When the Misfortune Strikes in Vietnam: Broke my Leica MP (Part 1)

Diary

When the Misfortune Strikes in Vietnam: Broke my Leica MP (Part 1)

July 27, 2025

Not long ago, I borrowed Kevin’s Mamiya 6 to see what kind of superpower this camera could unleash, as he was looking for a new home for it. After testing two rolls of Kodak Vision 3 200T from Reflx Lab, I thought it was me making the shots underexposed, but it turned out that the camera’s metering is easily distracted by backlight. I am so pleased with the resolution, separation, and shooting style of this camera that I packed it in my backpack for the next trip to Hanoi, Vietnam.

Reflx Lab let me try this Kodak Vision 3 200T respooled film in 120 format. Its look is reminiscent of the 500T a lot. I shot them at ISO 200 and some at ISO 100 with the Mamiya 6, developed and scanned by HK Camera. After that, I enjoyed the shooting experience with the Mamiya, its rangefinder coupling, collapsible lens, and 6×6 format. It’s like a box of chocolate that contains all the flavors you want. The only complaint is the highly sensitive shutter button and the AEL is not the AEL I understand. For those who wonder, when you use AE mode, you get the reading and you turn this dial to AEL to perform the lock function. Even so, I still think this is a great camera to bring with me for my trip.

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We arrived in Hanoi on the first day of July. It’s my third time visiting this city and Kevin’s first. It’s a vibrant and energetic city, blended with its strong heritage and food. We were starving so we grabbed some beef pho after we checked in at the hotel near the old quarter, which is the best area to shoot if you like to do layering and street portraits. People are very friendly even when I asked them for photos. We wandered around some wet markets and there is a place you must check out called Dong Xuan Market, full of electronics and clothing wholesalers. It’s a nice area to catch those playing chess, transporting huge bags of clothes, or locals crossing in their traditional hats. It’s a place I discovered last time I came with Keith in 2017.

In 2017, I carried the Leica M10 and MP with Summilux 35mm f/1.4 ASPH FLE. I am sharing some of the images that I took in the old quarter in Hanoi.

A Tragic Twist: The Incident with My Leica MP

Kevin and I shared the same room and we were packing for the next day and watching Grainydays on YouTube to get into the photography mood. The Leica MP was dropped on the carpet in our room; I noticed I forgot to zip the camera compartment. It was jammed and the shutter button was loose, looking at it with despair and hopelessness to find somewhere to repair it immediately in Hanoi. Luckily I brought two cameras. I turned my head to the Mamiya 6. When I planned for this trip, I brought lenses that I didn’t shoot much, such as the Zeiss C Biogon 35mm f/2.8 ZM (superb sharpness and contrast) and Zeiss Sonnar 50mm f/1.5 AM (nice bokeh with focus shift), and a newly acquired Nikkor 3.5cm f/1.8 S mount (modified to M). I shot two rolls of Ilford Pan 100 push 2 stops to 400 and was tidying up my gear for the next day when the incident happened. I looked at the 120 films I got in my bag, some Kodak Portra 400 and a few others like Reflx Lab 50D and 250D. I googled a few places for film and got some Kodak Portra 400, 800 at the Hanoi Film Store, and found some Kodak Portra 400VC and 160NC!

The Small Incense Village

The actual place is much smaller than I thought, but we arrived early so we got the whole place to ourselves. The incense village is about 1.5 hours away from the city and the famous thing is the incense displays are tied at one end to make them look like a sphere and each of them spreads out creating this magical or you may call “Instagram look”. Well, I told Kevin I loaded some Kodak Tri-X 400, I finished them with some portraits of the workers and then changed to Kodak Portra 400 rated at ISO 200. When I held the camera, I felt like I could conquer the fear of heights. So, I slowly climbed up the ladder, took the reading first, and shot three frames up there, I wished I could shoot some Tri-X shots up there too; they should look good.

I actually enjoyed more when we took the chance to check out the surrounding areas of it. We saw some giant feet chicken, abandoned incense which makes a nice contrast to the well-aligned area in the venue. After that, we took our private car to the other village.

Cycling for His Second Time in Life - Ninh Binh

I picked Ninh Binh partly because of its vibe, very local and price-friendly. People are very nice, and food stays up because you can’t go wrong with beef noodles and spring rolls. I must confess I ate a lot of fresh spring rolls. We picked a homestay not far from town with a nice pond, swimming pool, and a dog that looks sad all the time, and a cat that is cute but changes his mind all the time. Kevin was excited looking at the Koi and our host Hannah showed us the area to visit and our room. It’s clean and nice. It’s around 25 USD per night including breakfast, the fried noodles are pretty good. After checking in, I asked Hannah to show us the bike as I wanted to let Kevin practice first. He did really well but held his grip too tight, just like how we hold our Leicas. He didn’t enjoy it much, but we made it halfway to Mua Cave in the middle of a strong rain. When the rain intensified, we looked for a local shop as shelter; we sat there for an hour looking at each other, staring at the rain, and I enjoyed my Vietnamese coffee.

After that, we decided to ride back to our homestay and call it a day and stayed in the swimming pool for a bit. Kevin decided to give it another try tomorrow. I have mixed feelings about the weather, but let’s see. It turned out to be partly cloudy the next day, where we went to the city area to take a 3-hour boat tour. It’s very peaceful where you get to go through the caves, and there were a few checkpoints to get some drinks or visit temples. It’s tranquil to just touch the water and the scent is so natural, a complete opposite to the urban life in Hanoi. I shot only with the Mamiya 6 and Kodak Portra 400 because I was worried ISO 160 would be too slow with our boat moving and create motion blur.

Sweat Top to Bottom - Mua Cave

If you are planning to visit Mua Cave in Ninh Binh, make sure you bring an extra top to get changed and be prepared for some exercise. Surely not the best way to go up with cameras as it’s an extra load. I felt like I was climbing up like Sam in Death Stranding. After 500 stone steps, we reached the platform where you could get some rest. Actually, we stopped about 10 times just to take a rest before reaching that point. I went up further to get this view and took a selfie.

Kevin went up to the other side which is shown in this photo. It’s more rocky and steep. He came back with a smile on his face urging me to check out the other top. Without thinking too much, I headed up; it’s much steeper than the other one. At last, I made it and took a few shots up there. Not bad!

One of the best things in Ninh Binh is the unpredictable weather and scenes. You never know what you will get into. Some random pipe on the road or a nice lotus field we got. We just cycled around and stopped whenever we saw something interesting. I took the reading with my Sekonic L558, yes, I brought it with me because I think the Mamiya 6 metering is only for reference when the light is strong in the background; you either point the camera to the ground to get the reading or you find another area that is close to this luminance. At night we had some fried rice and walked back to the homestay. We watched “Heat” the movie and packed and prepared for our next destination back to Hanoi city.

While you are reading this blog post, the Leica MP was fixed by Raymond (Master Yu) within 3 days. Special thanks to Jason from LSK Camera for sending to fix. Some parts were dislocated beneath the shutter button area which required replacement. On top of that, the two rolls of Ilford Pan 100 are forever in my mind; there were two shots that I was particularly fond of. One was the old man repairing watches with his goggle on his left eye carefully fixing a wristwatch; another one was a woman leaning by her bike holding a note in her hand, waiting for the fish market seller to hand over goods that she picked. I had the Ilford Pan 100 developed, and everything looks transparent. I suspect the bottle of Rodinal was exhausted; when I mixed it, it looked too red to be the normal Rodinal I used, it was first unboxed in 2021 and stored for quite some time. I looked at the blank film strips for 5 seconds, took a deep breath, telling myself to continue to shoot more. Photos are the byproducts of our memories where our experiences last. Well, I didn’t get to use all the lenses I brought. Time to plan for my next trip!