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Extra Stealthy

Hi Everyone:

I recently upgraded to the M8.2 which I really like. Part of the reason for the upgrade was the black dot, and black hot shoe. I was thinking of taking it one step further and blacking out the 'M8'. Does anyone have any experience with these customization things? Are they considered 'ala carte'? Can NJ do it? Can I do it myself? Now I have a piece of electrical tape on it, but I can't live with that on $6k camera. It's not that I'm worried about theft or anything like that, it's a pure aesthetic decision. I really like the look of the MP cameras for this same reason.

Thanks!
 

gero

New member
jef, I would do the same thing for the same reasons but I have the old M8 so I would also paint the red dot
 

bradhusick

Active member
Jeff,
I have heard that some tapes actually pull the white paint out of the letters, so you could try that with some different tapes. You could use your fingernail to be sure the tape goes into the letter recesses. Be careful not to mar the black paint surrounding them in the process.
-Brad
 

Chris C

Member
Lightly scrape the white 'M8' in-fill with a toothpick or something similar and it comes off easily. The camera looks better without the advertising.

............. Chris
 
Chris:
Have you actually done this toothpick technique? On an M8 or 8.2? I wonder if the black paint will hold the white paint better than the black chrome on the M8.
Thanks!
 

charlesphoto

New member
Tape always did it for me. I wouldn't want to be scraping a $6k camera. Use the 3M cloth tape (usually comes 1/2 inch or 1 inch) and cut very carefully. It won't gum up as easily as electrical tape. And then stop worrying about how the camera looks and go take some pictures with it!
 

gero

New member
Lightly scrape the white 'M8' in-fill with a toothpick or something similar and it comes off easily. The camera looks better without the advertising.

............. Chris
that was easy, took me 10 seconds, thankyou.

Do you have any suggestions for the red dot?

I think it is much better advertising not to have advertising this days (I hate the clothes, computers {apple} etc... that do this. On the other hand the old paint Leica's that didn't have anything in front just looked much better quality.
 
M

Mango

Guest
I usually wear pink chaps when going out with my M8, so nobody notices the camera. :)
 

Chris C

Member
....Have you actually done this toothpick technique?....
Jeffrey - Yes, on my black M8. Though I was being pompous suggesting I have toothpicks, I actually used sharpened matches, and ordinary sticky tape to pick up the small white flakes of paint.

This is 'hostage to fortune' stuff I know; please - try and resist jokes at my expense about white flakes.......

................ Chris

EDIT - NB the red dot; use a little of the spare Goth' black nail varnish you said you bought for filling in LTM8 adapters [yeh right - we all used that cover story didn't we?]. Paint two or three layers on an otherwise white sticky address label, cut a small square, and hire a camera technician to apply the paper to the dot [I'm brave, I did this part myself]. Looks good to me, but there again I have also 'blacked out' the silver lens release button with nail varnish and added velcro to my camera strap.
 
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woodyspedden

New member
Now that the M8.2 is out Leica should have a supply of the grey dots for purchase. Then you can simply take out the red one and replace with the grey.

Woody
 
M

Mango

Guest
I had two M6 TTL cameras with the black logo. They were black, black, black, all the way. And some framelines were removed, so they were simple and elegant. All the work was done by Don Goldberg of DAG Camera.

DAG Camera has been selling the black logos for a few years, and can do the red-to-black swap as part of the CLA. I guess with digital cameras the workflow is different. Anyway, here's the link to his website, which has a number of items that might be of interest to those looking for hard to find Leica accessories:

http://www.dagcamera.com/

http://www.dagcamera.com/leica_m.htm

I used to also have green, red, blue, and purple softies for my M cameras. Tom Abrahamsson sells them on his site:

http://www.rapidwinder.com/

Lutz Konerman is another photographer, filmmaker and inventor with other Leica related products that really help:

http://www.leicagoodies.com/
 
M

Mango

Guest
The SNOB from Leicagoodies might be an alternative to the Thumbs up on the M8.

I think Tom A is developing accessories for the M8.
 
So I did it. I took a toothpick to the white paint on the M8.2 and it popped out rather easily. For an added touch I applied black slightly glossier paint to the bare M8 with an enamel paint pen. Take a look!
 

bradhusick

Active member
I think it looks good, but why not go all the way and black out the Leica script on the dot? Then you can start blacking out the letters on the front of your lenses ;)
 
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