Well, at least real gold plating. This properly pimped masterpiece hails from Hong Kong where owner Robert Yan decided to get down to business after he wore the shiny black paint off his M3 through overuse. I mean, imagine using a Leica as a camera. Whatever next! I have some sort of ill-formed idea of how uncommon black M3s are and what sort of money they might fetch so we can guess Robert was a bit disappointed that he hadn't looked after his Leica a bit better when he got to this stage!
However, rather than just burnish the brass bodywork, Robert decided to go one better and have it gold plated instead. A local Leica agent dismantled the M3 and Robert took the parts to a local jewellery shop to have them plated. The camera was reassembled by the agent. Robert says the camera is still in perfect working condition. Although various gold-plated Leicas have appeared over the years, Robert is fairly sure that Leitz never actually plated any M3s so his might just be unique.
A clever guy who is handy with a screwdriver, Robert is now working on a way of "squeezing a little digital camera inside an M body with some modification to both". Please don't send us the pics of that one, Robert. That's just far too clever to pass as pimping.
P.S. Robert also sent me some pics of his M4, a camera that is so "well used" it makes Garry Winogrand's look mint. This is a man who knows what a Leica is for - and a man who obviously doesn't own a display case...
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