I think its pretty hilarious personally that people here actually seem to take offence to the notion. (though some seem to be hiding well, behind their responses) its quite literally just a camera. it is just a tool in practical use, but its also a personal possession nd we all to one extent or another have a desire to personalise our belonging, wether that personalisation be for aesthetics only or for making it more practical and useful as a tool, we nearly all do. its a rare bird that has absolutely no care what so ever for making a change of some kind to our personal tools and belongings and just feels as though ts best to ‘leave things as they are’ a rare bird indeed. so what if its a leica, so what if the mods don’t seem to have any practical purpose or any purpose that you all feel is justifiable in some way. I say, if it makes you happy, do it.
just to lay my cards on the table, I have done similar, though I admit it wasn’t on a leica, just my humble spotmatic. I changed the leatherette to genuine leather, I swapped the strap for a much higher quality, hand made leather one. I swapped the film type reminder dial and the shutter speed dial out for those from an older model, for no there reason that I preferred the style of lettering used on older earlier models. now I’m thinking of gutting an SP500 for the front plate without self timer and swapping it onto mine, for no other reason than I think the camera looks better without it and I never use it. some would say ‘just ignore it if ou don’t use it.’ but why not? it won’t help my photography, and it won’t hurt it either.
they are our personal items, leica or otherwise we should all feel fee to customise and change them as we see fit. I don’t think there is any need for justification for any modification. personally, and I don’t mean to offend anyone when I say this, but I think anyone concerned with resale value of your camera(s) likely don’t use them enough or at all and probably seem them as something other than a camera.
