Weekend observation

[zuiko85]

Just this Saturday I visited Boeing's Museum of Flight. It has been about 10-12 year since my last visit.
They were moderately busy but not packed. The whole day, about 5 hours, I spotted only 2 dedicated digital cameras, both DSLR's. Everyone else (including myself) was using their cell phone camera. My last visit around 2010ish I would have seen at least 50-60 cameras.
I keep hearing about the crash in camera sales but this brings it home.

 

[Disappointed_Horse]

I was thinking of writing a similar post regarding my observations over a weekend in NYC. My wife and I took our daughter there for a long weekend to celebrate our daughter's 10th birthday, so it was very much not a photography-centric trip. I just brought my iPhone. I observed only around 8–10 people with dedicated cameras. I saw three people carrying X100-series Fujis, one person with an Olympus OM-D of some sort, a couple of consumer DSLRs, a bridge camera or two, and one person carrying what I am pretty sure was a Contax G2. Smartphones were, of course, omnipresent.

My personal observations: I thought I would be content relying on my iPhone, but I hated having only the iPhone as a camera. Even with Face ID, unlocking the camera is too slow. I am not familiar with NYC so was relying on my phone for navigation and, as a result, constantly burning through battery. I am not happy with the photos. The untouched photos look overprocessed and the skin tones are terrible—my wife's and daughter's lovely olive skin tones look orange. I don't know what I was thinking not bringing a real camera. Actually I do know what I was thinking—I don't have a good compact camera and I didn't feel like lugging around one of my 35mm SLRs or DSLRs. Now I'm planning what I need to sell to buy a Ricoh GRIII or GRIIIx.

 

[zuiko85]

I have a ancient, in digital years, Olympus EM10. It is my only dedicated digital camera and I consider it small enough to carry around…..but still didn’t. My main complaint against my IPhone 7 is that I often cannot see the screen very well. Next time I’ll probably just pack the EM10 with a 25mm and the 15mm f8 body cap lens. Yes, I know, but it’s really not THAT bad for snapshots and weights 30gm. and can slip unnoticed into a shirt pocket.

 

[Retro-Grouch]

People, please stop the whining about "bulky" cameras, and use your phone for what it is: a phone. If your photography means something to you, you'll deal with whatever it takes to make the pictures you want. I spent Saturday lugging a Pentax 645 with a big-*ss zoom all around Santa Fe, and I ain't no Spring chicken (macho points for me!). Was it fun? No, but it was what I needed to make the pictures I wanted. And I have a bathroom cabinet full of Tiger Balm for my sore neck.

 

[zuiko85]

People, please stop the whining about "bulky" cameras, and use your phone for what it is: a phone. If your photography means something to you, you'll deal with whatever it takes to make the pictures you want. I spent Saturday lugging a Pentax 645 with a big-*ss zoom all around Santa Fe, and I ain't no Spring chicken (macho points for me!). Was it fun? No, but it was what I needed to make the pictures I wanted. And I have a bathroom cabinet full of Tiger Balm for my sore neck.

Morning Retro, how’s your day going? ‘Whining’ is a misapplication to those of us who have always valued compact lightweight equipment. I’m 73 and from my 20’s have sought out the smaller kits. Before I jumped on the OM system the Pen F half frame was my favorite ax. (Still have both in fact)
Obviously the quality of postage stamp sized negs is limited so that is a trade off over medium format or 4x5 and up from there. So this is nothing new or novel for me. Even so, in my dotage I’ve picked up a Kodak Tourist with a 101mm f4.5 Anastar and modified the film feed side to take 120 spools and I’ve got to admit that the huge 6x9 neg is very impressive. As for 4x5, that is only used for homemade pinhole cameras, which I carry around in a cloth grocery bag, along with a tripod of course.

 

[Disappointed_Horse]

People, please stop the whining about "bulky" cameras, and use your phone for what it is: a phone. If your photography means something to you, you'll deal with whatever it takes to make the pictures you want. I spent Saturday lugging a Pentax 645 with a big-*ss zoom all around Santa Fe, and I ain't no Spring chicken (macho points for me!). Was it fun? No, but it was what I needed to make the pictures I wanted. And I have a bathroom cabinet full of Tiger Balm for my sore neck.

I wouldn't disagree with your point in general with respect to a serious photography trip, but as I said I was on a long weekend to celebrate my daughter's birthday. The point was for HER to have fun, not for her old man to take pictures. I guess I just got sucked into the Apple reality distortion field and was expecting better output. My mistake—I'll know for next time.

 

[raid]

There is an active forum on weekend photography:

https://www.rangefinderforum.com/node/69190

Feel free to post there too.

 

[nikon_sam]

Photo of my son at the Evergreen Museum in Mc Minnville, Oregon. He would have been 12 or 13 years old, so around 2003.
I was shooting a Yashicsmat 124g, at that time I didn't own a digital camera.
From here we drove up to the Boeing Museum to check that one out.
Currently, our son is a Flight Instructor at Beaufort MCAS, SC. He flew the Harrier and now is in the F35B Lightning II.

 

[p.giannakis]

Over the last one month I noticed one guy holding an OM10, another one with a AE1 and one guy with a Takumar 50f1.4 on a Canon DSLR. I live in a small town so that is quite remarkable.