Saw my first Sony RX1 Yesterday - A little rant

[olelovold]

It's a bit cynical to assume that a young person with an expensive camera got it from his/her parents. More likely that person worked hard to be able to afford it.

 

[haempe]

It's a bit cynical to assume that a young person with an expensive camera got it from his/her parents. More likely that person worked hard to be able to afford it.

You are one of those "glass is half full"-guys, right?
Respect, cheers!

 

[goamules]

Who cares how she got it? She has it, and is using it. Judge not, lest ye be judged.

 

[splitimageview]

better a camera than a gun...

I had my first gun before my M3. 🙂

 

[David_Manning]

My thirteen year-old shoots my X100 on occasion. I guess I'm just an enabler... 😉

 

[enero]

This thread reminded me of this Petapixel article from last year about rich kids in China using expensive DSLRs 🙂

 

[Dunn]

I saved up for my first DSLR, a canon 450d, when I was 16. Took me a few months and a weekend job.
By 18 I was teaching in a language school in Beijing full-time doing the summer, working 16-hour days for over $2500 a month. I now work 20 hours/week during school and 9-5 during the summer. All of the m lenses I own come this way, as well as my film and bodies.

Edit: I can't drink yet. Just commenting on the general negativity about young people these days, some of us actually work hard for our hobbies 🙂

I agree. Don't be quick to judge. All of my camera gear came from money I earned. Leica and all. I mean, I'm pretty broke right now, but hey, I have good cameras that I love.

 

[daveleo]

When I train in to the city, my favorite pastime is to pick an interesting
looking person and draft out their complete life story. The past,
present and where they are headed.

Most of the time (but not always), I get jealous of the person in my story for
having such an interesting life.

 

[uhoh7]

I gave my 13 yr old a nex-3 used body, and a cv 35/1.4

She shoots the crap out of it. Takes her GFs on photo shoots all the time.

I loaned her some other glass too, but she likes the 35.

 

[hrzlvn]

I saved up for my first DSLR, a canon 450d, when I was 16. Took me a few months and a weekend job.
By 18 I was teaching in a language school in Beijing full-time doing the summer, working 16-hour days for over $2500 a month. I now work 20 hours/week during school and 9-5 during the summer. All of the m lenses I own come this way, as well as my film and bodies.

Edit: I can't drink yet. Just commenting on the general negativity about young people these days, some of us actually work hard for our hobbies 🙂

Same here, I save up for my Leica gears; having a full-time job during my 16 units semesters..Don't judge if you see a 20 year-old teenager hanging a SUMMILUX ASPH with a Leica on his neck..

 

[Rodchenko]

It's a bit cynical to assume that a young person with an expensive camera got it from his/her parents. More likely that person worked hard to be able to afford it.

More likely? Really? Possible, sure, but much less likely. Either way, if they're using a camera for more than just silly stuff, it's OK with me.

 

[ampguy]

well

well

depending where you are in Oaktown, it may not be their bmw ... 😉

I have the same reaction when I see high school kids on their way to school in fairly new BMWs. [I'm going to stop here so as not to start up on one of my rants about wealth distribution around this wacky country of ours.]

 

[olelovold]

More likely? Really? Possible, sure, but much less likely. Either way, if they're using a camera for more than just silly stuff, it's OK with me.

I don't know how many young photographers you are acquainted with, but I know that from the 70 19-24 year olds I go to university with, most of them paid for their own gear. Of course, the whole discussion is a bit pointless - it doesn't really matter what camera you have or who paid for it, it's the work that counts.

 

[EdwardKaraa]

We comfort each other because we cannot afford a RX1.

Hahaha, that is a good answer 🙂

I feel uneasy with this thread, because the purpose looks to me like envy. A young person with an expensive camera, I wouldn't see anything wrong with that. I believe it's one of the western society shortcomings, looking at wealthier people as the enemy, instead of using them as the motivation to working harder to become as wealthy, or just accept the fact that people are not born financially equal. I find Asian people much more gracious about this matter.

TBH, if I saw this girl personally, my first thought would have been, wow, she has really good taste in cameras, or, she must really be serious about her photography to by a FF fixed lens camera, not, wow, how can she afford it!

 

[L Collins]

Bought a brand new M5 in 1977 at the age of 19. Saved up for a year while driving a laundry truck thru the mean neighborhoods of Paterson, NJ. Did this while paying my own rent and going to the New School in NYC, where I paid my own tuition.

Had you seen me walking around NYC with a Leica around ny neck in 1977, you could have made the same assumptions about me.

 

[DougFord]

When I was 18 years old I owned a les Paul deluxe.
If ya would've tried to take it from me I would've slit your throat.
An 18 year old girl with an rx1? I'd give her wide berth. (lol)

 

[Rodchenko]

I don't know how many young photographers you are acquainted with, but I know that from the 70 19-24 year olds I go to university with, most of them paid for their own gear. Of course, the whole discussion is a bit pointless - it doesn't really matter what camera you have or who paid for it, it's the work that counts.

You move in wealthier circles than I.

 

[raphaelaaron]

and then I had a run in with a yuppie college guy online who snarked at me for not being able to afford a Leica Monochrom.

there are goods and bads to every side, i suppose.

 

[bwcolor]

It is nice to see young people using cameras rather than cellphones. I just came back from a short vacation and to my disbelief, I saw many people using their tablets as cameras. I don't get it, but I'm old.

The op is a lucky man in that young girls still notice him and posture just to impress him, or maybe she was just sitting on the subway.

 

[msbarnes]

camera envy over a teenager using an expensive camera? seriously? who cares?