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!