Leitz Leica M2 Black Paint w. Rietzschel Prolinear 1.9/5cm

A camera with a back ground story and history. The camera was purchased directly from E. Leitz Ltd, 30 Mortimer Street, London W1 by Associated Iliffe Press Ltd (much later IPC Business Press Ltd) for the use of Ron Easton. He served the many Iliffe magazines which included Autocar, Motor Transport, Motor Trader, Flight, Farmer, Stockbreeder, Cage and Aviary Birds among others. Ron Easton worked for these magazines but specialised in motoring subjects. In 1970, Ron Easton transferred to Autocar magazine and worked out of the Autocar office under the supervision of the previous owner. The camera was used for motor racing photography (Formula One and rallies) all over Europe, and also for the magazine’s weekly road test car photography. On one occasion when photographing the Swedish Rally in the 1970s with temperatures around minus 20C, Ron’s Hasselblad 500CM refused to operate but the Leica M2 just kept on working! During the 1960s and 1970s the Leica was serviced regularly by E. Leitz Ltd and during one of these services in the mid-1970s the camera’s brass strap lugs, which had worn dangerously thin (!) were replaced by Leitz with the present chrome ones as the original black painted lugs were no longer available. When Ron Easton retired from Autocar in 1981 the Leica was acquired by the previous owner, who had known the camera since the mid-1960s and had been loaned it from the late 1970s after it had been replaced by an M4P. The camera is now paired with a beautiful modified Rietzschel Prolinear 1.9/5cm cine lens no.166956. The conversion is perfectly executed and the colored depth of field and focusing scale matches the brass of the camera beautifully.