Black Paint Leicas

[Huss]

Do you love her?

Of course.

 

[Huss]

Alright, I’ll play…

In 2008 I bought a new in the box and unused black paint Leica MP3 LHSA Edition kit with the 50mm 1.4 Asph and Leicavit, the whole deal. When it sold new from about 2006-2009 it went for $8K on average, I got it for $5K. I thought about not using it and keeping it in the box but I am not like that. So I proceeded to put hundreds of rolls of film through it until I sold it in 2011. It was a bit brassed up but no dents or abuse, the lens barrel had the most wear. I got $21K for it and now when you can find them, they are over $40K.

There are days I wish I still had it, the thing was gorgeous! But in the end I sold it because I did not like a .72 finder with the 50mm and needed the money for other things. I did take a bunch of nice photos of it right when I got it because, well…one never knows.

View attachment 290654

Wowzas. Dayumm. Whoa.

 

[NB23]

Of course.

Ms. Beautiful knows you’re not letting her hold your M?

 

[film_man]

An original BP is nice I suppose but given that you can nowadays send any M to Camerworks or Kanto and are prepared to wait for it you'll get back whatever you want...so what? I got my M4 modified at Camerworks, has whatever fancy coatings on the finder plus timer and preview levers are now gone. Nice and smooth. I wanted to get the flash ports removed too but that would need a repaint and I just didn't want to wait another 3-4 months for that.

Somebody mentioned $1700 for a Kanto respray. I think that's a good price, the amount of time-consuming specialist work that goes into it is a lot and you get a one-off piece. Or if you're JapanCameraHunter you hog Kanto waiting times by asking them to ruin cameras with some stupid colour scheme. To be honest I'd rather spend $2k on a camera and another $2k making it how I like it than spend $4-5k looking for an "original" black paint whatever. As if they come with a certificate...

I find the modern digital M special editions more interesting really, those Kevlar ones or the Kravitz stuff. If only I had a million to waste.

 

[NB23]

An original BP is nice I suppose but given that you can nowadays send any M to Camerworks or Kanto and are prepared to wait for it you'll get back whatever you want...so what? I got my M4 modified at Camerworks, has whatever fancy coatings on the finder plus timer and preview levers are now gone. Nice and smooth. I wanted to get the flash ports removed too but that would need a repaint and I just didn't want to wait another 3-4 months for that.

Somebody mentioned $1700 for a Kanto respray. I think that's a good price, the amount of time-consuming specialist work that goes into it is a lot and you get a one-off piece. Or if you're JapanCameraHunter you hog Kanto waiting times by asking them to ruin cameras with some stupid colour scheme. To be honest I'd rather spend $2k on a camera and another $2k making it how I like it than spend $4-5k looking for an "original" black paint whatever. As if they come with a certificate...

I find the modern digital M special editions more interesting really, those Kevlar ones or the Kravitz stuff. If only I had a million to waste.

Repaint LOL

 

[Huss]

Ms. Beautiful knows you’re not letting her hold your M?

Nobody better lay a finger on my butterfinger.

 

[wjlapier]

The R-E is black paint? I have one with ver III 35mm Elmarit. Sharpest 35 I’ve ever owned.

Black paint adjacent Leica R-E taken with Pentax WR90...

 

[Huss]

The R-E is black paint? I have one with ver III 35mm Elmarit. Sharpest 35 I’ve ever owned.

Black paint ADJACENT...

i.e. black chrome.

 

[wjlapier]

Black paint ADJACENT...

i.e. black chrome.

Dang, I was hoping to see brass come through some day.

 

[NB23]

Dang, I was hoping to see brass come through some day.

“Adjacent” brass maybe?

 

[Huss]

Dang, I was hoping to see brass come through some day.

Well is it brass under the black chrome. But first you get to the chrome and, well, pretty much severe things need to happen to see brass on a black chrome Leica!

BP Leicas are beautiful, but honestly I prefer the black chrome on my Ms to the BP on my MP. Pretty sure I'm in the minority seeing people freak on the BP.
It is really interesting, and shows the intelligence of Leica's marketing, that the current BP cameras have intentionally very soft paint designed to wear very rapidly.
Give the people what they want - a camera they can easily brass themselves, making it seem more "theirs".

 

[NB23]

 

[wjlapier]

Black paint ADJACENT...

i.e. black chrome.

In that case—my ADJACENT black paint R-E w/ Elmarit 35mm vIII

 

[NB23]

Well is it brass under the black chrome. But first you get to the chrome and, well, pretty much severe things need to happen to see brass on a black chrome Leica!

BP Leicas are beautiful, but honestly I prefer the black chrome on my Ms to the BP on my MP. Pretty sure I'm in the minority seeing people freak on the BP.
It is really interesting, and shows the intelligence of Leica's marketing, that the current BP cameras have intentionally very soft paint designed to wear very rapidly.
Give the people what they want - a camera they can easily brass themselves, making it seem more "theirs".

The late Tom Abrahamsson was part of the counseling team behind the M6 Millennium, the Camera that brought back Black Paint into the Leica game. Funny enough, back in 2000 Leica didn’t believe in its success, there was a lot of tension before Leica decided to OK the new Black Paint special edition. Even the BP Summilux 50mm and BP 35 summicron asph weren’t exactly hot sellers. Very slow sellers, actually. The hype came later, from guys like us Gushing on various forums, believe it or not. And with the help of asians who then decided it was time to start loving those blck painted objects. I recall every step of the way, saw it develop. Anyhow, until recently, a BP 35mm summicron asph was a hard sale.

As for why a Black Paint Leica is much better than an Adjacent one is because obviously it ages much more gracefuly, but an even more important aspect is because Black Paint Leica sticks to fingers; I can lift my Leica with two fingers in a secure fashion. A Black Chrome adjacent Leica is SLIPPY; I cannot reliably lift an Adjacent Black or Silver Leica with my thumb and index fingers.

 

[faberryman]

As for why a Black Paint Leica is much better than an Adjacent one is because obviously it ages much more gracefuly, but an even more important aspect is because Black Paint Leica sticks to fingers; I can lift my Leica with two fingers in a secure fashion. A Black Chrome adjacent Leica is SLIPPY; I cannot reliably lift an Adjacent Black or Silver Leica with my thumb and index fingers.

That's why you need a Leica camera strap. You would probably want a black one.

 

[NB23]

That's why you need a Leica camera strap. You would probably want a black one.

Actually, I really like my Pentax slimline red straps. Sexay.

 

[awty]

View attachment 290922

That is dead sexy.

 

[NB23]

Interesting... I learned something today! Even though I much prefer black chrome, I finally came across a reason to prefer black paint that makes sense to me.

exponential yearly value appreciation was not a good reason?

But yeah, it’s sticky and warm feeling vs slippy and cold feeling.

 

[Huss]

The only thing i pick up with two fingers are french fries and powdered donuts.
Mmmmmm, dooonuuuutsss.

 

[250swb]

Another MP where all the paint has flaked off There are three early MP's shown in this thread that somehow show that the BP isn't as fragile as imagined. My serial starts #288 so is assuredly in the original 'lacquer' which at the time, 2002/2003, was truly believed by many as being a shellac coating made from lac beetles so instant brassing was guaranteed. You should have seen the outrage posted about what Leica were doing, people swearing never to touch a BP Leica ever again because it was cruel to beetles . Nobody bothered to note that 'lacquer' in German simply translates as 'paint'. Next year my MP will be twenty years old, my BP M9 on the other hand which was powder coated paint, super tough, looked worse than this after two years.

 

[wjlapier]

@NB23 I will never sell a Leica, so it's kind of irrelevant what their appreciation is. Didn't you see the eye watering stories in this very same thread shared by people who sold Leicas?

I haven’t seen those stories but I can relate. Shintaro Black paint IIIf w/ BP 50mm elmar. BP MP. Ala Carte BP M7. Now, I keep everything.

 

[NB23]

for wjlapier

 

[faberryman]

Well, it certainly looks like a Leica.

What's with Leica owners always wanting to show pictures of their Leicas? There is a thread over on rangefinderforum.com where Leica owners post pictures of their Leicas. It had around 7800 posts the last time I looked. It may even be the thread with the most posts. Maybe it is the same on the Nikon forum. I'd ask the same question of them. I don't think I have photos of any of my cameras.

 

[RDW]

I don't think I have photos of any of my cameras.

If they aren't Leicas, they probably aren't worth photographing.

 

[Huss]

If they aren't Leicas, they probably aren't worth photographing.

There are only a few cameras worth photographing:

1. Anything that I am selling.
2. Film Leica Ms
3. Barnack Leicas.
4. Rolleiflexes.
5. Anything that I am selling.