White is out, except on a few vintage models. Real gold is definitely out unless one was given a gold one by the manufacturers for being such a good photographer. So are animal skins (snake, mink or otherwise). But most important, all colours that look right for boats lost at sea (orange, red, yellow, etc.) are wrong for real cameras. This is because cameras finished in vivid colours may reflect onto the subject and thus produce unnatural hues in the final results.

The key choice is then between chrome and black. Most standard finishes are black and chrome but the status element increases as the total volume of chrome reduces, and the black increases. An all black camera, made thus by the manufacturers, is the hallmark of the very serious amateur and some professionals. Slightly upmarket of this is the mixed chrome/black example with the chrome bits hand-painted matt black. This spells dedicated amateur or the professional who is important enough not to care and does not have to answer to a newspaper for the equipment. The finishing touch in this scale is the odd spot of white paint on all the dials at the most commonly used settings. Definitely the ultimate professional image or superb fakery.

John Courtis ‘Bluff your way in photography’ (1993)