Nice camera!

Roger Hicks said:
... People who care enough to go to the biggest gathering of fine art photographers in the world, never mind the hassle of organizing an exhbition, probably qualify as 'real' photographers.
R.
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I would not attribute their presence at Arles to being "real" necessarily. I think they qualify as people who choose to go to Arles, and have the resources and opportunity to do so. In my experience, they range from utterly "real," genuine, generous and sincere to opportunistic, pretentious and phony. Just like at every other photo festival.
 
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I wish I got that response! With my tendency to stare at people's (D)SLR's, it's too bad the attention is never reciprocated...

I would love to talk- in person- about Yashicas and Leicas and film.

Someday.
 
Hassy's are pussy cats compared to the big Pentax ... I wonder if there is actually a camera with a louder shutter than the 67? :eek:
 
When out with my Hasselblad, people who don't know me tell me it's a nice and big camera, and when I use my XA, people who know me tell me don't you like good cameras anymore? :)

Cheers,

Juan
 
Keith said:
Hassy's are pussy cats compared to the big Pentax ... I wonder if there is actually a camera with a louder shutter than the 67? :eek:
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I'll cite the same Fuji GS645S I mentioned earlier, as it makes a loud CLACK upon releasing the shutter. It's actually the shot counter indexing, louder than the tinny-sounding GW670III shot counter... On an undeveloped stretch of sandy beach in Hawaii I walked up near a person sunbathing/reading and included them in a "beachscape" photo with the surf in the background. When I released the shutter she visibly jumped, startled... It's so noisy it might rival the big P67.
 
I don't get many comments, but a few recent instances when out with the MP:-

Chelsea Flower Show - a pro came over to ask if I was using a M2 (i's black paint, so I wish) - he refused to believe that the MP was back in production. I had to show him the serial no.

Hampton Court Palace flower show - exchanged nods with a M7 user, we were both being dragged along by wives, so no chance to stop & talk. Later the same day, I saw a guy with a huge Nikon DSLR kit around his neck - he looked at my MP longingly and then scowled at his gear, almost like he hated it - very odd.

Trafalgar Square - completely ignored by everybody, except a Japanese tourist with a Nikon FM2, all he said was "very nice" before running off to catch up with his group

National Gallery - the two young guys at the left luggage asked me if it was a "real film" Leica. One had his own darkroom and aspired to owning any Leica, the other was interested in any film camera.

Makes a big change to the usual 2 weeks in somewhere hot without even seeing another film camera. I must have seen thousands of cameras in photogenic places in Mexico, and Egypt in the last couple of years - not one of them was a film camera, and nobody seemed to even notice mine.
 
Pablito said:
I would not attribute their presence at Arles to being "real" necessarily. I think they qualify as people who choose to go to Arles, and have the resources and opportunity to do so. In my experience, they range from utterly "real," genuine, generous and sincere to opportunistic, pretentious and phony. Just like at every other photo festival.
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Well, true enough. But equally, they ain't there for an equipment fair. And getting an exhibition together at Arles shows that you're pretty serious about taking pictures. It may also be that the pretentious opportunistic phonies are the least likely to be interested in equipment, because they 'know' that 'real' Fine Art photographers 'don't care about equipment'.

Critics and theoreticians such as Barthes and Sontag know nothing about photographic equipment and therefore cannot care about it. But every artist I've ever met, in every medium, wants to use the best tool for the job. Even writers want good WP programs, computers, keyboards (believe me!) Or in the days of typewriters, good ones (I used a Remington Noiseless). Or, if they're that way inclined, their favourite pen or pencil. And who, once they have heard of them, can forget Paddy Campbell's corduroy 'writing trousers'?

Because you can make art using anything -- household emulsion, a penny whistle, Picasso's famous bull made from a bicycle saddle and horns -- and because some artists choose tools that are not, at first sight, 'first class' (Holgas, for example) an awful lot of people assume that it doesn't matter what you use. But as I say, to every artist I've ever met, it matters what they, personally use. And most have considerable curiosity about others' techniques and even tools. Curiosity is part of what makes them artists.

What I found particularly interesting about reactions at Arles to the M9 is that a camera that is often dismissed as suitable only for snobs, and those with more money than sense, evoked such interest from people who clearly did care about creating images rather than playing with equipment. And as the rest of ths thread has illustrated, 'old cameras' that 'no-one cares about' do, in fact, engage the interest of all kinds of people. For that matter, John's story about the fellow at Hampton Court Palace flower show with the big camera is a fascinating observation on the relationship between photographers and their cameras.

This isn't a thread about "I've got a..." because, God knows, we have enough of those on RFF. Rather, it's a thread about "How other people react to a ..." And I don't think I'm alone in finding it interesting.

Cheers,

R.
 
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My camera mostly draw comments when I am using either a Barnack, or else my Rolleiflex. Not quite so much with Leica M.
 
When in Arles a gentleman, older than me, stop me and looking at my m7 said it was a real camera. After thanking him I explained that I was shooting Kodchrome and he ask me, very surprised ? "64 ? " We spoke a little about the disappearing of this film, the increasing difficulties to have e-6 developped.
robert
 
I've noticed in the US as well that the Hasselblad seems to draw comments from older men. It is not a camera to carry if you want to avoid attention.

The camera I shoot with that seems to attract attention and questions from people of all ages is my Graflex Super Graphic. I've yet to really take my Horseman View Camera out in public, but I imagine the reaction would be the same.

Oddly enough my wife's Yashica 124G TLR hasn't attracted as much attention as I would have expected.

I have also been pleasantly surprised how little attention my Leica M6 draws. I was actually concerned about this prior to buying it, but so far I've only received one comment, and that was when I was changing the film.
 
Nice Camera

Nice Camera

I work in a school, and comments abound. The staff comments are always banal - the Nikon D-cameras get the standard big lens innuendo while the Leicas are ignored. The pupils, on the other hand, are fascinated by the Leicas though the responses are from both ends of the spectrum. Some reckon the wind-on lever is desperately sad; most think it is really cool. Few have seen anybody focus a lens by hand - how fast yesterday becomes prehistory!

Quite a few of the pupils don't understand why I hold the camera to my face. And when I've taken some pictures, they are puzzled to see that the film cameras have no screen.

Whatever their reactions, they come away looking pleased to have made some unexpected discoveries. Some even listened long enough to learn that pure megapixels are not the be all and end all; others asked how many megapixels a roll of film was.

Cool camera, sad camera - someone here must've indoctrinated them against the 'nice' word!

Cheers,
Tom
 
At work last friday I was using my Zeiss Ikon ... the nineteen year old who works there was fascinated by the thing. He had no comprehension at all of how a film camera works and commented about the lever on top that makes the number in the little window change ... "What does that do?"

:p
 
Definitely something about Hasselblads that attracts comments - normally with direct 'is that a Hasselblad'.

I wonder if it's genericized or specific recognition - anyone with a Bronica or Mamiya get asked if it's a Hasselblad ?
 
I used to get most comments with my Moskva - probably because of the length of time it took to set up a shot, and its distinctive looks - but sadly it's still in dock at the mo. Come winter... I hope!

Unless I spot someone else with an out-of-the-ordinary camera, the ones that get most comment are the Box Brownies. I've got the red one loaded at the moment, with a yellow filter rubber banded across the front of it, which I suspect will draw a few looks when I get it out, though how many will twig it's actually a camera may be a different matter.

Favourite moment, though, was showing someone who regularly ribbed me about how I should go digital my 1911 Kodak Folding Pocket Brownie, and it's photos. His jaw dropped, and he just said "Wow!"

Adrian
 
I am very happy that it is exceedingly rare for anyone to comment upon my cameras. I take it to mean that I am unobtrusive, or perhaps boring-looking enough not to bother with. (Also, my M bodies are 100% blacked out so that they appear to be generics.)
 
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