Was just buying film, and I found our conversation funny..

[Tom A]

"Hipster dom" depende on age too. I am 70 and being a hipster means that my right hip-joint is painful! Don't now why it is the right one either - as I have been carrying a camera bag on my left shoulder for more than 5 decades! Should have been the left one that got whacked.
As for Leica and comments. A beater black M2 gets a fair bit of attention "Is that an old Leica film camera?" and the inevitable "can you still get film for it?". I have been using a chrome M-Nokton on a black M2 for a while - and that lens gets a lot of comments "Wow, thats a cool looking lens - is it old?" When you tell that it is new they are even more impressed.

 

[furbs]

People have asked me how much my M4 cost, which I think is somewhat strange - I have never asked anyone with such a camera myself. But then again, I'm not in the practice of asking people how much any of their possessions cost. People ask about cost when I'm out with my Rolleiflex, too, but more often they ask where I get film for that old thing 😛

 

[alienmeatsack]

I've only had one experience with my M3 while out shooting. I had it and a Summitar in hand and was snapping photos of a pedestrian bridge by the river. An older man approached me after waiting for me to get the shot, complimented my camera and then told me about his Leicas over the years. I've had similar with my Yashica MAT 124G as well.

I've had the opposite kind of thing with the Nikon gear, I use N90s/F90x bodies since they are cheap and do all the stuff my DSLR Nikons do and I've had lots of comments on my "digital camera" from people who I think mean well and even think they maybe know stuff about Nikons. A few people have even made comments that make it sound like they think it's a digital body and they are knowledgeable enough to know that.

I don't own a Leica digital because the cost is just well outside of my personal budget. I am not a pro, I do not get paid anything for my photography nor do I have any means to do so. I "make do" with my many film and digital cameras and am quite happy. But, I will one day purchase a Leica digital body for the experience and the feel their bodies have. If anyone here would like to buy a lung or perhaps one of my brother's children or trade for M240 or Monochrome, message me.

 

[N.delaRua]

I've had a few encounters. The M is just such a weird shape especially with a grip and vented lens hood.

One was pretty cool in Annapolis, Maryland. I had the family puppy and my M6, and a woman, a professional photographer by trade, wanted both the puppy and my camera. I let her hold both, and she commented she had always wanted a Leica M but couldn't justify they cost.

I never get upset or self conscious about carrying the camera. People are surprised where I take it but I mostly know that no one knows what it is.... Its expensive, but so is your car, and you still drive it everywhere.

 

[Lauffray]

One guy once noted how it was impossible someone as young as me could afford a Leica.

Definitely plenty of interesting stories while out with a Leica 😎

 

[Snowbuzz]

Can I have a link?

Sure. PMing it now. - Rory

 

[Pioneer]

Once in awhile someone will comment on my M9, but not very often. However, go out with the Rolleiflex or one of my old folders and I get pestered all the time. 🙂

 

[Richard G]

When I bought a Monochrom, 18 months after an M9-P, the guys in the shop were suitably reverent of the thing itself and kindly urging me to take some worthy pictures with it. They've seen a few of my photos, including a few of my abject failures, but also the occasional good ones straight from the lab. They know I'm not hopeless. In a funny way the expense takes the acquisition of these cameras well beyond some idle boast to the territory of immediate acceptance that the guy is deadly serious. I liked the note those guys struck with me that morning, and I in turn tried to be suitably humble about having the good fortune to own such a thing. I was told to return with some impressive prints and I promised it would be that or never darkening their doorstep again if I couldn't deliver.

I've recently joined a photographic group. The guys (and in the New Year two women) are all good and the group has formed by invitation. Me turning up in the evening in a jacket and tie from my professional day job with a long history of shooting Leicas might have had me typecast but we show our photographs and for the guys in their 20s to the two in their 70s that's all that counts. I was so pleased that a dentist I know turned out to be one of this group and I did not follow my father into dentistry so this subverted any possibility of me being the class joke.

I always think of the money so many people drop in ten years buying cars - the arbitrary extra expense of a brand or model which sees more than $8k evaporate in the few seconds it takes to drive the car out of the dealer's yard.

 

[FrozenInTime]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Snowbuzz
I found a film blog by a gentleman in Edinburgh (very nice blog) who actually identifies Leica users on the street.

Sure. PMing it now. - Rory

hey ... how about the rest of us !

I've been known to walk about Edinburgh, but have not been caught on camera ... to my knowledge

 

[Richard G]

I have been using a chrome M-Nokton on a black M2 for a while - and that lens gets a lot of comments "Wow, thats a cool looking lens - is it old?" When you tell that it is new they are even more impressed.

I sometimes think that they don't actually believe the answer in these situations.

I haven't had a black Leica since the early '90s. I really didn't know what i would do about the odd combination of my many chrome lenses on the Monochrom. I've read of duplicating one's lenses in black but I consider that excessive. Turns out that when I put my chrome 50 Elmar M on the Monochrom it completely silences anyone who might have dared comment.

 

[Snowbuzz]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Snowbuzz
I found a film blog by a gentleman in Edinburgh (very nice blog) who actually identifies Leica users on the street.




hey ... how about the rest of us !

I've been known to walk about Edinburgh, but have not been caught on camera ... to my knowledge

I'm so gonna get into trouble. Sending PM. 🙂

 

[Richard G]

"That's an interesting old camera."
"As a matter of fact it's pretty new. It's digital."
"There was a time when a camera that looked a lot like that was a professional's main camera - very expensive: cost a month's salary I think. Long time ago."
"Yes, well this is I guess the descendant of that camera....."
"I think that firm is still in business, but they don't make proper cameras like they used to."
"That firm is called Leica. They actually do still make film cameras very similar to the old M3 and M2."
"Oh you must be wrong about that. No-one's using film anymore. Certainly no firm is going to be turning out new film cameras nowadays. Pity they can't make some sort of digital equivalent of those old beauties, but I'm sure it would be impossible."
"Not so. This indeed is just that, a digital Leica."
"Oh sure, sure. But I mean a proper digital version, with a rangefinder, as they used to call it, and with interchangeable lenses - there must be blokes with a whole shelf of fine lenses they just can't use on anything anymore."
"Ah, yes, well look, see, the lens does come off this one just....
"Sure but I'm talking about a digital version of the old camera that would take all those old lenses too, something with a, is it sensor, a sensor the size of 35mm film. That's what I'm talking about. We'll never see that. And who'd be interested anyway."

This is almost verbatim a conversation I had in a cafe queuing for coffee a few months ago.

 

[FrozenInTime]

"That's an interesting old camera."
"As a matter of fact it's pretty knew. It's digital."
...
"Not so. This indeed is just that, a digital Leica."
"Oh sure, sure. But I mean a proper digital version, with a rangefinder, as they used to call it, and with interchangeable lenses - there must be blokes with a whole shelf of fine lenses they just can't use on anything anymore."
"Ah, yes, we'll look, see, the lens does come off this one just....
"Sure but I'm talking about a digital version of the old camera that would take all those old lenses too, something with a, is it sensor, a sensor the size of 35mm film. That's what I'm talking about. We'll never see that. And who'd be interested anyway."

This is almost verbatim a conversation I had in a cafe queuing for coffee a few months ago.

Next try to explain that it only takes black and white digital images ( Monochrom )

 

[rivercityrocker]

The first camera I purchased was a Holga around 2005 - years before hipsters became a thing, or the world was introduced to "Lomography" and Urban Outfitters. I always got a laugh that I had the gold standard of hipster photo gear before the hipsters thought it was cool. Does that make people like us... proto-hipsters? Hipster-prime?

Haha. When I was in high school, sometime around '90 I was selected to go the "Governer's School for Excellence in the Arts". It was a program where students would go live at a university for the summer semester and take college level art classes for colege credit. It was underwritten by the Andy Warhol Foundation. Oddly enough I wasn't selected for my photography, which was mostly skateboarding and punk bands (that wasn't considered "art"), but for my oil paintings. I was pretty good at painting, but lacked the patience. I preferred the "immediacy" of film photography.

Anyway, in the photography classes they would give the students Holgas to introduce them to medium format. They were literally throw-away cameras and that's what we did with them. I also had a Lomo LCA back then because it was the Cold War and it was, you know, punk rock to have a Russian camera.

Thanks to everyone for the kind words about the article. The articles aren't overly technical because that's not the demographic the magazines go for these days. I enjoy writing and it keeps me employed in the field without having to resort to scrambling around for gigs so I can be more selective about the jobs I take.

Someone earlier mentioned that they would like for their sons to get into photography, but wouldn't push them to be professional. I wouldn't wish the job of professional photographer on my worst enemies children in this day and age. It's too competitive, there's little money to made, and professional standards have all but disappeared. As little as two years ago I was shooting for Rolling Stone and SPIN, and making decent money from just a few gigs a month until a couple of local guys ferreted out the editors and offered to do the jobs for "photo credit". It's a cut-throat business and I could go on and on with ugly stories of how people are stepping on others to get their jobs, but that's just a depressing rabbit-hole to get into.

in short, I'm not embarrassed by the fact that I can afford to own and use a Leica, but when people ask me what I do for a living I'm usually embarrassed to say "photographer". And the follow up question is almost always; "but what do you do to pay the bills?"

 

[FrozenInTime]

I'm so gonna get into trouble. Sending PM. 🙂

Thanks 😉

 

[helvetica]

in short, I'm not embarrassed by the fact that I can afford to own and use a Leica, but when people ask me what I do for a living I'm usually embarrassed to say "photographer". And the follow up question is almost always; "but what do you do to pay the bills?"

Not to be too depressing, but given the accelerating rate of change in technology, I expect that many tech/programming vocations will go this way.

 

[furcafe]

I haven't met many rude people via my Leicas, just a lot of camera nerds. The enthusiasm of many of those nerds can be annoying when you don't want to chat about gear, but it's unintentional--they just lack social skills.

Remember that old motorcycle slogan, "You meet the nicest people on a Honda..."?

I've found with my cameras, "you meet the rudest people when you have a Leica."

 

[furcafe]

That's a little mean, but I can see the attraction given that so many Leica-ists, especially the street shooters, are obsessed w/being photo ninjas (black tape over the logos, etc.).

Now I want to see the link, too!

I found a film blog by a gentleman in Edinburgh (very nice blog) who actually identifies Leica users on the street. He then runs up, photographs them with his "vintage" contraption and posts their respective photos on his said blog. He does this to embarrass them. I might add that the Leica users do look startled, confused, embarrassed. I suppose that's his intent. Do Leica users deserve that? I don't know. Maybe some.

 

[FrozenInTime]

That's a little mean, but I can see the attraction given that so many Leica-ists, especially the street shooters, are obsessed w/being photo ninjas (black tape over the logos, etc.).

Now I want to see the link, too!

One Leica user in the link is wearing a purple checked golf jersey ... not the best way to pass unnoticed in an Edinburgh crowd.

 

[Richard G]

Next try to explain that it only takes black and white digital images ( Monochrom )

Yes. Which would bring me back to my response to Tom A. Most would simply not believe you. They don't. "A purely black and white digital? This? Sure."