Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/05/01
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Being an owner of probably the largest collection of Shintaro painted cameras I feel I should wade into this discussion. - Shintaro's work is on par with the best of the other "painters". There is an other painter/restorer in Japan that can do a better job, but at a price (US$1200 for a M2/M3), but his work is strictly for show as the paint is soft enough to rub off. Over the years Shintaro and I have conspired to make a lot of specials, including hammertone grey, US Army Blue/grey, Ivory hammertone, black IIIF's etc and the paintjob has always been of a quality that compares to or exceeds the Leica original paintjob. I know that there are other painters of cameras that only sprays over the chrome and leave it like that (including somebody back east who powder coats bodies black over the chrome). Leica was never that good at painting the M's. I am old enough to have bought new M2's and M3's in black paint from the factory in the 60's and these paintjobs would not have met with our standards today. One of the ways of spotting a fake paint M is usually the fact that the paintjob is too good. Leicas paint used to react with the brass and cause bubbling of the paint almost instantly. When Shintaro started painting cameras about 6 years ago, we experimented with various finishes. Initially the finish was quite glossy and very hard. Later he refined the process to incorporate the "semi-gloss" finish that closely matched the original M finish (of the M2/M3 and M4 - the finish on the Millenium/LHSA/Dragon TTL is different. It is glossier than the original M paint). Every camera he paints involves removing the existing chrome and underlaying nickel and polishing the brass to a high gloss finish. This is painstaking work and also involves the use of some rather aggressive chemicals. The only item that I know that Shintaro paints black over chrome is lenses. Some of the early Leica M-lenses are a mixture of brass and alloy and if you use chemical removal of the chrome, you would also dissolve the alloy! There is a precedence for this as Leica used to supply 50/1,4 Summiluxes in black paint and these were simply painted over chrome and I have had 35/2 which had the same paintjob, black paint over chrome. These lenses were supplied new from the factory in that finish! A couple of the cameras that Shintaro made up for me had "brassing" incorporated into the original scheme. My favourite was a black Nikon S2. Shintaro painted it and then studied other black S2 and "mapped out" the brassing on them and matched it on mine. I have a Nikon SP in "Ugly-" condition that I am sending to him for a similar treatment this summer. Shintaro is a working photographer and regards cameras as tools, not as collectibles and I agree with him. He is not making "fakes" that can be passed off as overvalued collectibles. He is providing a service to M-users, who, like me, prefers the tactile feel of black paint with nicely brassed edges to a black chrome or bright chrome finish. Tom A Tom Abrahamsson Vancouver, BC Canada rapidwinder.com - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html