Hugostudio.com - a new player in town!

Jockos

Jockos

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Disclaimer: I was not paid for this, I didn't receive any discount, and I have not been requested to write any of this. Just a satisfied customer!


Today I got a message from the local tech, the CLA was done (probably a new world record in quick service), so I went to pick it up after work. When I got home, an envelope was on my floor, and it turned out to contain my order from Hugostudio.com.

I bought a spare Leica M3 a few weeks ago, to use for different film speeds, and also to have as a backup in case of failure. To differentiate between my cameras, I decided to get a colored leather grip to replace the crackling vulcanite.

I've dealt with Aki Asahi before, and I'm 100% satisfied with his product, it's great, but he doesn't have that many color options for leather, and is lacking the most versatile of them all - dark brown.
Chocolate, coffee, walnut, #422518, call it what you want - it goes well with just about anything, which should make it the #1 choice for cameras!

The camera I bought, turned out to be a bit weird, my tech says it's an M3 stuck in a M2 case. There's a timer movement, but no button or lever, and the lens release guard is not there.
I sent Hugo a picture of the camera, and he customized it - free of charge!

Hugos communication skills are excellent, he's prompt, quick and seems very service minded.
One of the problems with Morgan from Cameraleather.com, beside him not sending the goods at all or delaying the delivery for six months, is his complete lack of communication after he gets the money.
This is simply not the case with Hugostudio.com.

So what about the product?

The leather has a nice feel, and has a stiffness that makes it very easy to work with. I went for the very reasonably priced "Genuine leather" quality.
Color is completely even, and all the way through, and very dark; in dim light it seems almost black. No blemishes or defects can be seen.
Fit is great as well.





This is my fourth camera recovering, and the installation part took about two minutes since the material was so easy to work with. The semi-stiffness keeps the glue from going places it shouldn't, and the great fit helps as well.
Instead of the recommended thinner, I used 20% pure ammonia on the vulcanite, works great!

The cover was ordered the 15th, sent the 16th and received the 21th in Sweden. Couldn't have asked for a faster delivery.


All in all, I can highly recommend this product and seller!




I hope the thread gets resurrected in a few years, so that I can follow up with some long term pictures! 🙂
 
I also recovered a camera (a IIIa) with a new cover from Hugo Studio, and had similarly good results. Certainly my new go-to supplier; I hope he'll expand his offerings to fit more types of cameras.
 
02Pilot said:
I also recovered a camera (a IIIa) with a new cover from Hugo Studio, and had similarly good results. Certainly my new go-to supplier; I hope he'll expand his offerings to fit more types of cameras.
Click to expand...

If you have something you need recovered that he doesn't list as an option, chances are he'll accept a template. I did this for my Mamiya Super 23, and it worked out beautifully - see for yourself in my profile picture! All that's required is a PDF with black areas being cut out, white areas being the leatherette you keep.
 
I have ordered a covering for my Nikon F, but I got one for a Nikon F with FTn Photomic prism instead of the original prism.
🙁
I have emailed Hugo and ask him to send me the prism covering, but they don't have it. so now you know that "Nikon F" in hugostudio means "Nikon F with FTn Photomic".
He asked me to send it back to get a full refund.
 
Just an update on my bad experience with hugostudio.
we agreed that he would sent me a square piece of the leather to cover the prism of my Nikon F since I wanted to also buy a covering for my M3.

After applying the covering on my Nikon F, all the cuts were off by 1-2 millimetres which was a pain in the arse to cut it right, specially the rounded cuts. Needless to say it looks awful.

I got enough, I will stick with Aki Asahi I know his coverings are accurate.
 
Send him the prism for precise measurements and have him recut it. I did this with a Barnack shell. He's very responsive.
 
He offered a special cut for you, seems like good service to me; having sent him cameras for precise measurements, I've been more than pleased compared with the alternatives.
 
splitimageview said:
He offered a special cut for you, seems like good service to me; having sent him cameras for precise measurements, I've been more than pleased compared with the alternatives.
Click to expand...

what? no no. I asked him if I buy a covering for my M3 if he could send a square of the same material so I could cut it with the shape of the prism.

You are missing the point anyways, forget about the prism, his covering was way off in every piece for the camera body.
 
I have bought several covers for Ms and they were spot-on. The Barnack shells I sent him were for designs he didn't have yet. I first posted a vulcanite comparison back in March.

Very pleased. Bought from other sources for close to ten years and didn't have this level of service.
 
To fix what Hugostudio's bad covering did on my Nikon F, I contacted Morgan from Cameraleather. Not only he replied quick but sent me a new covering that fits 100% perfectly including the eye level prism for a cheaper price than Hugo.
Needless to say I will never buy coverings from anyone else than Morgan.
 
Hi, I'm interested to hear about how the Hugostudio replacement camera leather holds up over time. I am ready to re-cover a Leica IIIg but Aki-asahi is unable to post outside Japan to many countries at the moment due to Japan Post restrictions. Which leather from Hugostudio would people recommend for a best match to Leica vulcanite? And are the cuts accurate?
 
Bought many kits from Hugo, what he calls recovery leather. It was a very good match, see the link above in post #15.

No concerns four years on...
 
Good company, but be very careful on the Hasselblad covers. Be extremely specific on the body/backs/finders you have for your camera. This is just part of the Hasselblad variation, but I noticed that my 500c that I bought had differences between the backs/finders that were not easily noticeable when ordering a "500c leather replacement." I had to ask specifically for certain leather for the film back I had, as well as the waist level finder, and even then I screwed up. Additionally, the leather for the hasselblads is thick, and it's pretty hard to install around some parts of the camera. I don't mean to badmouth this company, because I love that people are making replacement leather coverings. It's just that I had some difficulty recovering my Hasselblad with the leather they offer. One area was the shutter lock knob on the front right of the camera where I could barely get the leather under there and even then the switch was essentially useless afterwards as the leather would bind when trying to lock the shutter. The other was by the little spring loaded tab by the shutter cock/advance where I was struggling to get the leather up and under the tab, again with binding once it was installed, and the button would press and "smear" the leather underneath. I also found that this thick leather was so delicate by the top of the camera as it tapers to a point around the viewfinder attachment area, that it felt like it wouldn't last long. I ended up selling the camera, as I was just replacing the leather for a clean sale, but it definitely felt like this area would pull up pretty quickly through normal use. Just my thoughts, and hopefully this is something that will be resolved in the future.


Other than that, the leather was a nice quality, with adhesive and overall looked like it could bring a lot of older cameras back to life. Just cautioning about a Hasselblad 500c I had, specifically.
 
DanskDynamit said:
To fix what Hugostudio's bad covering did on my Nikon F, I contacted Morgan from Cameraleather. Not only he replied quick but sent me a new covering that fits 100% perfectly including the eye level prism for a cheaper price than Hugo.
Needless to say I will never buy coverings from anyone else than Morgan.
Click to expand...

I'll never buy from Cameraleather again.
This is how badly his kit fit on my 1F:


 
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