Anecdotes: Strangers' comments about your "obsolete" cameras

[mitchell_kirschner]

In the last couple of weeks I've gotten a couple of interesting

comments/questions from strangers while out shooting with my manual film

cameras. Here are my anecdotes. Anyone else have any to share? Disclaimer: This

is NOT a digi vs film thread!

 

First (with Leica): A spry, older man (probably 70-80) asked what I was shooting

with. I showed him my M4. "Oh, you're obsolete," he said, half-joking. Me: "I

have a digital too, but I don't use it much." The man: "Yes, me too. Once you

know how to use one of those," he said, pointing to my camera, "that's all you

need." Me: "What do you shoot with?" The man: "I have a Honeywell Spotmatic. Got

it 35 years ago, and it still works like the day I bought it." He was in a hurry

to continue his walk, but it would have been fun to continue chatting with him.

 

Second (with Rollei): I was at a different park, looking into the ground glass,

trying to catch a grab shot of my kids. I was interrupted by a guy on a bench

who was overcome by curiosity. "Is that an old...30 millimeter?" he asked with a

mixture of curiosity and excitement. "Actually, it's 120 format," I said,

exercising my tendency to be too literal sometimes. He wouldn't know the

difference between his self-invented 30mm, and 120 format. Man: "Wow, that must

be really old!" Me: "Yes, It's pretty ancient. Been in my family for a while."

Man: "And it still works?!" Me: "Yes. Actually, it hasn't been used all that

much, and it's still possible to get it repaired if necessary." Man: "Do you

develop it yourself?" Me: "Yes, for black and white." Man: "That's a dying

art..." Me: "Well, hopefully it's not dying, just getting more obscure."

[steve_b3]

When out shooting with Rolleis I would get comments similar to "Hey thats what my (insert title of older, usually male, often deceased relative) used to shoot with. That brings back memories!

[valery_yakushev1]

8 years ago I asked my friend who was in Japan for 1 year to buy me a Contax G2 with a couple of lenses (it was much cheaper over there at that time).

 

He did bring me what I asked but he produced some bitter comment about the camera: "And for that much money you do not even have built-in flash! It's a shame!".

[john_mitchell3]

I had exactly the same experience as Mitchell Kirschner when using my circa 1969 Rollei 3.5F.

 

Our residential development had a community work day last fall which included some cleanup along the shoulders of the road which serves the development. Two families with daughters, each around age eight, who are good friends were out doing the cleanup. One girl was using a parent's outsized leather gloves and other had on a straw hat, red bandana, bib overalls and cowboy boots. They looked so appealing that I asked the parents if I could make their picture, then ran home and got the Rollei.

 

When I returned, one father said "Wow! Look at that old camera! Does it still work?"

 

"You'd better believe it still works," I replied.

 

I posed the girls in front of an old, weathered barn and made a portrait of them together. I had 8x10 inch enlargements made and gave one to each family. When I pulled the enlargement out of the envelope and handed it to the wife of the husband who had made the above comments, she turned to him and said "NOW do believe it still works?"

 

Still makes lovely pictures and is a joy to use.

 

Sorry to post a Rollei story on the Leica Forum. I did once own an M3, if that helps. Of course, I sold it, so maybe that doesn't help. ;-)

[john_mitchell3]

"NOW do you believe it still works?"

 

Left out the "you"--I need to proofread more carefully.

[r22eng]

Typical American comments about my M4-P revolve range from:

 

"Gee, you still use film?"

"Wow is that an old digital camera?"

"Where is the display?"

"That thing autofocus?"

 

When I tell them that it is a manual RF camera (without even a meter) they just shake their heads and walk away. Some comment that the price of the new cameras are too high for most folks to upgrade.

 

European and Asian tourists seem to have a better appreciation and knowledge of Leicas.

 

Hiking down the Grand Canyon I meet an old German couple on the narrow trail. I allowed them to pass me on the narrow trail since I was waiting to frame my shots (Kodachrome of course!) into the North rim. The gentlemen was happy to see the Leica. "Very good camera!" We chatted for a short while about photography, Leicas, and where I learned to speak German.

 

Richard

[christoph_hammann]

While out photographing with my 4x5" field camera in the woods, quite off the path near a

stream, a fellow hiker calls out to me from the path: "Is that a camera?"

I was too dumbfounded to answer anything intelligent, just mumbled something into my

beard.<div></div>

[stuart_richardson]

Usually people find it interesting and worthwhile...rarely have I had people saying that I

should be shooting digital or anything like that. Lots of people asking why I don't (to which I

respond that I do...just not all the time), but usually there is a bit of admiration. Retro is cool!

You don't often see people telling people with classic cars that they should be driving a

modern car.<P>My best instance of this occured in the mountains above Santa Barbara. I was

shooting by the side of the road when John Goodman and a young woman pull over and ask

me about the camera and about the agaves I was shooting. Then they went on their

way...they were very nice.

[vivek iyer]

My Olympus Pen F gear always draws positive comments.

[35mmdelux]

Man: what kind of camera is that?

 

Me: its a 35mm Leica (M7).

 

Man: wow, thats really old isn't it, an antique?

 

Me: Not really, but the original design is old.

 

Man: Is that a zoom lens on it?

 

Me: No, its a short telephoto lens (90mm Elmarit).

 

Man: It doesn't have a flash, don't you need a flash? (shooting in open shade w/ 400 HP-5).

 

Me: I prefer to shoot portraits w/out flash.

 

Man: I guess it takes a good lens to do a good job.

 

Me: Well, sure, but the photog has a little to do with it as well.

[steve_levine]

Shooting with a quite modern 4x5 view camera in public, will often draw comments regarding the "old time" camera.

 

 

The best comment I ever heard was from a cinematographer friend. He was shooting ,c 1980 with a Mitchell 35 MM motion picture camera. This camera was made in the late 1950's. Someone asked why he used such an old camera? He answered that the camera is old, but "it takes brand new pictures".

[wirehead]

While I was in peru, a guy pointed to my Canon TX and said "Ah, a classic".

 

I was taking pictures of a friend at a wedding using Neopan 1600 on a Canon A-1 with no flash present either in the body or mounted atop. When I took the shot, the friend commented about the lack of flash and asked if the picture took right.

[andrewlamb]

Steve,

 

I like your anecdote. Sums up things very nicely.

 

BTW, didn't Ingmar Bergaman shoot a lot of his films on a Mitchell?

[bill_schneider1]

I've had questions about my MP and about why I use such an "old" camera - I just say that I prefer to use it.

 

The funniest question happened when a friend and I were out several years ago with our 4x5 wooden view cameras set up on tripods with darkcloths out. A pair of hikers came by and asked if they were digital cameras!

 

After a brief pause (with wisecracks floating about in our minds) we just politely said "No, they're not, They use film".

[andrewlamb]

This reminds of something that happened to me several years ago. I got hired, by a

Japanese magazine, to take some portraits of a member of the Greek royal family (in exile

in London).

 

Given that I wasn't particularly excited about this job, I decided to make things interesting

for myself by shooting the job on a Linhof 5x4 rangefinder. You can imagine my delight

when I arrived at the house to discover that this wasn't a private sitting but a photo-call,

for a forthcoming royal wedding, with London's 'finest' press guys waiting with bated

breath. I can only assume that something was lost in translation when I got hired.

 

Needless to say , the press boys were all armed with Canon and Nikon DSLRs (maybe one

or two 35mm) and zooms with flash on hot shoes. When I finally managed to unveil my

Linhof I felt like Wegee's ghost turning up.

 

The prince posed for 30 seconds to a minute, maybe. You can imagine how many frames

the press guys got off in that time. There were so many flashes going off it was like

standing next to a firework display. The pain of the whole exercise has obliterated how

many sheets (largely out of focus, a few sharp) I managed to expose but I do remember

one old lag commenting to a younger one about how in the old days press guys used to

shoot like the sobbing red faced guy in the corner.

 

There's a lot to be said for modern technology (and speaking Japanese).

[35mmdelux]

i'd hate to ask what a digi back for a 4x5 costs!

[Rob F.]

Doing a little street photography with a Rolleiflex, some young man asked, "What's up with the old box camera?" I had to explain it wasn't a box camera, in fact it used to be used by a lot of press photographers, etc. etc.

 

Shooting at the Botanical gardens with my MP, a staff member came bounding across the grass, "Hey is that a Leica? They haven't made those in years! They went out of business, I know! I had to run over to see it!"

 

I calmly answered, "No, they never went out of business. Actually, this is the current model." I went on to tell about how Leicas have had a Built-in meter since the '80's, etc.

[dan_fromm2]

While I was shooting with my 2x3 Speed Graphic at Mono Lake, a passerby remarked that I must know what I was doing. Nice compliment, unfortunately badly misplaced.

[roger_smith4]

I was once asked if my Canon Canonet was a digital (!?). I replied it was a very early, 1970s model, which seemed to satisfy my inquisitor.

[terry_rory]

A German taxi driver in my town here in England was talking about holidays in the mountains with his father when he was little and how he enjoyed looking at all the old slides that his father had taken when he went back to visit his family occasionally.

 

I asked him if he remembered what camera his father used. "An old Leitz with curly letters" he explained. "Very heavy". When we stopped I showed him my M6 and he went all misty eyed.

 

It does not have the 'curly letters' but he recognised it instantly and was impressed that it was heavy, just as his father's old camera had been.

[35mmdelux]

At the Dana Point Marina (CA)a guy and gal walked by and immediately stopped and asked what my cameras were. I said one is a Leica and the other is an xPan, sold by Hasselblad. "Hasselblad," said the guy, "its been along time since I saw a 6x6 camera!" Okay....

 

They looked at my M7 and 35mmLuxAsph and asked if he could hold it. Its kinda pricey I said and I'd hate to drop it. (I don't want to be running after my gear)

[george_b1]

We have an M4 and an M7. I usually take the M4 and an incident light meter on short trips. Passing through the Dulles airport security a couple of years ago, the security type demanded: "Turn on Your Camera!" I explained that it was a completely manual camera and that it used film - - no batteries. He didn't believe me, and I had to ask for a supervisor to rescue me from a screener who only understood "digital." He just couldn't believe that any other type of camera existed. I'm afraid it's gonna' get worse with time, when many of the TSA screeners will be too young to have absorbed any knowledge of a "film" camera.

 

George (The Old Fud)

[Bill Blackwell Images]

About a year ago I went to a construction site with my M6; there were tracters and laborers everywhere. About halfway into the roll, I realized I had the lens cap on. At that point, realizing why my meter diodes had been flashing at me, as cool as I could I rewound the film into its canister and started over, this time with the lens cap in my pocket!

 

Sometime later, while driving back to the office, I embarrassingly told my co-worker what I had done. He then sheepishly admitted to me that he noticed the lens cap on the front of my camera, but he thought it was "some sort of high-tech device."

 

(Reposted from a prior thread)

[roger_smith4]

"Passing through the Dulles airport security a couple of years ago, the security type demanded: "Turn on Your Camera!" I explained that it was a completely manual camera and that it used film - - no batteries"

 

I had a similar experience with security at the last UN global warming conference. Their screeners are more stringent than at airports. They asked me to "turn on" my Minolta X-700. It was on, but I showed them there was nothing to light up. Then they asked me to make it work. I was at the end of the roll, so the shutter wouldn't fire. 3 minutes later, after hand-rewinding the 36 exposure roll, they were convinced enough that it was a camera and waved me through without having me fire the shutter once.

[stephen_w.]

I experienced many instances where security will look through my Ms, and hence sold SWC to make sure no contraban is inside. LOL 8*)