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M leather body-cover repairs and replacements

For those whom find Leica M's a bit boring, or else need to repair the leatherette or vulcanite body covering on their cameras, check out the self-adhesive M camera body covers from the following:

Camera Leather

<cameraleather.com/leica_m/preview.htm>

Lots of choice and textures (eg vinyl, leather, snake-skin or lizard-skin). For those who want a closer match to black vulcanite, have a look at their "Seal Grain Black" or "Pebbled Black" options at:

<cameraleather.com/leica_m/leatherette.htm>

I have installed the "Pebbled Black" cover on my M6TTL and can report that the pre-cut-out kit is simple to apply and the end result looks great.

A note of caution - after Q3 2003 Camera Leather found themselves flooded with orders after a write-up in Shutterbug magazine, so expect long delays if you want to ask a question or buy a kit.

Aki-Asahi Camera

<aki-asahi.com/store/>

In early 2004 a competitor in arrived in the form of Aki-Asahi. Same idea of pre-cut self-adhesive leather covers, but at a cheaper price (M2 & M3 $US 24, M6 $US 18). The trade-off is that they currently have fewer options and textures, although they do appear to have the Leica M6 & Leica M3 situation (ahem) well covered:

Which of their covers most closely approximates vulcanite? Quoting from their website:

#4034 is called as Morocco Grain Black in micro-tools.com. Very Durable and solid touch (not slippery).

#4008 has similar surface with M3 original vulcanite.

They have also put together an incredibly detailed page, with close-up photographs, of how to go about removing your old vulcanite and affixing the new self-adhesive cover:

<fogfeet.com/installation.html>

Leica original camera covers

Apparently you can still buy some of the original (self-adhesive) covers used on Leica M bodies as spare parts. In June 2004 Emanuel Lowi, sent me the following details:

[An] alternative for M6 and later cameras is to order from Leica Solms or USA the leatherette used on the Japan-only MP6 and LHSA MP cameras. This looks quite a lot like old vulcanite but is self-adhesive.

[…] The M6J material is also available from Leica -- also looks something like old vulcanite albeit finer grained -- but this is cut for the M6J top cover which has those descending tangs on the front (like M2/M3 tops).

For ordering Leica spare parts, see this topic elsewhere in the FAQ.

"Lizliz" hand-painted

Not "way-out-there" enough for you? Check out the custom oil-based paint-work on the following Leica IIIB:

<lizlizliz.com/motionshapecolor/id1.html>

A note about possible broken links