What is Black Chrome?

The Leica black chrome reminds me a lot of the surface on my Calphalon cookware. I'm sure it is not the same, since calphalon refers to it as a hard anodizing--and Tom just said black chrome isn't anodized. But there is one similarity: Both wear to a gray finish after heavy wear and rubbing!

Not much point to this I guess, except maybe: Don't scrub your black Leicas with a Brillo pad!
 
I remember the Leica Rep coming in our camera shop in the early/mid 70s with a Black M5 and doing an eraser rub demonstration to show how the new black chrome was (almost) as wear resistant as chrome. It lightened up the surface, but not bad, didn't really impress me, but at the time black paint was the only other option for black and that eraser test would have shown brass fairly quickly! Don't know what they did with that demo camera... !!
 
The normal system, to make the black cameras, is a simply black enamel painting. This external finishing is very fashonable but, with time, show the brass. The black finish Leica M3 and M2 and the Leica M4, from 1967 to 1971, are all black enamel.
The black chrome is mat (the black enamel is glossy) but many more resistant, in the time. From the Leica M5 to the Leica M7, all the black version are chrome. Only the new black MP employ a black enamel painting, exactly as the old M3, M2 and M4.
I prefer the black chrome because i don't like the black enamel that show the below brass.
Ciao.
Vincenzo
 
I'm with Vincenzo. Black paint looks pretty but wears as soon as you look at it, seemingly. I'm not a fan of brassy highlights. Someone said the black chrome reminded him of the look of a tool; I agree.
 
The first black paint M in recent years was the LHSA Special Edition some years back. It took Leica quite some time to get the right finish, as most of the "painters" were gone! It is also the only M with the Leica Solms engraving on it. It was followed by the Millenium M6. also in black paint and after that the MP.
 
KoNickon said:
I'm with Vincenzo. Black paint looks pretty but wears as soon as you look at it, seemingly. I'm not a fan of brassy highlights. Someone said the black chrome reminded him of the look of a tool; I agree.
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De gustibus ain't what dey used to be.

I have both (black chrome M4-P) and black paint (MP, Nikon F, Olympus Pen W, and others long gone) and to me there's no contest.

As one of my chums at Leica said of the MP, "You'll look at that camera and remember where it got each scar." Well, not all of them, but (for example) un-ditching the Land Rover in Hungary; at the Great Wall of China; at a party in Transylvania...

Cheers,

R.
 
Roger Hicks said:
...As one of my chums at Leica said of the MP, "You'll look at that camera and remember where it got each scar." Well, not all of them, but (for example) un-ditching the Land Rover in Hungary; at the Great Wall of China; at a party in Transylvania...

Cheers,

R.
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Much like my hands!
 
Tom A said:
The black chrome that leica uses is called Eloxal. It is a chromium salt and it is a proprietary process , held by Leica. You can buy the stuff, at a cost, and do it yourself. However, as it involves hydrochoric acid and cyanide + other very toxic chemicals. it is not recommended for "home" experiments!
The surface has to be covered first with a copper layer and the a nickel "sealer" and after that you can "strike" the black chrome. The surface can be glossy, semi-matte and dull matte. It all depends on the treatment of the underlaying surface. If you polish the nickel surface to a high gloss finish, the black chrome will come out glossy black.
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Tom, are you saying the silvery finish that is just beginning to show through some edges on the top cover of my M6 TTL are actually nickel plating showing through? I thought for sure that the black chrome was just an anodized treatment of the non-ferrous (aluminum?) top. It just seems to wear and have the same texture that anodized aluminum has.


Tom A said:
Anodizing is a different process. This is a electro plating process that works with alloys.
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Tom, again I beg to differ. I believe anodizing is not a plating process, but rather an artificial (chemical/electrical) oxidation process of the non-ferrous metal, which in a sense, etches into the metal itself, which also results in a surface hardening of the metal. From what I understand, anodizing only changes the structure of the surface and doesn't not alply any kind of "plating". From what I was told in the bicycle industry years ago, that anodizing is actually a contolled method of oxidation that would occur naturally if the metal was left out in the elements.
 
Yes. the silver finish is the nickel substrate that works as a sealer and also as the "adhesive" for the black chrome to attach to. The black chrome (or silver chrome) is a surface coating, while the anodizing process really only colors the surface of the material. In terns it is not a "plating" process per se, it changes the structure and color of a very thin layer of the alloy. There are a variety of finishes available as well as colors. The silver finish you see when you wear anodized alloy is the color of the underlaying alloy.
You can black chrome or silver chrome just about anything as long as you can "strike" the nickel (often with yet another layer underneath - acid copper). I have even seen soft plastic chromeplated (making prop guns for movies).
Anodizing requires certain alloy properties and also a material that can take an electric charge.
 
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