[Leica] leicaetiquitte

[Kyle Cassidy <cassidy@netaxs.com>]

Javier seyz:

>I was shooting off a roll in the park a few days ago
>and crossed paths with a fellow with an M6. I
>pretended not to notice him or his camera and he pretended not
>to notice me or mine. I think we both understood each other.
>It set me wondering though; Is there an secret Leica salute
>or hand signal that should be used at times like this?

javier, that is definately a SERIOUS breech of leica etiquitte. i've
notified solms and they are sending you a box, please pack your M6 snugly
inside and return it for redistribution. the proper confrontation is this:

(leica user A walking along, carrying an m6 and wistling "strangers in the
night" comes across leica user B walking in the opposite direction
whistling something off of "Plastic Surgery Disasters" also carrying an
M6)

Leica user A: Hey! holy smokes! is that the .72?
Leica user B: Yeah! Wow! is that a chrome finish?!
A: Yes it is!
B: That's really nice, i saw a chrome finish M3 the other day, on lombard
   street, some guy with a cane.
A: oh, guy with a cane and an M3, that's harry. yeah. he's got a IIIf as
   well.
B: I have a IIIc, with a 50mm elmar and a squidthorp multifinder.
A: I had a broken IIIc once. it wouldn't advance and the shutter wouldn't
   fire.
B: That's nice. that's really great. How'd you get it?
A: I got it off ebay for $750.
B: Nice. So what kind of lens is that?
A: This is the 50mm protolux --
B: Oh, the f .75? i heard about that!
A: A yeah, it cost six thousand dollars.
B: Oh yeah, i got the 35 1.1 here, i paid like $3,250 for it. as you can
   see, i've got it hooked up to a viseoflex rig.
A: Cool. yeah, that's great. so what are you shooting?
B: Nothing. I mean, i don't have film in it.
A: Yeah, me neither. 
B: let me give you my card, here
A: ah, cool, you're on line, "leicadude212@hotmail.com" that's cool, i'm
   "leicadude103@hotmail.com" i'll e-mail you.
B: yeah, yeah, i'll send you some pictures of this m2 i used to have.
A: woah, cool! i'll send you some scans of a leica brochure from 1972
   that someone e-mailed me.
B: that would be tops! maybe we can get together, there's a nice tree
   in my back yard, i'd like to see how your protolux compairs to my 
   summalux.
A: yeah, cool, i'll bring my 60x schnieder loupe.
B: that would be great! we could examine my m2 for microscratches.
A: great to meet you!
B: it was a real pleasure.

(then you may part company)

                              kc