Curious minds want to know: For all you owners and users of the various black paint versions of the M6 -- how is the black paint holding up?

Also, how did it come about that Leica chose the 35mm Summicron ASPH and 50mm Summilux as the lenses to have black paint? The Summilux does not sound like an obvious choice.

Are there plans to make any other lenses in black paint?

-- Stephen (S.G.York@worldnet.att.net), January 29, 2002

Answers

Hi Stephen! If you buy an M-6 black-paint as a "user," as I have, you will definitely see brass sooner or later. For me, the black- paint purchase earmarks (hopefully!) the end of my having to treat Leica-M's as currency. The black-paint is a camera to grow old with, the gathering of various scars a commemoration of shared adventures. My advice, therefore, is to buy this camera, use it hard, and embrace the inevitable (outwardly visible) signs of age! By the way, while I realize, at least to the best of my knowledge, that the guts of the black-paint M-6's are identical to other M-6's, my own LHSA version both feels and sounds like a finely-tuned M-3! Viva Leica!

-- John Layton (john.layton@valley.net), January 29, 2002.