EXTERNAL COSMETIC REFINISHING
WITH CERAKOTE
La Salamandra uses the CERAKOTE line of ceramic coatings to not only provide your gear with a beautiful custom palette but also a remarkably durable one. These ceramic coatings are incredibly resistant to abrasion, chemical deterioration, and heat (although hopefully that last one won't ever come up!)
THE PROCESS
There are several steps involved with refinishing a camera or lens' exterior. First, the entire unit must be disassembled. Screws unscrewed, glues removed, solder de-soldered - the whole shebang. This can be simple or complex depending on the specific camera or lens, and there is a small risk of damage involved that might lengthen the process. It's at this point that any dings or dents need to be dealt with.
Next, the parts need to be de-greased. This means a solvent bath for metals and degreaser for composite materials. All materials must then be able to withstand surface prep via abrasive blasting and de-gassing in an oven. All this happens at least once before the parts are ready for spraying, and materials that are not up to the challenge must be omitted. After that it's just a matter of applying the new finish in your chosen colour(s) and air or oven curing depending on the coating.
Why "La Salamandra" anyway?
As with many things that I do, I find it difficult to not work some kind of joke into the mix. The story of La Salamandra starts sometime in the summer (or was it spring?) of 2020. Ugh, I know, right? Anyway, a film-addled camera collector friend of mine started sending me instagram links to all these fancy-AF refinished film cameras. As I came to discover, there's a company in the States called Cerakote that makes a line of resilient ceramic coatings. In addition to a bunch of people stencilling rainbows and unicorns onto their surrogate penises guns, some other intrepid souls had started doing the same to cameras…
I was intrigued! I started researching how they were accomplishing this. I was already quite comfortable inside of most cameras so painting the outside was pretty trivial. But oh-hoh, it wasn't that simple! They needed to be baked, for lack of a better word. And there were acetone baths involved. And abrasive blasting. All kinds of nonsense. So in September of 2020 I decided that I would give it a go, and I bought an oven. It was on sale. And then I did nothing for about another year-ish.
As I write this it's the start of 2022. So there you go.
Oh, wait, I didn't explain the name! Ok, well:
I only use assumed names on social media (they aren't getting anything from me for free!) and one day my film-friendly friend discovered this, coming to the realization that my online identity wasn't totally congruent with my offline identity. I explained why I feel the need to deny the big sosh meeds monopolies my identity. At some point thereafter I noticed that he seemed to follow suit, changing his social media handle - to Elle Salamander! In my head I started referring to him as "El Salamander" which started to morph into "El Salamandor." Pretty cool nickname material, frankly. So I decided to look it up just to be sure I wasn't committing an oopsy goofer and… discovered that in Spanish, salamander is actually a feminine noun. Which means it's La Salamandra.
So when it came time to call this venture something I asked him if I could use the nickname, since he was the one who introduced me to this Cerakote nonsense in the first place. And thus, La Salamandra is named in his honour.
Oh, and one day I texted him a photo of nail polish that I use to colour recessed lettering and he asked "Starting a salon?" and I responded "You know it! A salon… but for cameras!"
And there you have it. La Salamandra Camera Salon.
At your service.
The irony of the placement of these social media links is not lost on me.