an M8, "Nice Camera" I said.

 

[Doug]

While on vacation with my Fuji GS645S another tourist stared hard at it, perhaps trying to figure what it was. It is rather odd looking with that "'roo bar" on the front. He didn't initiate a conversation; perhaps I should have!

I've had a several comments mistaking my M8 for a film camera, showing interest in this older looking rig. Sometimes it's easier to just let the film assumption stand...

 

[kshapero]

Any thing using film gets stares.

 

[rjbuzzclick]

I rarely get any comments, but then again, I'm usually in less populated areas. I did get a "That's an old one!" from a passing couple while out with my Speed Graphic a few weeks ago.

 

[doolittle]

The shutter noise from my FM2n usually gets funny looks, especially from people using a digital camera at that moment.

 

[Roger Hicks]

That is pretty funny. If you find the adventure film, let me know!

Well, SOMEONE has to survey the foundations when you're building a new temple to Bel-Shamharoth.

Or maybe not. Look at the way they always fall down in the last scene...

But maybe an olive-drab tripod and an orange TLR is the way to get ignored. Except, perhaps, by the local Residents' Committees and NIMBYs. The idea of 'unobtrusiveness through conspicuity' is one I've heard before: wear a high-visibility vest and everyone assumes you're there on official business.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Doug]

...But maybe an olive-drab tripod and an orange TLR is the way to get ignored. Except, perhaps, by the local Residents' Committees and NIMBYs. The idea of 'unobtrusiveness through conspicuity' is one I've heard before: wear a high-visibility vest and everyone assumes you're there on official business.

How about a green Leica on a yellow tripod? 🙂

(FWIW, Roger, downtown Valletta)

 

[vincentbenoit]

The Rolleiflex gets plenty of stares in some parts of the city where I live. When using a Leica it's the accessory viewfinder that seems to be the real attention-grabber. That, or a yellow or red filter on the lens. Or taking a reading with an incident light meter...
Vincent

 

[sleepyhead]

I've been on vacation in the Stockholm archipelago for the past couple of weeks with my Hasselblad.
Several older Swedish gentlemen have come up to me and said things like "now that's a fine old Hasselblad", but younger people have had no interest or are not impressed.
But my kids love it when I pop the waist level finder open and let them look through it!

 

[Vince Lupo]

Contaflex TLR without question, particularly with the 85/2 Sonnar on it. But, while on the New York subway a few weeks ago, I had someone inquire about my Olympus E-P2 hanging around my neck.

 

[Keith]

I haven't had a chance to go out in public with my 67 Pentax yet but I would have to supect the odd stunned look at the size of the thing when I do!

 

[Roberto V.]

My chick magnet is definitely my Contaflex SLR, girls always ask about it. But the camera which gets the most comments from people is my old Kodak 3A (which is now lensless, it donated its lens to a 6x17 I'm building).

 

[Doug]

Keith, I don't recall getting any comments when out and about with the 67II. Maybe I missed the stunned looks... 🙂

 

[SolaresLarrave]

My Leicas used to get some people's attention, but it's never been like the reactions I get with my Nikon S2. In the few weeks I've owned my S2 I've gotten more comments about it than all the time I've carried Leicas around.

Oddly enough, my Nikon D700 has elicited the exact same comment some three times, from someone in Chicago: "What a beautiful camera!"

This is the body, battery pack and the honking 24-70 f2.8 zoom...

BTW, there seems to be a lot of women getting interested in photography. 98 percent of the people who made comments about my S2 were young ladies, telling me they were taking a film photography class in college. Sounds like an archeology technique... 😕 Oh, well...

 

[Keith]

Keith, I don't recall getting any comments when out and about with the 67II. Maybe I missed the stunned looks... 🙂

I think the perception of the Pentax would have a lot to do with the physical dimensions of the person using it. In the hands of a big person it would probably look fairly normal I suspect.

Karen Nakumura of 'photoethnography' has a photog friend who uses one in the streets apparently ... at five feet tall and weighing less than one hundred pounds she would make that camera look huge I'd imagine!