why do people take leicas to the photo expo ?

This previous wednesday I went to the photo expo at the Javits center in New York . There I was amazed as to how many people were walking around with leicas .... . What for , to photograph the other leicas ?

Just an observation !

Maybe its the correct fashion accessory to have so you look like you

are in the know about photography. You might have gotten an

interesting shot of a group of people milling about looking at the

expo all with Leicas hanging from their necks. I think that could be

a humorous image.

When I go to a camera show I "wear" my Leica M6 with an Imarect and

35mm Summilux. It lets the exhibitors know that I am a serious

collector, and can appreciate and afford to purchase any items that I

might ask to examine, not just "kicking tires" and wasting their time.

One doesn't dare take any other camera! A lizard skin model would be

the best, though, of course.

I went to the opera on Friday night. My girlfriend was wearing black

pants and I was wearing black pants and a black turtleneck. How did

we accessorize? With the M6, of course! The black body with silver

accent was perfect.

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Oh, boy, that's scary...

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{Actually, it was a good crowd photography scene with the 35/1.4.

Seattle's opera crowd is very amusing: half black-tie, half gortext

and fleece.}

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fh

At the last photo jumble I was at, an exhibiter noticed my Leica

and motioned me over. He dug around in his bag and came up

with a mint lens hood for a 50/1.2 Noctilux. A very rare item

indeed. I bought it for $68US and passed it on to a Leica-user

group member who needed one (for the same price of course).

My M6 seems to generate an quite a bit of comment here in Japan, all

of it friendly. People are quite camera aware here, especially

retired men, an huge proportion of whom pursue photography as a

hobby, or so it seems. So its hardly an unobtrusive street camera. I

also see many people with CLs and Minolta CLEs. The Japanese have a

thing about simplicity and smallness and Leicas seem to fit a certain

aesthetic, if that's the right word.

Obviously, one of the great benefits of the M series Leica is that

they are so easy to carry along everywhere. I once encountered a

group of Orthodox Jews praying together in a remote part of a

convention exhibition hall at the PMA Show in Las Vegas. A Leica M

would have been very handy to have at that moment indeed!

Some cute answers there, but would you take you M6 to the opera like

Eisenstadt ? - and dress in a black tie as well !