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You favorite "socially acceptable" 35mm camera?



Back when men were men, cameras were cameras, and sheep were scared...



Ken
 
I find that no one has a problem with my yashica electro 35, I think anything before the 70s- early 80s era that's boxy and chrome is pretty unobtrusive. (though more often i find myself using a Minolta hi-matics, as the auto focus is very useful when I just want a shot.) It's when you bring your T90 with a 72mm 35-105 lens when you have a problem
 
Ken Nadvornick said:


Back when men were men, cameras were cameras, and sheep were scared...



Ken
Click to expand...

Watch out you don't drop any cigar ash on the bellows and burn a hole in them!
 
GarageBoy said:
I hate being "that guy" who whips out my Nikon F100 during parties and social gatherings- I guess I need something more "socially acceptable"
Any ideas? Olympus XA? Contax G1?
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I've just recentely rediscovered my love of photography so I'm not really sure yet. I think my pair of Nikon F4S's might be a bit intrusive. I do have an old Contax TVS and will probably make that my 'socially acceptable' camera.
 
Probably the one in the middle.



Modified Nikomat FT2. Hot shoe deleted, so it became an FTn. But, unlike an FTn, still used modern batteries. Pair it with a 50/2 Nikkor-H or a 45/2.8 GN Nikkor and some fast film, and you've something that'll be "socially acceptable".

-J
 
Wow, exactly how did you get the hot shoe off your FT2?
 
If the situation is suspicious of photography it won't matter if you're using a Deardorff or a Minox, you will only triumph by force of personality and chutzpah. Bruce Gilden has taken shots of Russian and Japanese gangsters. I doubt they cared whether his camera was socially acceptable.
 
GarageBoy said:
I hate being "that guy" who whips out my Nikon F100 during parties and social gatherings- I guess I need something more "socially acceptable"
Any ideas? Olympus XA? Contax G1?
Click to expand...

You can't hide it.You are 'that guy' and you know it, don't you?
 
I think the F100 is a great party camera. Usually what's intimidating are the lenses. Put on a "D" era fast 50mm, 35mm or 85mm and you are unobtrusive. F100 also works well with bounce flash, and people appreciate not being blasted in the face by flash.

But if you MUST look like you are not a photographer, the Nikon L35AF has a great little lens and looks like Grandma's happy snapper.
 
People don't like being the target of a big long lens. I don't know if it's something deeply primal about being examined by a huge eye, or what. But my recollection of that feeling is one of being under the microscope, where every flaw is revealed. In some ways it feels like an invasion of your personal space.

For a non-photographer, they won't know that your field of view is very narrow. You could be photographing over their heads and it would still feel like the camera is pointing right at them.

So in that context, a socially acceptable camera makes a lot of sense. As a photographer, and an observer of people, I like to imagine (I don't know how it goes in practice) that I'd like to have as little impact on other's behaviors as possible. I'd like people to be themselves, not mug for the camera. A cell phone is often ok for these environments, it's commonplace, relatively unobtrusive, completely quiet and using it to take lots of photos is considered normal. For film, I think any rangefinder will a normal/wide lens is just fine. TLRs can be lots of fun, since their isn't a direct gaze involved, and people love talking with you about them.
 
The Olympus OM-1 (all black version) would be perfect, I would think. It's tiny and just too cute to be taken seriously.
 
Love my XA. It's small and it doesn't look threatening. With an XA, it looks like you're shooting for fun, but the camera has optics of more "professional" cameras. I shot with it while I was in Turkey this summer and I'm sure I looked just like a tourist innocent snapping for prosterity.
 
Socially acceptable I assume means you with people and close focus which means a Rollei 35 with no rangefinder is a PITA. Unless you like massive grain of high speed film.
 
kivis said:
Wow, exactly how did you get the hot shoe off your FT2?
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Remove the top cover, remove the four screws holding the shoe, disconnect the wire that goes to it from the small circuit board next to the rewind shaft, reassemble, then cut a square piece of leatherette to glue in place of the shoe. Looks like an FTn with a slightly blockier prism shape above the nameplate. Otherwise, it's the same. The modification does permit an FTn style accessory shoe to be used, so if you plan to use a 21/4 Nikkor-O or one of the early fishies, you don't have to hunt down the now somewhat uncommon AS-2 adapter. If I get another FT2 (or an FT3), I'll probably do the same conversion and drop a J screen in as well. I almost never use flash with analog gear, so a hot shoe really is kinda irrelevant to me.

-J
 
eos 1v, canon ae1, olympus xa, and xa2

i take them all out with me :shrug:
 
Varies by social circumstance.

Out with people roughly in their 30s and 40s? F3. Early eighties design and painted, engraved markings on the lens = nostalgia towards fine things from before our births.

Just going around for pictures of opportunity? F5; subtlety is for elephants. Yes it covers half my face. But the nineties retrofuturism! It's like a camera from 2020, and it hasn't aged a minute. *ka-shunk*

Somewhere with a bunch of gosh-darned hipsters? Fed 2 and an East German selenium-cell light meter. Old hipsters? Zorki 1.

The common theme is a bit of kit that rings pleasantly archaic to the people you're with, i.e. excluding the Dirty Plastic Era of electronics for their own sake.
 
"Socially Acceptable"? Sounds like a term coined for Gen-Y folks who texts each other on same dining table. If I need a camera that is "Socially Acceptable", I would whip out my Pentax 67II and make sure to fire the friggin' beast next to someone's ear.
Hey Gen-Y is all about making statement and 'I am so unique' right??
 

The FT3 is not the best Nikon ever made
 

Shootar401 said:
The FT3 is not the best Nikon ever made
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The F100 is the best Nikon made.
 
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