[Kim Coxon]

Would not an etching primer be satisfactory, rather than grinding or chemically removing the chrome? The satin chrome finish on older film cameras isn’t like the shiny automotive and other highly polished chrome plating finishes, so I’d think it wasn’t as difficult to paint over (and you can paint over shining chrome, with an etching primer base). I haven’t had it done, myself, so I’m wondering if you know.

My understanding is that even with an etching primer or keying the surface with sanding etc, it will fail. It is explained here: Re-Paint Process | cameraworks-uk


"Most cameras we are asked to paint are chrome plated. Chromium is quite possibly the worst substrate for paint. Chrome is excellent at repelling dirt and equally good at repelling paint. Any paint job done on such a surface is guaranteed to fail and when it does, it will reveal the underlying chrome finish, not brass as one would expect on such a camera. Not only will a poor paint job be unreliable but could de-value your camera significantly and in some circumstances, applying paint in the wrong places can cause 'interference', where a moving or sliding part no longer moves freely, due to the thickness or contamination of the paint layer."


I understand there arealso refinishers in Japan and the better ones also say the chrome has to be removed.

I did also "experiment" with camera painting and I can confirm even with etch primer, the paint does not adhere or wear well.

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[Baard-Einar]

I am going to post here side by side photos of my 3 Pentax APs.

Black - unrestored
Chrome - unrestored
Black - restored & repainted, from the same Japanese Seller as the camera in post #1.

You can look at these photos and judge for yourself if you think the repainted Black AP might have been Chrome originally(?)

edit:
I was just thinking an easy test would be to remove the bottom plate of the repainted Black AP to see if the inside is brass or steel.
A brass bottom plate should be evidence the camera has always been Black.

I asked the seller directly about the camera he now has for sale as shown in the first post. See the image of the correspondence attached. The reason I started this thread was to get some opinions on the repainting of collectible items when changing from chrome to some other color. And maybe especially lenses showing up in colors never sold by the original manufacturers.

One a note to point out a difference between the one you have compared to this item is the hinges.

[Qman]

The ebay advertisement does not clearly state that it wasn't originally a black camera. The title calls it a "Repaint" and in the description it says it was "painted again". This is clearly dishonest. A person could purchase the camera without knowing that it wasn't originally black. Also, the price is ridiculous. Most people would not pay extra for a black painted chrome camera. The only reason a black one commands more money is because it had low production numbers. Repainting it doesn't make it more rare.

[monochrome]

I don’t suppose this is really so different from the flurry of re-anodizing many of us had done to lenses a couple years ago, except that anyone should know a K50/1.2 for instance was never issued in silver, whereas AP and K were (rarely) issued in black.