[Leica] The Times Have Changed

[jonathan at openhealth.org (Jonathan Borden)]

Ted Grant wrote:

>
> Scary part about this is that we entrust our lives to these same 
> people to keep us safe in the air! :-(

Well that is the problem. We demand a certain level of security but 
refuse to pay higher ticket prices for it.

FWIW: I give these folks a big hello when I greet them, and a thank you 
when I leave ... many of them are disarmed by this, I imagine they deal 
with annoyed confrontational people all day ... just last week one 
woman was very loudly complaining that her son's medicine "couldn't" go 
through the x-ray because of "doctors orders" ... I felt horribly for 
this 13 year old kid whose medical history was being loudly broadcast 
by his obnoxious mother all over the airport ... it caused a huge 
ruckus and the meds would be _perfectly safe_ with a few x-ray photons 
passing around them.

>
> I had a similar thing happen in Vancouver a year ago with an M7!. And 
> neither did I say anything at first simply because, I figured they'd 
> want to take the camera apart to make sure it was a camera. Along with 
>  the same person telling me to "turn the camera on so she could look 
> at the screen."

I make a point to start opening the equipment and showing it to people 
... they usually wave me past.

Now of course you can make your M7 show a little LED to prove it turns 
on ... what about my M3 that doesn't even have a battery :-))

>
> OOPS!  "This camera doesn't have a screen." says I.  "Then what's 
> behind this little door if there isn't a screen?".she says.:-(
>
> "Film!" says I. "And I can't open it or I'll spoil my pictures and the 
> roll isn't finished yet."  "Just a minute." says she.

The other thing to remember is that even if repeated x-rays increase 
the B+F of the film, this sort of thing is easy to print through and 
really doesn't effect the pictures at all ... Michael Smith (who at the 
very least is well respected for technique) is still using his old 
cache of Super-XX which after all this time has a bit of fog but it 
doesn't effect the prints ... merely adds a bit to the exposure time 
(FWIW).
>
> And off she goes for the chief guy and as they return he says... . 
> "What's the problem here that you can't turn the camera on and show 
> the screen?" says the missing link of human kind.  "It's not an 
> electronic digital camera because it uses film and there's nothing to 
> turn on. But you can look through the view finder and see it's OK 
> without spoiling the film." says I.
>
> Neanderthal man takes camera looks through view finder and says, "OK 
> that's fine. have a good flight."
> At this point you keep your teeth clenched, sort of smile and move on.

Give 'em a big "thank you sir!" and move on ... perhaps they'll 
remember you next trip :-)

Jonathan