Whats up with black tape & M6 cameras?

[gb hill]

I was at the local book store the other day looking through magazines & in the new JPG mag there's this article about this dude and his M6 or 7?. It's a black model & he has black tape covering the red Leica logo and everything else written on the camera. I have seen others do the same thing. On Chris Webers blog site there is a pic. of a photographer in Paris doing the same thing to his Leica. I've heard it's to hide the camera but that just don't make sense to me. Especially on an already black camera! I think if I had an m6, I would be proud to show off the Leica logo! Didn't really know where to post this, but sense I don't see people taping up other cameras...well here I am! Looking foward to your thoughts on this,& btw maybe there is some of you that tape your M cameras too? Hope one day I'll have an M6.


Greg

[akptc]

I think one does what one has to do to protect one's gear. Paris is legendary for thieves. If I photographed there, I would probably tape all the red dots I could find on my gear

[clintock]

Thieves know this tape trick, it's a good way to have your fed 5 cut off your shoulder.
To make a camera look not worth stealing, affix an old backlit lcd to the back so it appears to be a digital.

[thurows]

An old trick to help keep your camera from being cut off your shoulder is to run a piano wire through the strap.

[nightfly]

I'm about to tape up my black M4-P. No need to draw attention of thieves or have other camera geeks coming up to talk about my Leica while I'm out shooting (no offense to anyone here).

I don't think people would be looking to steal a Leica specifically by what it looks like but someone might recognize the name as something of value. An all black camera may or may not be valuable. Probably move on to the guy with big Canon DSLR with the CANON camera strap.

[Socke]

Out of security reasons I never put a valuable camera in a diaper bag! All the rich american tourists here use diaper bags and every pickpocket knows this. My Domke clone on the other hand makes me look like one of the famous war photographers which frightes the pickpockets out off stealing my Contax

[Flyfisher Tom]

Originally Posted by nightfly

I don't think people would be looking to steal a Leica specifically by what it looks like but someone might recognize the name as something of value. An all black camera may or may not be valuable. Probably move on to the guy with big Canon DSLR with the CANON camera strap.

what Nightfly said.

Thieves are more likely to look for better known Nikon and Canon DSLRs. But no reason to let the red dot draw extra attention if you don't want it.

[rschneider]

I don't give a rat's a*s about someone stealing my camera. That's what insurance is for. I cover the red dot on my M6 because it's a HEADLIGHT. If the camera is all black, it doesn't look like much of anything and people ignore it (and me).

I permanently blacked out all the white writing on my M6, painted the red lens release dot black and put a strip of black gaffer tape over the big red zit. Now it's visually and audibly quiet. :-)

rs

[ghost]

it makes the photographer invisible and protects them from evil. everybody knows that.

[back alley]

i put black tape on my car.
this way people don't know it's a mazda!!

[rogue_designer]

fwiw - several newspaper photogs I've worked with tape up the canikon text off the front of their cams too.

[Todd.Hanz]

Originally Posted by gb hill

I think if I had an m6, I would be proud to show off the Leica logo!

Greg

I'm with ya, show it off...like a 42 y.o. lady with a new Boob job .

Todd

[akptc]

You know, not be cross or anything, 'cause this is really not that important to me, but reading replies to this frequently raised topic, one would think that every other RFF photographer is 7 feet tall, has a black belt in martial arts, is packing a Magnum in his back pocket, has a million-dollar insurance on his gear, and generally doesn’t give a rat's a...s about nothin', did I get it right?

Just out of curiosity, has anyone responding ever been mugged? Any short and frail photographers out there?

Just curious…, please don't hit me

[back alley]

andy,
i'm not making fun of the people here but i do think that's it's funny that people, any people, put tape on their camera.

i'm 56 with a heart condition, 5'10'' tall and weigh in at about 250 pounds.
do i think about getting mugged, sometimes, mostly depending on where i am shooting.
but i think the very act of photographing tells the world that we have a camera in our hand.
a good and knowledgeable thief will know what your camera is worth if the red dot is covered or not. it's the crack head that wouldn't know a polaroid from a speed graphic that worries me cause he's gonna steal your camera and may hurt you no matter what you shoot with.
tape is not like clark kent's glasses...we all know it's superman.

[akptc]

Hi Joe,

Not a big deal, it’s just that sometimes a thread gets started that seems to have potential for a lot of valuable or at least interesting advice for total amateurs like me, but it often gets snuffed out by comments that (purposely or not) tent to ridicule the topic, before, it seems, all the “good stuff” gets posted. For example, the earlier comment that the red dot is a “headlight” made a lot of sense to me. I recalled seeing a couple of pros shooting in the streets – one could easily not notice they even had cameras in their hands. So that’s one interesting aspect. Another one is, if it makes one feel better or safer or invisible, why not tape up the bright spots on your gear? I mean, lots of pros are doing it, they must know something, I reckon. And finally, we don’t live by statistics and averages, I think, so if we manage to avoid one, I mean a single one attack on us or our beloved gear, a piece of black tape or a secret shirt pocket for your travel cash will have been worth it, no matter how statistically unlikely it might have been that we get mugged. So, anyway, just musing here

[anglophone1]

I tape all my camera logos, the fact is that it's a natural thing for the human eye to read script , so any white name on black draws the eye, an all black camera doesn't ...................try it yourself and see. It really does seem to make it [whatever brand it is] more inconspicuous..
The only problem I seem to get is camera freaks thinking my R D1S are Leicas and then freaking out when I flip out the screen
Clive

[colyn]

Originally Posted by rschneider

I don't give a rat's a*s about someone stealing my camera. That's what insurance is for. I cover the red dot on my M6 because it's a HEADLIGHT. If the camera is all black, it doesn't look like much of anything and people ignore it (and me).

I permanently blacked out all the white writing on my M6, painted the red lens release dot black and put a strip of black gaffer tape over the big red zit. Now it's visually and audibly quiet. :-)

rs

When I tried taping my black M6 several people asked me why I was defacing my Leica.
As for theft prevention...it doesn't work.

[colyn]

Originally Posted by Todd.Hanz

like a 42 y.o. lady with a new Boob job .

Todd

That will blind ya in a hurry...

[rschneider]

Originally Posted by akptc

Just out of curiosity, has anyone responding ever been mugged? Any short and frail photographers out there?

Just curious…, please don't hit me

Mugged? Yes. Held up with a handgun in the entry foyer of my apartment building when I lived in NYC.

Short? Yes.

Frail? Not really. But I don't go out of my way to get into a physical confrontation.

But as I said, I'm not blacking out my cameras to ward off thieves. I just want them to be discreet.

rs

[gb hill]

I guess i've become a nieve person, because I never thought of taping over the logo to hide the brand name from theives. But of course I don't have a Leica either. I think though that any serious theif will reconize what brand it is, tape or no tape! I agree with Joe 100% the crackhead is the one you have to worry about robbing you. Most pawn shops around here won't even take a film camera anymore. If its not digital they don't want it. There is no camera stores around here for a thief to sell to. The closest REAL camera store is 85 miles away in Raleigh. So I guess I worry more about my wallet than my film cameras when i'm out and about.

[lmd91343]

Originally Posted by akptc

Just out of curiosity, has anyone responding ever been mugged? Any short and frail photographers out there?

In 1977 on Broadway in the theater district in NYC, I got mugged. The would be thief tried to take my Canon FTb. I managed to hang on to the camera and my wallet, but got a broken jaw when I fought back. I was almost 22 years old and in very good physical shape, 5' 8" and about 160 pounds.

[amateriat]

I think a good part of being "discreet" comes from going about one's business in a confident, purposeful manner, but with the radar still on. Joe pretty much nails it for me: the guy who'll do you the most harm won't know a Leica from a Lomo, and won't take the time to try and differentiate. IMO, you're better off making sure your wallet is in a non-pickable pocket than doing the "cameraflage" thing.

Or you can buy an MP (sez he whose Hexars don't have red dots either).


- Barrett

[FrankS]

On a black camera, I like it all black. I like the way it looks that way. Go ahead and make fun of me. I don't care what you think.

[LADP]

I tape my cameras. I have an MP now, so nothing to tape on the front, but I did tape my M6 when I had one. I started doing that to all my cameras back in about 1979, when my Jr. High School Photography teacher suggested we all do it. I grew up in NYC.

Mugged? Yep. Personally probably about 5 or 6 times up until my mid teens. Then again once when I was about 26. That's not counting having buss passes stolen countless times as a kid. That was NYC back then.

About 6 years ago, in the Spanish Quarter in Napoli, some punk on a Vespa rode up and tried to steal my watch. He didn't get it, but he did get knocked around pretty well for his effort. It would have gone worse for him if I hadn't been holding a 16mm Bolex camera in one hand.

I tape logos on camera gear now mainly for esthetic reasons, and also because we tend to "Greek" out all logos in the film business for props that appear in frame. It's just become habit by now. Also, an all black camera reflects less well in windows or glass like surfaces.

Insurance is a must IMO. I can let a camera go if I feel any real danger. If it's just a young inexperienced punk trying to learn the ropes, then I'm less apt to comply. You have to trust your instincts on that though, and the safer and smarter solution is to simply hand anything they want over to them. Sometimes that's hard though. I get pissed off.

[Ben Z]

As regards black tape and stealth: If someone is holding up to his face a black boxy thing with a lens sticking out the front, how many people won't know it's a camera if the nameplate is taped over?

As regards black tape and security: If a thief knows what a Leica is and how much it's worth, I bet he can recognize one even with the nameplate taped over.

I got my M6 for about $400 under market only because someone had used black paint to cover the red logo and the white frontal markings. $5 of Testor's thinner and paint and a small brush and a rag, and I restored it to like-new. If someone steals it I'll make a $400 profit from the insurance, whereas the former owner lost $400.