Do SLR's put you "on the radar"?

[asamimasa]

Spending a large portion of my time on university campus, I get many glances. Some from amateurs who are interested themselves in 'big cameras', or wants to report back to a friend who owns one. Innumerable folks walking about with bright 'CANON 5D mkII' straps around their necks here. I've also been assumed to be shooting for some media purposes for the university (which I have done briefly), and have gotten myself into events without credentials in the past walking in with confidence and a D3+70-200, folks here seem to be very aware of what big cameras look like. With eyes shifting back and forth so quickly and in such high volume of students walking around, it's pretty challenging to shoot unnoticed. I've been most successful so far with tilt-displays and waist-level finders; it appears that the motion of raising a camera to the eye calls much attention. Alternatively, standing around and pretending to fumble about with my settings like a novice seems to diffuse indirect tension in the air a small bit, like turning away from a wild animal as it senses your approach.

With medium format, I've been a bit of a spectacle, getting comments here and there, mostly from older gentlemen about how they shot similar cameras and how surprising it is to see someone my age (21) shooting MF film. Once at the Getty museum in L.A., I was approached by three gentlemen from different parties, all excited about seeing a RB67 in the wild. Perhaps I've met one of you from this forum?

 

[chip j]

My TLRs and 6x9 folders get a lot more attention than my SLRs. Having said that, I will say that something else happens when I use my SLR. So many SLRs are digital now people ask me if they can look at the picture on the screen. Or they'll ask me to "delete" a posed picture they didn't think went well. When I tell them there is no screen and no delete they express surprise or disappointment that it's a film camera. This only happens when I use the N2000, which doesn't have a winding lever. That sort of thing doesn't happen with most of my cameras, just the plastic shelled SLR.

N2000!--my favorite, easiest-to-use manual Nikon (because of the clear and comprehensive finder readouts). I get noticed w/my G1 & G2 and C330, but not any of my Nikons.

 

[Kyle M.]

I get a few looks and comments when I'm out with my AE-1 Program, on the other hand when I go out with my RB67 theres all kinds of rubber necking.

 

[crsantin]

With my Yashica TLR it's all positive, some smiles or curious looks, people poking each other, pointing and smiling...comments like wow that's a beautiful camera.

With a 50mm prime on my F100, not so much...as others have said, with a larger lens people do notice and try to get out of the way when I don't want them to. They duck or turn away, change direction to walk behind me etc. A big lens pointed in someone's general direction will make them uneasy, that's been my experience.

When I'm out on the street now I usually shoot with my Olympus stylus epic. It fits in the palm of my hand and I can shoot it one-handed when necessary. It's a great camera and I am rarely noticed with it, even shooting in close quarters, people don't seem to care.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Yes, when I go out with my 4"x5" Graflex Model D, people notice the slr.

 

[MattKing]

Yes, when I go out with my 4"x5" Graflex Model D, people notice the slr.

Sirius:

But don't they just come up to you and say "Isn't that not your Hasselblad?"

 

[Sirius Glass]

Actually I do not get Hassled Badly which is use the Graflex Model D.

 

[GRHazelton]

Using my Pentax 645n gets some attention. I was shooting a dog tooth violet in my front yard, tripod, focus rail, 120 macro, cable release, when my next door neighbor hollers "Mighty fancy camera, George! Is it a Nikon?" So I had to explain, no, its a Pentax, it takes 120 roll film, the usual thing. Once shooting in South Carolina near the beach some yob asked, "How many megapixels is that thing?" When I replied that it depended on the film I used and how I scanned it he wandered off, mumbling something that sounded like "!@#@$# smart a**"

 

[analoguey]

On my RB67 lens, I have a Nikon cap so some interesting conversations get started or comments go on around me, with people thinking I dont hear or understand what they're talking about. (with the motley of tongues, I suppose, it can be a fair assumption).
A lot of conversation deals in how great x brand of camera is or isn't. And quite a few mistake RB67 for a video camera - more so cos I'm using the wlf and tripod.
It is always a great conversation starter, its almost like dangling a woolen thread at a bunch of kittens - reactions vary in intensity but boy, aren't they all curious!!

The most recent one was with a farmer as I was taking long exposure street shots on my Nikon Digital during Dasara Celebrations in Mysore. A 15min chat that was interesting and educative - we talked a lot about the city and its heritage etc.,

And the WLF or live view gets a lot of people just wanting to peep in and see what I'm so excited about photographing.

Oh, and having a camera+ gear n wielding it like you own the place gets you in many places where you wouldn't get entry otherwise!


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[Charles Wass]

Whilst I have never been aware of attracting attention when using a bulky 35mm SLR or occasionally a TLR, my wife tells me that I used to cause a lot of staring when I used a small digital P+S with its add on EVF. Needless to say I didn't attract attention when holding the same camera at arm's length without the EVF.

 

[Black Dog]

If someone asks 'how many pixels'? you can always say 'more than there are grains of sand in a desert'

 

[rabbitvcactus]

I get funny looks when I am out with my kowa six, or ae-1p. People are so surprised to see a 14-year old lugging around film gear. I even get asked by some if I can still get film for them, especially when loading reloaded old 35mm rolls!

rabbitvcactus

P.S. Hello! I'm new!

 

[Black Dog]

Welcome to APUgland!

 

[68degrees]

I always wondered about that with long lenses in the civilian world, especially in this day and age of hypervigilant public servants and white knights. "I thought it was a rocket launcher" while the photographer lays dead on the sidewalk.

 

[Paul Goutiere]

I worked for a small daily newspaper in the early 1960's. I used a 4x5 Speed Graphic with flash and power pack.

I always got noticed.

If you wanna get noticed, wear a 4x5 Speed Graphic with flash and power pack.

 

[rolleiman]

large digital slrs have pretty much destroyed the concept of "candid photography" in the news business. Bring out one of those monsters and people automatically perform.

Decades ago the dictum of LIFE photographers was that you had to become invisible -- and with a small Leica or Nikon, both very quiet, you could. It is impossible to do so with a massive lensed DSLR, or even a film SLR, and while they do get a lot of different shots than you can with a small rangefinder, the is an intimacy that is lost. LIFE's brilliant photo story by W. Eugene Smith about a day in the life of a country doctor would have been impossible, or at least a lot harder, to shoot by a photographer loaded down with the usual couple of hulking giant lensed cameras.

Agree with your comments. As an ex-pro who started out when photojournalism was the prevailing influence several decades back, I quit in frustration when the industry shoved digital down our throats. Those first and second generation digi cameras were truly awful. Looking at the excellent W Eugene Smith essay, I would guess all those shots were taken on his Leica using just 35mm & 50mm lenses. An object lesson for those who feel under-equipped without two or three zoom lenses on board.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

I think SLRs attract more negative attention, whereas TLRs attract more positive attention, when people notice them at all. I've seen the hostile stare directed at SLR users far more often, and have had people actively duck out of the way of what they think is what I'm photographing. Shooting with my Rollei, I've never had a negative reaction, just lots of smiles and enthusiastic comments. Out shooting with the large/ultra large format stuff, that really draws a lot of attention and I often spend as much if not more time explaining about the camera and doing demos as I do taking photos.

 

[blockend]

It's partly the size of the front element, and partly the nature of the camera. An SLR typically has a large 'eye', and who wants to be stared at by one of those? SLRs say serious in a way a point and shoot never will. If people think they're being captured on an amateur, 'fun' camera they react in a different way to being studied by a professional one.

I recall one photographer saying he covered his camera in silly stickers to make it, and him, appear less threatening.

 

[Alan Klein]

large digital slrs have pretty much destroyed the concept of "candid photography" in the news business. Bring out one of those monsters and people automatically perform.

Decades ago the dictum of LIFE photographers was that you had to become invisible -- and with a small Leica or Nikon, both very quiet, you could. It is impossible to do so with a massive lensed DSLR, or even a film SLR, and while they do get a lot of different shots than you can with a small rangefinder, the is an intimacy that is lost. LIFE's brilliant photo story by W. Eugene Smith about a day in the life of a country doctor would have been impossible, or at least a lot harder, to shoot by a photographer loaded down with the usual couple of hulking giant lensed cameras.

Of course, very few photographers today are W. Eugene Smith, too. I keep saying, great photography is 5 percent what yu shoot with, 95 percent you.

http://life.time.com/history/life-classic-eugene-smiths-country-doctor/#1

how much you? The article says that Smith spent several days with the doctor taking pictures with no film in the camera so the doctor could get used to Smith, and he spent several weeks on this one assignment. There is no news publication in the country today that would spend that kind of staff time/money. Maybe a freelancer could do it, I dunno. And then nobody publishes that sort of photo essay any more either, so what does it matter?

The NY Times publishes photo essays on the internet and sometimes in their paper . Some are from various sources. Some are sepcific essays done by a single photoghrapher. http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/ I don't know if the paper pays in advance or how they handle these things. But essays are a real way to put substance into your photos. We all do it when we go on vacation and shoot a "slide show" for the family. But nothing is stopping anyone from doing a show that is more "public" in nature.

 

[Alan Klein]

So I'm out shooting in a park with a little M43 Olympus E-PL1 with my senior citizen friends. I like shooting with a tripod when I'm doing landscapes. So this blonde chick comes over to see what I'm doing. Maybe she liked my tripod. So anyway she gets real close to see through the viewfinder. http://www.flickr.com/photos/alanklein2000/5345147466/in/set-72157625797001770 Nothing like this use to happen when I was single and younger.

So my friend Mel, who's an artist and who shot the picture, decides to paint a likeness of the photo adding a goose posing for the shot for some humor. http://www.flickr.com/photos/alanklein2000/5344555753/in/set-72157625797001770

You can't make this stuff up!

 

[Eric Rose]

Geez next thing we are going to hear are SLR photographers pulling a Kanye and going off on the "lookers".

 

[rolleiman]

So I'm out shooting in a park with a little M43 Olympus E-PL1 with my senior citizen friends. I like shooting with a tripod when I'm doing landscapes. So this blonde chick comes over to see what I'm doing. Maybe she liked my tripod. So anyway she gets real close to see through the viewfinder. http://www.flickr.com/photos/alanklein2000/5345147466/in/set-72157625797001770 Nothing like this use to happen when I was single and younger.

So my friend Mel, who's an artist and who shot the picture, decides to paint a likeness of the photo adding a goose posing for the shot for some humor. http://www.flickr.com/photos/alanklein2000/5344555753/in/set-72157625797001770

You can't make this stuff up!

Hey Alan, nothing like that happens to me when I'm out with my film gear, I guess English chicks are rather less forthcoming than American ones!......nevertheless I'll give it a try with my Olympus 35RC and see what happens.

 

[MattKing]

I worked for a small daily newspaper in the early 1960's. I used a 4x5 Speed Graphic with flash and power pack.

I always got noticed.

If you wanna get noticed, wear a 4x5 Speed Graphic with flash and power pack.

Don't forget the fedora and the cigar.

 

[Paul Goutiere]

Don't forget the fedora and the cigar.

I was about 18 then, so no cigar, as for the fedora, this was in Canada so I had a toque.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Depends on the neigborhood. In this area, people tend to treat you will a lot of respect if you've got a big wooden tripod with an 8x10 atop it, but are suspicious when you're aiming an SLR, as if you're invading their privacy. Once a ways inland, the equivalent of our "Midwest" in California, if you set up a view camera they think you're either a terrorist or a spy for the UN and Al Gore, plotting how to confiscate their
goats and chickens. ... With kids, around here they politely wait until you're done with the shot then approach and ask to look behind the
darkcloth, and generally respond with "cooool!". With an SLR, they just think you're an uncool fuddy-duddy. But inland, kids throw rocks at you,
and teenager and rednecks spin tires at you, either way, because they don't recognize either as a camera.