Agree, until you realize everyone on the street is staring at the geek with the strange camera with two lenses, like binoculars turned sideways. Which doesn't do much for candid shooting. In my experience Rolleis aren't especially slow for street shooting but one drawback is you have to wind on after taking one image, which does slow things down a bit. Focusing can be done by estimation.
Certainly agree, and its interesting as a sign of the zeitgeist of camera technology: when I took up photography in the midst of the dominance cheap point-and-shoots, an old SLR looked out of place, until DSLRs became commonplace. Now with people shooting with phones and mirrorless, the SLR looks like the odd one out again.
Regardless, TLRs have looked like curiosities for the better part of a half-century. Whenever I actually take out my TLR on the streets, I get endless comments (many of which are "is that a Hasselblad?")
In summing up, Rolleiflex shooters are often old-fashioned gentlemen (also many ladies) who dote on finicky and fussy old cameras, Edsels, Rolex Oyster watches, Parker 51 fountain pens and the like. In my day I've had Peugeots, Volvos and even a Morgan Four roadster, I wear a 30 year old TAG 2000, my fave pen is a 1980 Mont Blanc from the years before they grew into hot dog wieners, and I play Toscanini symphonies on a restored 1972 Grundig stereo system. I've owned Leica Ms but I now shoot 'miniature' with a Contax G1 kit. So call me ancient - it suits me just fine.
TMY-2 expired HC110h by John Carter, on Flickr
