The Funniest Photography Question You've Been Asked

OpticsEngineer said:

that is really funny how your nephew said it. after a few years of marriage, he likely will learn to phrase things a bit better

Click to expand...

number_5 said:

I was walking around with a 600/4, and someone asked me how many X. I ask what X? He pulled out his phone and said, 5X. After I told him it's 1X, he was not impressed and walked away.

Click to expand...

Bobapingu said:

number_5 said:

I was walking around with a 600/4, and someone asked me how many X. I ask what X? He pulled out his phone and said, 5X. After I told him it's 1X, he was not impressed and walked away.

Click to expand...

Same! My father-in-law saw me with a 300/4. He asked how many times zoom it was. I didn't know how to answer so ducked the question by saying it wasn't a zoom. That seemed to satisfy him.

Click to expand...

Planterz said:

When binoculars, monoculars, telescopes (sometimes), rifle scopes, spotting scopes, cell phones, and other cameras are described as being "number X" it's not unreasonable to assume that a big telephoto camera lens could be described as the same, especially since extremely few people (us) think of lenses in terms of focal length relative to 35mm film/full frame equivalent. It also doesn't help that the "X" can mean either "power" or "times zoom relative to the base focal length" I really don't think it's a dumb question at all, just one that they don't know they don't understand, and there's no reason to be snotty about it.

I think it's best to have the answer ready, something like "it's not really measured that way when it comes to camera lenses, but if it were compared to binoculars, it'd be about 10.5 power but about 21X the zoom of your cell phone's main camera". I've only had to use that a couple times, but it worked.

Click to expand...

Bobapingu said:

Planterz said:

When binoculars, monoculars, telescopes (sometimes), rifle scopes, spotting scopes, cell phones, and other cameras are described as being "number X" it's not unreasonable to assume that a big telephoto camera lens could be described as the same, especially since extremely few people (us) think of lenses in terms of focal length relative to 35mm film/full frame equivalent. It also doesn't help that the "X" can mean either "power" or "times zoom relative to the base focal length" I really don't think it's a dumb question at all, just one that they don't know they don't understand, and there's no reason to be snotty about it.

I think it's best to have the answer ready, something like "it's not really measured that way when it comes to camera lenses, but if it were compared to binoculars, it'd be about 10.5 power but about 21X the zoom of your cell phone's main camera". I've only had to use that a couple times, but it worked.

Click to expand...

Oh, so i was being snotty to my father-in-law, was I? Goodbye!

Click to expand...

Dem Bell said:

Is this a film camera?

Click to expand...

jiberlin said:

RaysJ said:

Dem Bell said:

jiberlin said:

...

Click to expand...

A physicist, a computer scientist and a mathematician are on the train from Cardiff when they see some sheep, only one of which is black.

Physicist: "There are some black sheep in Wales"

Computer scientist: "There is at least one black sheep in Wales"

Mathematician: "Today we saw some sheep, at least one side of at least one of them was black."

Click to expand...

There are lots of black sheep in Yorkshire. I even have some photos of them. They were black on both sides. There is even a brewery name after one of them.

Click to expand...

You did not get the point.

Click to expand...

RaysJ said:

tbcass said:

OldSchoolNewSchool said:

What's the funniest photography-related question asked of you by a non-photographer?

Mine is this, asked by a good friend, bless her innocent heart:

"So, Robert, do you have all the lenses you want?"

It took everything I could do to keep from answering her question with another question: "Is the sky purple with pink polka dots?"

Click to expand...

I find her question perfectly reasonable and certainly not funny. As for myself nobody has ever asked me a question that I found funny.

Click to expand...

Yes, what is funny about that?

Maybe she was joking that the OP has so many lenses?

So the joke was on the OP.

Click to expand...

maestro55 said:

circa 1980 I was working in a camera store when a customer complained:

“ …can’t they make a zoom lens that makes everything bigger without cutting things out?”

I was speechless for many moments before I came up with a clumsy answer that I’m sure they did not understand. I still find it easy for ME to understand but hard to explain.

Click to expand...

maestro55 said:

circa 1980 I was working in a camera store when a customer complained:

“ …can’t they make a zoom lens that makes everything bigger without cutting things out?”

I was speechless for many moments before I came up with a clumsy answer that I’m sure they did not understand. I still find it easy for ME to understand but hard to explain.

Click to expand...

Surf Photography

Learn the nuances of surfing photography

www.divephotoguide.com

Ryan Schwartz said:

I was photographing a small-town high school marching band parade last year and a kid in the crowd asked me if I could have my camera. I got a good chuckle out of it before I moved along with the parade. Was using a Nikon D500 & 16-80mm for the event.

Click to expand...

tbcass said:

Ryan Schwartz said:

I was photographing a small-town high school marching band parade last year and a kid in the crowd asked me if I could have my camera. I got a good chuckle out of it before I moved along with the parade. Was using a Nikon D500 & 16-80mm for the event.

Click to expand...

??? Do you mean "if he could have your camera"?

Click to expand...