1957 Nikon SP Black
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Black Nikon SP’s were made to special order in small batches and only made available to photo journalists making them quite rare. The paint was directly applied to the brass bodies without benefit of a primer making the paint vulnerable to wear or “brassing”. Most black SP’s were well used and consequently are well worn. Buyer beware, there are quite a few fakes out there but repainted SP’s are usually easy to tell from the originals due to the fact they were made from chrome SP’s and the chrome will show through the paint.  Most of the original black paint SP’s have black painted self-timer levers but this example has a chrome one. There are other examples of chrome levers on original black paint models so perhaps it was an option or simply replaced. Since no records were kept as to which cameras were painted by the factory it is very difficult to verify originality without some sort of provenance. However, the serial number of this example falls on the edge of a known batch made. You decide. Either way, a beautiful camera!