Skinning a Camera

Kevin Roach submitted a new resource:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists) - Skinning a Camera

Choosing a camera:

First you gotta determine what kind of camera to recover. Most 1970s rangefinders are easy and look good recovered. Canon GIII QL17, various minolta Hi-matic cameras, Olympus RC, RD, SP etc. DON'T try a Yashica Electro. the glue used by yashica is very tough to remove. You'll get very frustrated. save that for later.

Various SLR cameras are pretty easy to work on too. Pentax spotmatics and k1000, Canon ae-1, minolta x-models. The fewer odd shaped corners and cutouts...

Click to expand...

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Comments from the previous article system:

By JHannon - 11:13 PM, 10-09-2005 Rating: None
Nice Article Kevin. Using Pliobond is a good idea because of it's flexability and it is easier to remove the covering for future repairs. I recently did a black Yashica Electro in red lizard skin. I bought the leather already cut to fit from Cameraleather.com. More expensive but it looks great.
---John

For making large(ish) circular holes a set of 'Arch Punches' is a nice thing to have:

http://generaltools.com/product.asp?action=prdupc&prid=294&sectionid=4
http://www.csosborne.com/l-punches_1.htm

Sean said:

Comments from the previous article system:

By JHannon - 11:13 PM, 10-09-2005 Rating: None
Nice Article Kevin. Using Pliobond is a good idea because of it's flexability and it is easier to remove the covering for future repairs. I recently did a black Yashica Electro in red lizard skin. I bought the leather already cut to fit from Cameraleather.com. More expensive but it looks great.
---John

Click to expand...

I just recently saw that site. It's worth a look as you get some sense of what looks better on a black or silver body,a "vintage,a newer camera. I have several Mamiya DTL 1000s and was thinking that buying one "cut to fit" gets be the bonus of a pattern for whichever of the others I'd re-cover.

An Argus C3? I think I eventually gave one away. They were not rare-just primative. You can get a Nikon FM or FE or a Pentax Spotmatic or MX or ME Super, Mamiya DTL,Canon A-1,Nikon F.....something that is CLASSIC-yet useable...fairly cheap on ebay. A matching lens cap could be a nifty touch.So could be a strap....which if you get your leather off a second hand purse-may have a strap not hard to modify.