Re: [Leica] Black or Silver M6 TTL

[John Collier <jbcollier@home.com>]

I hear this all the time on this list but it flies in the face of my
shooting experience. I have had both silver chrome and black chrome M
cameras and the black chrome cameras get noticed and commented on far more
often than the silver chrome cameras. In HCB's day all cameras were silver
chrome and to have a black one, by paint or by tape, would make it
unrecognisable to the then general public. Our general public is conditioned
by television into thinking that black chrome (or plastic) cameras are
"professional". People who no nothing at all about cameras, ask questions
about my black chrome M as it is a "serious" camera. If you are shooting in
the "Western" world, the best choice is silver chrome.

John Collier

> From: Austin Burbridge <Austin.Burbridge@Alumni.Brown.edu>
> 
> Terry, I bought a black M6 because, for street photography, it is
> less noticeable, less obtrusive -- which is why I put bits of black
> photographic tape* over the red dot and the bright white "Leica" on
> its face.
> 
> That Henri Cartier-Bresson covered the chrome parts of his Leica with
> black tape, is part of Leica lore.
> 
> Were unobtrusiveness not a factor, I would prefer the chrome Leica, I
> think its looks are much cooler, more 'classic', more 'Leica'.
>