Silver or Black: does one colour get scratched or worn looking faster?

Hi all,

I am about to jump in and get a µ4/3 camera and lenses.

The body will be GX7 and it comes in black or black/silver.

Lenses to buy include the Olympus 45mm and 75mm  primes, which come in black or silver.

I think they all look nice and would buy any combo. But I am more interested in whether one finish is more durable, less prone to scratching or scuffing or looking worn over time?

Anyone with direct personal experience who can help and advise me?

Thank you

I'm not sure about that, but I opted for the silver GX7, and I love it.  I have the two silver Pany lenses for it - the 14-42 II and the 45-150mm lenses, and they look great on the cam.  All of my other cameras are black, with black lenses, so this time I wanted the silver as it looks a little more retro and rangefinder-like.

If you take care of your cameras like me, I think you won't regret the silver in terms of wear.  I also have a dark brown leather half case on the GX7 for added protection, and it looks outstanding.

Rest assured that some on this forum will claim that the silver is worse, but I'm not buying into that.

caver3d

I'm like you, caver, I want to try the silver if I can be sure it is no more prone to scratches and surface wear.

Any experienced guys care to comment?

I've not had the black versions, but there's likely a difference between the 45 and 75 due to the fact that the 45 is largely plastic where the 75 is apparently all-metal. I have a silver 45 that is unmarked after a significant degree of use over the last 20 months. It's probably painted on top of a light-colored plastic, but I haven't done a scratch-n-sniff test to find out. But hard plastic is pliable compared to most metals, reducing the likelihood of a cracking or flaking paint issue.

My silver 75 is also unmarked, with a lesser degree of use. I expect it's just painted, but whatever the process used it produces a durable enough finish that I'd just buy the color you want. Certainly scratches on the black version would be more visible if they are deep enough to show metal. You'd have to really mark up a silver one before it would be noticeable without effort.

You might try perusing for-sale photos of silver versions to see how they've held up. The only black ones I've seen posted for sale here are new lenses.

It indicates the owner really loves photography and uses the camera a lot, and as a tool, not a piece of jewelry.

As support for this, take a look at the fairly new Pentax MX-1. They purposely put brass on the top and bottom so that when the paint wears off (on the corners, for example), the brass shows through. I've read of new purchasers actually trying to get that effect by messing with the paint.

I also agree with the poster who said that resale is probably not affected. I eBay my equipment and I stopped buying screen protectors years ago. People don't seem to care and I always get higher prices.

I've not heard or read about any problems with either. I bought a silver OMD because I like the styling and like the silver lenses (12mm and 17mm in particular).

As an aside, I still own a Nikon F3 film camera (circa 1982 I think). It is black, but after some use the brass metal shows through the black paint. I actually liked it that way, and I was suprised to find at one point 'brassed' copies were selling for more than perfect copies because people wanted to look like they used their gear a lot.

Note the part about the MX-1.