M9... Black or Steel Grey?

Carterofmars

Carterofmars

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I'm really torn between a Black or Steel Grey M9. The Steel Grey is very, very, elegant while the Black is, shall I say, just down rite beautiful.

I am leaning a tad toward the black. I think that the brassing, over time, will enhance the body; a nicely brassed Leica is a thing of beauty. But, what will a brassed steel grey look like? Or maybe they don't brass?

Opinions/comments?

Thanks.
 
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When I ordered my M9 I was surprised to get a choice of colour. I did not even know it was a option. I asked which colour would get here the quickest. They said black was the most common. I like grey. So.... I chose black thinking that "common" meant that more black ones would be made and available sooner. WRONG. All it meant was that more people were on longer waiting lists for black ones. I could have had a grey one two months earlier!

If I was doing it all again.... grey.
 
I bought a used one that happened to be black. I get the impression the great majority sold are black. Given an equal choice, I might well have chosen the grey. I have seen a dinged-up grey one showing brass under the paint.
 
my preference is chrome....

but

after about an hour of handling both grey and black at the store, I chose black.

Its one of the "traditional" paint colors and the leather on the black is more textured nd grippy.
 
I wish they made a chrome one. I like chrome and I don't like brassing - don't understand the appeal at all. I would want the finish on my £5000 camera to remain in good condition in normal use. For looks I'd choose grey but since both will brass I think I would end up with black because it's look when brassed would be more acceptable.

All irrelevant anyway - I can't see me buying one - there's nowhere to put the film.
 
Black. I just don't like the look of that particular grey. Then, I've preferred black cameras all my life, though I admit to a certain weakness for the old military field grey finish. Using that one again would, however, be inadvisable. I also love my olive drab R2.

It's much tougher paint than on my MP, so after 15 months I can only see a few tiny areas of brassing, not much bigger than flecks of dust. For my money, the MP has not worn as elegantly as any of the screw-mount black Leicas I ever had, nor as well as my Nikon Fs, but I don't really care. I buy 'em to take pictures with, not to re-sell.

Although I can't understand deliberately 'distressing' any paint job, nor can I understand anyone who is unduly worried about keeping a second-hand camera looking new.

Cheers,

R.
 
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I'd get the grey, every DSLR I've ever had has been black, and a silver DSLR looks like crap. The grey M9 has a contemporary and purposeful look, and I bet it'll look nice after 5 years of abrasive use too.
 
Roger Hicks said:
It's much tougher paint than on my MP, so after 15 months I can only see a few tiny areas of brassing, not much bigger than flecks of dust. For my money, the MP has not worn as elegantly as any of the screw-mount black Leicas I ever had, nor as well as my Nikon Fs, but I don't really care. I buy 'em to take pictures with, not to re-sell.

Although I can't understand deliberately 'distressing' any paint job, nor can I understand anyone obsessed with keeping a second-hand camera looking new.
Click to expand...

Interesting that they have used tougher paint on the M9 than the MP. I'm not obsessed with keeping my cameras like new - I use them and they get marked. I just don't particularly like the look of brassing and get the impression that Leica have deliberately chosen a finish which will wear off quickly, at least for the MP. The idea of a finish INTENDED to wear quickly is what I don't get. That's just my opinion - seeing how most Leica users on here LOVE brassisng Leica probably did choose a finish to please the majority of it's customers. For the rest of us there's chrome.

Can you imagine a high class car manufacturer deliberately using a paint which would wear off quickly to make the cars look old and used more quickly ? BMW's new matt finish option springs to mind !
 
monochromeimages said:
Interesting that they have used tougher paint on the M9 than the MP. I'm not obsessed with keeping my cameras like new - I use them and they get marked. I just don't particularly like the look of brassing and get the impression that Leica have deliberately chosen a finish which will wear off quickly, at least for the MP. The idea of a finish INTENDED to wear quickly is what I don't get. That's just my opinion - seeing how most Leica users on here LOVE brassisng Leica probably did choose a finish to please the majority of it's customers. For the rest of us there's chrome.

Can you imagine a high class car manufacturer deliberately using a paint which would wear off quickly to make the cars look old and used more quickly ? BMW's new matt finish option springs to mind !
Click to expand...

I agree completely with the highlighted part, and like you, I actively dislike paint that falls off in chunks. On the other hand I just don't like chrome very much. If the black stays black, that's fine, and slow, modest brassing is OK too. But to say that Leica users buy black because it brasses is, I think, an exaggeration in many cases. I have quite a few black cameras: MP, M9, Nikon F, Contaflex, even Olympus (Pen W, with the worst black paint I've ever seen, all scabby). I just think black looks better than chrome.

Before you posted your reply, but after you'd copied my post, I had changed 'obsessed' to 'unduly worried' because I realized some people might be upset by 'obsessed'. Either way, I still can't see why they worry.

Cheers,

R.
 
Agreed, Roger. I own both black and chrome cameras and like both. My personal preference for an 'M' is chrome but I have one or two 1970's Canon SLRs and prefer the black ones. It does seem that Leica intended the black MP to brass quickly - they even talk about it in their advertising. Maybe that's why you say yours has not worn as elegantly as older models which have, I expect, taken longer to brass and might look more 'naturally' worn.

I can't believe we're having this discussion. What does it matter ? Let's Just take photographs with whatever we've got .....
 
I have a black and a chrome Ikon, as well as a black M9. If the M9 in the shop had been grey then I'd have a grey one.

I wouldn't worry, just get whichever is available first and take pictures.

Today I'm taking an Ikon, a roll of HP5 and the C-Sonnar🙂

Mike

Mike
 
monochromeimages said:
Can you imagine a high class car manufacturer deliberately using a paint which would wear off quickly to make the cars look old and used more quickly ? BMW's new matt finish option springs to mind !
Click to expand...

Why would anybody buy a BMW when good used Fords are cheaper? It is clearly dumb for BMWs to exist. Expensive, overpriced, and redundant in a saturated market full of good second-hand cars. I completely agree.

Down with this sort of thing!
 
Black is best for right now

Black is best for right now

Black looks better than the cheapish looking grey paint job. I mean really, I saw one around the neck of a person at the Photo Expo Plus last year and the grey was wearing horribly! The black looks nicer with brassing, but the grey just looked so f@#&%#g cheap!


My real choice would be for real chrome, but Leica stupidly relegated that to Neadless Markup (Neimen Marcus) stores special edition.

Funny how we get real chrome with the Fuji X100 for $5,800 than an M9! And better high ISO too!!!!
 
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