[OregonJim]

Ratmagiclady, if you have any doubts about whatever you finally decide on using, I'd try it out first on an inconspicuous spot (like near the tripod mount, or inside the battery door).

[Ratmagiclady]

Hey, if anyone was curious about this, I finally found some paint and a little brush and the time: I'd been putting it off till my hands were a bit better for fine work.

Some acrylic miniature paint made for little war-game miniatures that I got for a little project years ago was still alive in my crafts box, yay. It has the unlikely name of 'Skull White' by Citadel Colour and is really almost impossible to distinguish from the other white on the body. (at least without direct popup flash for lighting: I couldn't get the reflections from it off the surrounding parts of the switch. )



There's four grooves in there, but once I painted one, I could see that was sufficient, so I just did the two middle ones cause I thought it'd look nice. Came out looking pretty sharp, and it does what I'd hoped: the switch no longer disappears from sight when I'm not looking right at it.

No more forgetting I've left spot or matrix metering on, hopefully. (I'm just not used to looking at the back of the camera up there, I guess, there's usually nothing to see from that angle but a rewind lever. )

Pretty easy to lay a little paint in those grooves and wipe off anything not in there. We'll see how this stuff stays, which of course was the original question.

[Arpe]

Good idea. I sometimes find that switch turns around when putting the cam in/out of the bag.

[TomK]

Tom S. said:

Try a white crayon! Could it be this simple? Yes, this has been around a long time in the firearms world to highlight the lettering on barrels. I have one that was done over 35 years ago and still looks good. It's easy to remove too!

Yup. Except many years ago when I was involved in a gun club we used white chalk. Just the stick kind from a kid's toy set.
I have also used Whiteout correction fluid on a number of radio related and other things.

-TomK-

[jnorth]

Pretty easy to lay a little paint in those grooves and wipe off anything not in there. We'll see how this stuff stays, which of course was the original question.

Now to wait and see if you update us in a month or two.
I have several different nail polish colours with my tools and white out too. I've had good success with those as others have mentioned and find them to be readily available and cheap, and if I run out of fun colours I can always raid my wife's collection

[Ratmagiclady]

Good idea. I sometimes find that switch turns around when putting the cam in/out of the bag.

This does also seem to happen to me occasionally, though I blame the fat neoprene strap I otherwise love getting wedged in there and grabbing hold.

As nail polish goes, the thing there is it usually takes a lot of coats to cover black with anything light, it has more volatile solvents, and it doesn't wipe off as completely as something like this. Useful for a lot of things, mind you.

I also don't wear anything suitable, and the better stuff kind of costs a bit, so maybe this miniature paint is a better solution. I *think* it doesn't require primer, either, but time will tell on that score. It's pretty protected in there, so if it doesn't hold, it'll probably flake off in a year or two.

[Ratmagiclady]

Now to wait and see if you update us in a month or two.

Heehee. So far, so good, btw. Looks like it won't be flaking off, anyway.

[khardur]

Try a white crayon! Could it be this simple? Yes, this has been around a long time in the firearms world to highlight the lettering on barrels. I have one that was done over 35 years ago and still looks good. It's easy to remove too!

That's what I was going to suggest when i saw this thread. Didn't they (or maybe they do still) use a similar technique to color the numbers for D&D dice?

[Ratmagiclady]

That's what I was going to suggest when i saw this thread. Didn't they (or maybe they do still) use a similar technique to color the numbers for D&D dice?

Basically, that's white crayon or grease pencil, though in general waxy or greasy things around optics aren't so optimal.

[khardur]

true enough, and I did see your solution above worked excellently.