Painting/Staining Intrepid Cameras?

Curious, has anyone done any external painting or staining? The 4x5 black edition looks pretty nice (as I recall that's moreso 3D printed and aluminum). Looking at an 8x10 and possibly a 5x7 (the latter for a specific project) and while I could care less what the color of wood is, I would like to at least paint things like the rear standard where the film holders sit, or the lens board. I did that on my first 4x5, the Intrepid MK2, with a permanent marker (lol? :P) while I was trying to mitigate a light leak.

This time around I'd like to be a bit more refined. But figure if I go that far, I might like to paint parts of the outside? The 5x7 in particular would be used for portraiture work (if I can figure out making abrotypes from J Lane plates, see this post for that) and I think having a darker stain or even just painting the wood black might make it a little more approachable for customers?

I know there's a seal they put on the wood so probably wouldn't want to go as far as to having to sand anything and undo all that work.

Thoughts on that? Seems like several folks paint the more light sensitive parts of the rear and front standard so I was at least going to do that.

Intrepid effectively make these to order , judging by the lead times .
I would imagine they would be happy to make one for you that has not had any treatment / sealant applied .

That way you can apply whatever finish you prefer , without having to strip or key into the standard finish .

Why not send them an email and ask ?

Ah that's not a bad idea. I actually did send them an e-mail asking if they corrected some of the 8x10 MK2 growing pains (the film holder issue notably that Tony Santos and a few others ran into). It took them quite a few days (as they're quite busy over there, which is a great thing to see!) but they did say they've made some changes. Not sure what those are. So yep I could ask about that.

On the other hand, I make some mostly 3D printed parts for darkroom enlargers and other things and I also do customizations - that's a huge part of my product line really is all the customizations. But I think for someone like Intrepid, that might be harder to track at the volumes they are doing. Can't hurt to ask though, good idea!

I use magic markers to 'black' internals

I find Renaissance Wax makes everything look great and is safe on almost anything

It was made for museums

https://www.highlandwoodworking.com/renaissancewax.aspx

Oh cool I'll check that wax out, thanks Tin! Likewise good to confirm I didn't something horribly wrong with taking a marker to my 4x5 MK2 ;)

I painted the area behind the lens board on my 8x10 Mk1 with a flat black craft paint. On my 8x10 Mk2, I painted the same area with india ink. My guess is that anything inside the camera is up for grabs; not so sure about the external surfaces as they do apply a finish.

2 or 3 month ago they confirmed to me that you can just paint their cameras without any problem!

I took delivery of an 8x10 MkII a few weeks ago and they have made a few changes to it in response to a few early reviews:

- The ground glass frame edge is beveled so it's easier to slide holders in

- Focusing knob is chunkier

- The focusing track has a hard stop at the end so the drive screw won't push off the front standard if you keep turning it

- Front tilt knobs are a different shape to the rise and fall knobs

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BLATT LAB

2 or 3 month ago they confirmed to me that you can just paint their cameras without any problem!

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Olive. Or chromium oxide green, https://www.kremer-pigmente.com/de/s...oxidgruen.html Urushi laquer, https://www.kremer-pigmente.com/de/s...urushiole.html

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lcpr

I took delivery of an 8x10 MkII a few weeks ago and they have made a few changes to it in response to a few early reviews:

- The ground glass frame edge is beveled so it's easier to slide holders in

- Focusing knob is chunkier

- The focusing track has a hard stop at the end so the drive screw won't push off the front standard if you keep turning it

- Front tilt knobs are a different shape to the rise and fall knobs

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Oooh that's fantastic information thank you! I reached out to them directly and asked about it, and they had said they made changes, but didn't actually say what those were. The beveled edge in particular is the main thing I was hoping for. That's wonderful, thank you again!