I have been wanting to have my M3 painted black but am getting no response from Mr Shintaro. Does anybody know if he is still in business and any other sources for this service?

Presumably the M7 can be painted with it's brass top plate???

-- Jon (jpkorn2@yahoo.com), March 03, 2002

Answers

Jon, Shintaro is quite busy. He has a day job as a photo journalist, I believe, which takes him away from home and from his computer for long stretches at times. Furthermore, he has quite a backlog of work. I had sent him an M to be painted at the beginning of September and did not receive the finished product until mid February. (I know of another party who had to wait a comparable amount of time.) Needless to say, it is gorgeous! Also realize that English is difficult for him as well.

-- Henry Chu (heninden@yahoo.com), March 03, 2002.

Shintaro has a new website. http://homepage2.nifty.com/Shintaro/top1.html

-- Henry Chu (heninden@yahoo.com), March 04, 2002.

Thanks all. As Shintaro San is so busy can anybody suggest any comparable sources?

-- jon (jpkorn2@yahoo.com), March 04, 2002.

An alternative source is the restoration specialist G. B. Metzcar. He painted some of the cameras and lenses shown in Lagers books (volumes 1 and 2). His work is exquisite. If he is still taking private orders, it will probably be expensive. I'm not sure how to reach him, but probably some of the other regular posters on this forum will know. As far as I am aware, he is still doing Leica restoration work (for damaged cameras, antique Leicas, etc.) as well as doing repainting.

-- Eliot (erosen@lij.edu), March 04, 2002.

Jon, Sherry Krauter warned me not to go this route. I understood her to say that the cameras are not always re-assembled correctly . I do know that Tom Abrahamsson has used his services, evidentally successfully...so be cautious.

-- George L. Doolittle (geodoolitt@aol.com), March 04, 2002.

To answer George's concern, I've had three M's painted by Shintaro and all function well. Two of the bodies were painted two and a half years ago and have held up quite well. Another person who paints Leicas is Youxin Ye . When I last contacted him, last year, he had done quite a number of LTM bodies but had not tackled any M's. You might see if he has branched out.

-- Henry Chu (heninden@yahoo.com), March 04, 2002.

I have experience with all three persons named. Sherry is a fine lady but does only CLA works. Mr. Shintaro is very arrogant and does not reply emails. I sent to Mr. Metzlar two of my M baseplates and he never acknowledge the receipt of the baseplates. I have to kiss them goodbye. So, you guys just take it from there....

-- Sandy (nitking@prodigy.net), May 30, 2002.