The annual Photographica photo fair which takes place in the Royal Horticultural Halls, Victoria, is a firm favourite in my calendar. It's as much for the chat and friendship as for the seeking of bargains. This year I talked myself hoarse but also found time to snap up some bargains. I have just staggered home after six solid hours on the hoof, treading 4,000 steps for a perambulation of 1.9 miles. I'm now too tired to go to the gym as planned. Read on.

Yesterday I spied a rather nice Leica M3 and 50mm Summitar, complete with Leica Meter, sitting in a camera shop in West London. Not a Leica dealer, however. I couldn’t resist having a look and found a good user M3, single stroke, from 1963, with a 1946 f/2 Summitar screw-mount lens attached. Old screw-mount Summitars are enjoying something of a renaissance, I recalled.....

This morning I got a surprise from the postman, a promising-looking jiffy bag from Athens containing some camera bondage. It was the unusual wrist strap from Evris Papanikolas's new Tie Her Up strap company. My thanks to Denise at Greek Leica agent Skiadopoulos in Athens for sending this review copy. Evris is also sending a leather neck strap, a different design, for evaluation.