On Sunday, May 16th I had the pleasure of borrowing an M9 from the Leica representatives at the New York Photo Festival.

From the moment I first held it in my hands I was impressed. I knew it had the latest in digital camera technology and yet it still felt like a timeless, precision instrument distilled into the simplest and purest form possible.

Over the next 5 hours or so that I was allowed to borrow the camera, I found it to be a perfect companion as I walked around the city. It was light enough to be comfortably carried all afternoon, yet still possessed all that was necessary, and only what was necessary, to capture images of the highest quality.

It was my first time using a rangefinder type of camera, and I was unaccustomed to having to manually focus every shot. However, I found that the nature of the camera’s operation encouraged me to spend more time contemplating my compositions before capturing them.

Before I had the opportunity to try the M9, I had read various reviews raving about how great the M9 is. Now that I had a chance to try it out for myself, I must say, there is something special about it and the pictures that it takes.

I can’t wait to get my hands on one again.

This is a guest post by Marawan Hamdi. A pharmaceutical scientist by training, Marawan Hamdi is an amateur photographer who enjoys exploring the outdoors and finding inspiration for his photography. To see more of his photography, visit his blog photosbymar.wordpress.com. Marawan Hamdi won the motion theme photo contest at the New York Photo Festival scavenger hunt for his taxi photograph.