Re-covering my camera

kamelean · Mar 14, 2012

Is there any place else to get leather for your camera than cameraleather.com? I placed an order with them on Feb 1, and have had no contact at all, and have given up on them. I need to recover my Yashica LM, and that is the only place that I can find to offer the leather.

AaronMax · Mar 15, 2012

I've had a lot of luck going to large mid-to-high end fabric stores and looking at their vinyl, faux leather, and other leathery type fabrics. They usually give samples about the size of a dollar, or will allow you to take that much for free. Just don't mention you're redoing a camera, say it's a chair maybe? You can grab dozens of samples. I've found two dollar sized pieces are enough to cover most cameras. Look out for ones with fuzz on the backside as you'll have to take a razor blade or knife to it and get that down a bit. But its no biggie. Most any good light glue will work and you can use the patterns to trace your cuts from the leatherette you pull off the camera. it's easy and cheap and you get a ton of choices for nothing.

dxqcanada · Mar 15, 2012

I also placed an order ... Morgan emailed me and said he was backlogged and I should get it this week ... I will check my mail tomorrow.

bhop · Mar 15, 2012

What camera is it?

edit: *duh.. should've read the whole post..

quick search over on rangefinderforums shows there are really only two options, cameraleather, and http://www.aki-asahi.com/store/ which is in japan, but seems to be faster. I don't see the LM on the list, but maybe you could contact them and see what's up. I read in some threads over there that cameraleather is basically one guy, so that's why he's slow sometimes.

dxqcanada · Mar 16, 2012

OK, nothing in the mailbox yet ... hopefully it arrives next week.

I found some leatherette from Micro-Tools ... I am eventually going to order some for my Ricoh Diacord.
http://www.micro-tools.com/store/~/C-568/Leather-and-Leatherette.aspx

kamelean · Mar 17, 2012

dxqcanada said:
OK, nothing in the mailbox yet ... hopefully it arrives next week.

Let me know if/when you get yours so I can know if mine is a total loss.

dxqcanada · Mar 20, 2012

Hmm, something just arrived at the Post Office ... it could be Leatherette. I will know by tomorrow.

kamelean · Mar 20, 2012

I sure hope he gives you a phone number with your order, because I would love to call him and find out where mine is. Also, when did you order yours?

dxqcanada · Mar 20, 2012

I do not recall a phone#
Ordered Feb 5.
I emailed him twice ... the second time he responded on Mar 2. to say that he was backlogged.
Back in January I emailed him about my Ricoh and he responded same day ... so I thought that his response was good, before I ordered.

dxqcanada · Mar 21, 2012

Crap, not the package I wanted ... going back to waiting.

compur · Mar 21, 2012

The site says:

All kits are cut to order. Cameraleather.com is NOT an e-commerce site or an e-Store! Most of the things you (and I ) order online are "pulled from stock" and shipped the same day. When you order from us, you are commissioning a custom piece made just for your camera. So when we get asked a question like "is the Cobalt Kid skin in stock for the Canon P rangefinder?", the answer is nothing is in stock! Commonly ordered kits, like Contax/Yashica or Konica, in basic black will ship quicker than exotic leather kits, or more complex kits such as for Leica M or TLR's. For more common cameras it takes from 3 to 10 working days to produce your kit before we can ship it, and more complex kits such as Leica or larger formats can take longer. Medium/large format kits in exotic or special order leathers can take more than 30 days to produce. We try to accommodate special needs, so if you really need your kit for a vacation or gift, let us know and we'll try to expedite it.

Proteus617 · Mar 22, 2012

There is a long thread in the "hidden from search engines" board on APUG. The bottom line seems to be that sometimes the waits are long and the communication can be poor but the the stuff always arrives and the quality is top notch. Be very patient.