Please excuse the lack of a U in the colourful title. It bothers me a bit, but it is necessary in this case. This week I received a lovely package in the mail…post if you are English 🙂

It was sent from Colorful Analogue Cameras in Lithuania. I want to be upfront, I was offered the skin as a kind of trial. Can I use one and give feedback? How was the experience? Can any improvements be made? Well, I loved the experience and the results, so I am writing this post.

The only camera I had that would fit any prepared skins was a Zorki 4. To be honest, I don’t use it much due to the Contax claw grip needed to hold it without obscuring the rangefinder. Also, the skin on mine was fine, no peeling at all, so it didn’t really need replacing. But here was the offer of a beautiful hand-painted skin…I am in!!

I didn’t choose the skin design, but let the Artist choose for me. I think they chose well. (I have looked for a name, but I think they want to stay anonymous, so let their art be their calling card)

Now, I wrote I had Kiev 4 in the title, but I told the artist that I had a 4a, which was slightly different. They said they would replace any pieces if there was an issue, but the pieces were so close that I wondered if I could come up with a fix of my own. It was my fault after all.

The first thing I did was take off the original skin. Well, that was easy enough; it practically fell off without any tears.

Some of the premade holes on the new skin had to be extended slightly, but I could use the original skin as a guide. The artist had thoughtfully skived the leather, which made it much easier to cut. It also meant the final fit was much smoother, with no edges overlapping the body.

You can see the glue I used, contact adhesive. I put a thin layer on the leather and the camera body. I allowed it to get tacky, then held it in place. Being tacky meant I could still push it into place to get a perfect fit. I was really impressed by the quality and sturdiness of the skin. I manhandled it quite a lot while positioning it. I wanted to test how stable the paint was. There were no marks or lifting of the pattern at all. I would trust the skin in a slight shower, which is more than I would with my own ‘stamp’ skins.

My original skin came off in one piece, so I did not need to clean anything, but if you bought one of these skins, you might need to clean any residue off first. The back part was cut perfectly and needed no adjustment. One of the front panels had a hole in a slightly awkward position. Again, I was offered a replacement, but I had an idea. I had the label from the back of the camera, which I had removed. That covered the very slight misalignment. The whole job hardly took any time at all.

Here is the newly covered Kiev 4.

I loaded it with a roll of slightly expired Portra 160 and went for a walk near some sunflowers on Heath Common and then on a photowalk held by Holmfirth Photo Social. I have added a link to the Heath Common GoFundMe page, as I can’t believe this land that is ‘common land‘ might be used for battery storage.

Anyway, here are some of the results. Luckily, we have had lots of rain recently, so the reservoir might have filled ever so slightly.

The new skin on the camera made no difference to the results, of course, but it did enhance the whole experience. I felt quite proud walking around with the unique Kiev 4. I loved that I applied the skin myself and that it was hand-painted. It garnered quite a few comments. It is very noticeable. The whole experience was lovely from start to finish. I would definitely consider buying a skin for another camera. Click on the image below to redirect straight to the shop. You can buy other painted items, I was sent a film holder which is very handy.

Oh and I made a few TikToks about it. Here is a sample. Don’t worry, it doesn’t link to the website and I turned the sound off, you can turn it back on if you like.