Hey kids! It is time for another spooky tale of random conversations with strangers I’ve had while out doing photography!
Back Story
About a week and a half ago I purchased a medium format Fuji GW690III rangefinder camera. Unlike most of the cameras I use which are thirty or more years old, the GW690III was manufactured after the release of Vanilla Ice’s 1991 earth-shattering humiliation Cool as Ice. Given the manufacture date, the GW690III is current enough to have design aestetics which are still present in modern cameras.
Once I added a Metz 32CT3 flash to the Fuji GW690III, it took on an appearance that can easily be mistaken for a dSLR to the untrained eye.
The other bit of back story for this tale is just that there was another film photographer in the area who was shooting with a tripod mounted 35mm Pentax SLR.
The Random Conversation
I was standing still waiting for something interesting to happen when I was approached by this friendly couple. I’d put their age in the late fifties.
Man: (Looking at my GW690III) “So how much are one of those?”
Me: “Less than a thousand.”
Man: “Is that all!”
Woman: “He’s been talking about cameras lately.”
Man: “Yeah. I’ve been thinking about getting one of those.”
My Internal Dialog “Either this guy is an old film buff, or has my camera mistakingly pegged as a digital. I’ll put my bet on the later, but lets hope for the former.”
Me: “Oh? You’ve been looking at these Fuji rangefinders?”
Man: “I’ve been looking at a Nikon actually. I’ve seen one for $900.”
Me: “Ah. This is a old film camera actually.”
Man: “Really?! There can’t be very many of those left.”
I then motioned at the aforementioned man with the Pentax SLR who was about fifteen feet away from us.
Me: “That guy has one too!” (Grin)
We then had a chuckle and parted ways.
2 Archived Comments
Haha 😀 Very familiar scene. As a girl (or, well ok, woman) lots of men just hà ve to approach me to tell me they’re into photography too (I don’t care! but they never get that, they just have to talk and talk and talk. Gear, preferrably). But with my old and usually insane looking cameras, I attract lots of other, sincerely interested people. Usually older men. Those talks are fun.
Cool camera, by the way *grin*
Yeah. The people who talk to when I have older looking equipment generally are good chats. Although I have had situations where the chatters will say “Thats a neat camera. I just bought a Nikon D60 with a Sigma blabababa megapixel bababa and a neoprene strap.”
Those conversations end quite quickly. Thus, why I think having a camera that resembles something modern may be a con.