Camera Appreciation Person

[cliveh]

Do others ever encounter a camera appreciation person? Some years ago I was walking across the Charles Bridge in Prague with my Leica 2 around my neck, Vidom finder on top, when a German man approached me to explain he had exactly the same camera. He was obviously very animated and wanted to discuss Leica values, but my German and his English was rather limited.

[wblynch]

I just get smiles and "thumbs up" from people when I'm out with an old classic. Occasionally someone will comment that they have such a camera hidden away, forgotten. I ask them why they don't dust it off and get a roll in it while they still can.

I guess I'm not the guy everyone want to stop and chat with so I don't have to worry about that.

[David A. Goldfarb]

In New York the expertise can be astonishing. Once I was walking around Central Park with something very conspicuous like my Bronica S2a with a 500mm lens, but I also had a little rangefinder around my neck for wide shots, and a guy walked by and said "Voigtlander Vitessa-L, nice!"

[himself]

In a supermarket in Warsaw the middle aged women ringing up my shopping tried to explain to me that it had been a while since she had seen or used a minolta 7s (or as far as I could gather), she really had a good fondle with it and cradled it like a pro, better in fact than how she handled my bottle of cola, froth everywhere there were...

[dehk]

Lots of people on the street seems to likes my EXA black flange. They don't give me as angry as a face as if I was using my Nikon F4.

[Poisson Du Jour]

My pretty-in-black Pentax 67 attracted a lot of inquisitive onlookers last weekend when it was rolled out for a rainforest waterfall shoot. First interruption: an Italian man with kids, he with a fondness for black cameras, excitedly eyeballing the 67 directly in front of the lens (mirror up, waiting for him to get out of the way before I fire it!) while clutching his own in one hand and one of the kids in the other.. I thought I had gone and found a quiet, cool place to photograph alone on a hot day, but no: in the space of 10 minutes I found myself ruefully surrounded by many very small, even miniscule digimons and none-too-tripod-savvy tourists. Would I attract the same attention if it was a Hasselblad or a Nikon? Perhaps size does matter...

[benjiboy]

About three years ago three young punks were so appreciative of my Canon F1-N AE that they tried to shove me down an alley and mug me for it in broad daylight at around 4PM right in front of the town hall on a busy weekday, they must have thought because I'm old (I was seventy at the time) that
I was "easy meat", but I'm a former Royal Marine and still keep in shape, and in the ensuing fight two of the three muggers ended up in hospital the third ran off.
The most shocking about this incident to me and my wife was as a result a police sergeant came to my house and told me that because I had been trained in Unarmed Combat, and Close Quarter Battle in the Marines although it had been about forty five years ago they were thinking about charging me with Assault With A Deadly Weapon !, fortunately the charge was never made probably because it would have been laughed out of court if made in the circumstances against a man of my age.

[himself]

About three years ago three young punks were so appreciative of my Canon F1-N AE that they tried to shove me down an alley and mug me for it in broad daylight at around 4PM right in front of the town hall on a busy weekday, they must have thought because I'm old (I was seventy at the time) that
I was "easy meat", but I'm a former Royal Marine and still keep in shape, and in the ensuing fight two of the three muggers ended up in hospital the third ran off.
The most shocking about this incident to me and my wife was as a result a police sergeant came to my house and told me that because I had been trained in Unarmed Combat, and Close Quarter Battle in the Marines although it had been about forty five years ago they were thinking about charging me with Assault With A Deadly Weapon !, fortunately the charge was never made probably because it would have been laughed out of court if made in the circumstances against a man of my age.

[Mackinaw]

While in the Detroit Institute of Arts a few years back a guy with an ala' carte Leica MP spotted my MP and we had a long chat about Leicas, B&W film and developers. I get stopped a lot whenever I take my Mamiya C220 out in public. "Old" folks come over to tell me they had a camera just like that when they were younger while young folks come over to tell me that they think my camera is cool.

Jim B.

[flatulent1]

When I'm out with a folder or some other classic, people tend to look at me like I was from another planet.