Originally posted by monochrome Oh, we oldsters understand perfectly. Hipsters of any age* are shallow, self-conscious attention seekers. They show icons to signal their virtue and group identity. Does that guy shoot film regularly or just walk around Dumbo wearing a an old camera around his neck?
* Where I live, Hipsters drive Teslas around town. The wealthy drive old Camrys or Accords or Subarus because they work.
And that's partially my point. People just assume someone is doing it for attention. I know quite a few people who lug around film cameras, and they take quite a few pictures. I've never encountered the mythical hipster who wears a film camera as jewelry. At my local photo store, the young guys and girls who work at the film lab seem way more passionate about photography than the older guys who work at the digital camera area.
It's just something that bothers me a bit. I've been called a hipster before just because I "listen to music that no one has heard of". Yeah and I'm sure all the people at my local record store are buying records just to look cool, rather than simply they are passionate about music.
It's interesting about your comment about Teslas, making the assumption that people who drive Teslas don't work. That's literally the first time I've seen or heard someone say that hipsters drive Teslas, which further bolsters my point that calling someone a hipster is meaningless. My conservative religious boss who is the complete opposite of what most would call a hipster drives a Tesla. I don't know where you live, but the local wealthy town doesn't have any Camrys or Accords littering the mansions and downtown, it's filled with flashy Porsches, BMWs, Volvos, Audis, Mercedes, and even Lamborghinis.
I just think it's kind of reductive to tell someone who asks "why are the prices of K1000s so high?" that it's because of shallow hipsters. It denigrates young people who have discovered a new passion. It's probably more accurate and helpful to say that it's the most commonly recommended student camera there is. Every photography YouTube channel I follow has done a video about the K1000, and don't think most photography influencers ever mention any 35mm Pentax other than the K1000. My most recent annoyance about this was the Camera Store guys saying in their year end review that Pentax needs to make a digital K1000. It's like Pentax doesn't exist after 1975. It's sad, but it keeps the price of MXs, KXs, and Super Programs from getting inflated too much.