Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/05/01

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Red Beans and Rice
From: Georgette Oden <gigi@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu>
Date: Sat, 2 May 1998 00:07:28 -0500 (CDT)

Jim,

I'd have to disagree with you here.  Some photographers might be exactly
in my situation, where anything that minimizes a theft risk is easily
worth the "sticky tape" problem.

I'm a petite young female who often travels alone to remote areas and big
foreign cities.  I can't afford several camera bodies and lenses, and I
can't afford to fedex my film home every day/week/two weeks.  If someone
steals my camera, they have had something catch their eye (who knows,
maybe it's my cute self! :) )  But minimizing the bait means minimizing
the chance that they'll steal the camera and the sack of exposed film...
without those two, no amount of insurance money will recapture my
pictures or make it up to me.

I also will never sell my cameras so having an esthetically-unattractive
camera is not a disadvantage to me.  Instead, it's a benefit... you might
think very few people know what a Leica is but you are sadly mistaken.  I
attempt to look as poor as possible when traveling-- no Billingham "Steal
Me Now" bags (yes, in Managua and Guatemala City and Mogadishu, there
*are* thieves who can ID those as 'cash cows.')  I carry my camera across
my body or held in my hand below waist level, behind a leg... my extra
goodies are in a ratty old Army knapsack.  Anything that makes my camera
look like it's _any_ kind of name brand will guaranteed attract the
attention of the twelve-yr old snatch-and-grab kids (who may not know it's
a Leica, but know it will probably get them $20-50 from whoever!) 

So, my long-winded diatribe basically boils down to this.  Don't just
write off someone who puts tape over the dang dot as a "worrier" who
"should have been out taking pictures."  Someone (like me) can be both a
photographer *and* a tape-slapper....

IMHO! :)

Happy shooting...

Georgette

p.s. in case you're thinking, get off your duff and shoot some pictures
instead of sitting on the LUG, well, I'm in the middle of law school
finals and I have to do something to procrastinate!  and it's too dark
outside to take pictures! :)

On Fri, 1 May 1998, Jim Brick wrote:

> My personal opinion is that this red dot and tape thread is as stupid as
> the last time it went around. There are collectors, worriers, and
> photographers. Photographers go out and take lots of pictures. Use the hell
> out of their equipment. Collectors buy/sell/collect cool stuff. Worriers
> worry that someone might see them using a Leica. As if 99.9% of the public
> has even a remote clue what a Leica is. "Your flash didn't go off." So they
> tape over everything. Then some year later worry about how to get the
> sticky gooey or hardened tape junk off of what was a great camera. Should
> have been out taking pictures and not worrying about "red dots and tape."
> Sounds like a Niles soup... Red Beans and Rice. 
> 
> Jim
>