alan davus
Well-known
Yes, my brand new Leica M has finally arrived albeit 33 years late. Flashback to Jan 1974 and with my brother off to Hongkong for a holiday, I asked him to buy me a new camera duty free, a Leica no less because I'd recently spoken to a wedding photog. and he'd said "I've used a Leica for 30 years and it's never let me down". So cashed up with my $120 Ted went to HK and came home with a brand new Yashica TL Electro Slr. Of course being young and stupid, I didn't know any better. And after all I had my first real camera. That served me well for 11 years until it died. Enter camera no 2 a Nikon FA. This formed the heart of my photography for 18 years until on a whim, in 2003 I bought a Hexar RF. This was my intro. to the joys of rangefinder photography. However throughout all these years the idea that a Leica M represented the best in 35 mm photo. never went away. And the times I'd spied the thing in shops with it's understated elegance, something that oozed class but at the same time appeared above all to be a functional photographic tool, only increased my belief that a Leica was the Holy Grail. Fast forward to Nov. last year when out for our evening walk with my wife and 14 year daughter, for no apparent reason I collapsed and was rushed to hospital. Incarcerated and feeling sorry for myself for 4 days whilst tests were done trying to find out what had happened, I made myself 2 promises: 1. to learn first aid 2. to buy myself that long desired Leica M. Well today it arrived, 33 years late but I expect, like that wedding photog. all those years ago, I'll be singing it's praises 30 years from now.
