Camera toters are a curious lot. I frequently witness fashion-conscious point-and-shooters eye each other’s stylish little cameras and ask each other questions like, “how big is that screen?”, “Is it high-def?”, “is that a touch screen?” and, of course, “does it come in blue?” Similarly, I’ve watched the eyes of SLR shooters as they dart about — not from picture opportunity to picture opportunity, but from one guy’s SLR to another. I’ve observed as Nikon owners nod approval to other Nikon owners, while Canon carriers do likewise. Inevitably, they all ask each other the same question, “how you liking your camera?”

In this crazy, gear-centric environment, I’ve always been thankful that my camera of choice is the humble, unfashionable, unloved rangefinder. No one pays it (or me) the slightest bit of attention, which makes it that much easier to practice my chosen craft… until now.

No longer is my Leica ‘invisible’ on the streets. Everywhere I go, people are looking at my camera and scrutinizing it. They’re stopping me, and asking questions about it. Attention is the scourge of the successful street photographer, and I place the blame squarely on the metaphoric shoulders of both Panasonic and Olympus — specifically on their latest crop of Micro Four Thirds (mFT) cameras. Everyone seems to be interested in these cameras. And, because many of them are styled to resemble rangefinders, everyone thinks I have some kind of new-fangled mirrorless, mFT-type camera.

So now the camera watchers stop me. And they ask questions. They begin innocently enough with “what kind of camera is that?” But it doesn’t take long until their questions gain weight. “What, exactly, is a rangefinder?” they ask. Or, “What’s the advantage of shooting with a rangefinder?” The answers become far too involved to discuss in a brief on-street exchange. And so I’ve written this article in the form of an open-letter to all those photographers who have developed a sudden interest in my little Leica M-series cameras. | Read the article