A visit with the extraordinary David Chan in Hong Kong

[Heilbron]

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I was in Hong Kong last week and paid a visit to the David Chan Photo Shop off Nathan Road in Kowloon. Mr. Chan has been selling cameras in HK since the early 60’s and has had the shop at 16 Kimberly Rd since 1972.

 

He is without a doubt one of the most extraordinary collectors and sellers of vintage camera equipment on the planet, with a breathtaking knowledge of all the great marques, particularly Leica. He is more an obsessive collector than a camera vendor and keeps a deliberately low profile -- no website, no facebook page – a virtual ghost in the digital world for which he has little regard. But that hasn’t stopped him from becoming world famous. He is even featured in the Lonely Planet Guide to HK as well as Time Out HK: Time Out Hong Kong | Big Smog | Hongkonger: David Chan. But for a really great profile of him, check out Emilio Brizzi’s blog: On Photography And More: Meeting Mr. David Chan in Kowloon.

 

I spent a couple of hours in the shop with the elegantly besuited Mr. Chan, his staff and the rather eccentric and passionate longtime customers of his who clearly treat the shop as a second home. (One of them insisted that Leica hadn't made a great lens since the 1930's!).

 

Mr. Chan could quickly see that I was not a collector of high-end rarities. Nonetheless, he showed me a few of his many treasures, all lovingly wrapped in shrink wrap. And in the end, I couldn’t resist buying a lens: a 1966 Leica M 35mm 1.4 v2 lens with “eyes” to be precise. It was in good condition and perfect for my M3.

 

When I told Mr. Chan I was from Toronto, he smiled and pointed out that my new lens had been made in Midland Ontario, near Toronto, in 1966. It was fitting then that I would be returning the lens to its birthplace. Who knows how many adventures it had had in the intervening 48 years on its journey from Toronto to Hong Kong? Mr. Chan smiled again and said, almost conspiratorially, that the Midland lenses were better built than the German ones. He invoked the sacred name of Leica designer extraordinaire Walter Mandler, who ran Leica’s Midland operation and who created the lens I had just purchased, among others.

 

The transaction completed, Mr. Chan had one of his staff take a photo of me, Mr. Chan and one of his longtime customers. We shook hands and I walked out into the neon-lit, crowded buzzy streets of Kowloon and... took my first picture with my new lens. All in all a wonderful experience!

[gbealnz]

Nice story, real nice.

I will be in HK next year (we were there last year as well), and will make a point of locating him and experiencing this for myself.

Gary

[Archiver]

I will definitely look for this shop the next time I go to Hong Kong. Thank you for the report, it's always great to know about these photographic bastions against the digitalization of the modern world.