I bought a little while ago an IBM 4704 Model 100 keypad — the one with 50 keys. As can be seen in this image, it came with its original, quite yellowed, clear key caps.
I've assigned this particular keypad to my son's usage — note his hand-written legends for the keys he's already found a use for.
- IBM 4704 Model 100, with original clear yet yellowed caps.
- clear-1.jpg (362.37 KiB) Viewed 1842 times
I had some old stock of original IBM keycaps, bought in 2009, but not nearly enough for my purposes. I bit of googling led me to a possible provider, Fentek, so I decided to make a test purchase of 30 of their buckling spring clear keycaps (at 17.50 per pack of ten caps, the price is not that expensive, but high enough to warrant testing the waters first). The purchase went well and I soon got their keycaps on my hands.
- From left to right: 10 clear original keycaps; 10 ¿old stock IBM keycaps?; 10 new stock Fentek keycaps.
- clear-2.jpg (511.02 KiB) Viewed 1842 times
As can be seen, the color difference between the original keycaps and both the ¿old stock IBM? and the Fentek keycaps is staggering. It should be noted that both latter groups of keycaps are slightly thicker and feel of better quality.
On the other hand, the difference between the ¿old stock IBM? and the Fentek keycaps is so slight that I'm starting to think that what I bought in 2009 thinking had been made by IBM may have been Fentek-made in the first place!
- Bear cub with a Devo complex — original cap.
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- Bear cub with a Devo complex — Fentek cap.
- clear-4.jpg (388.27 KiB) Viewed 1842 times
Besides the coloring issue, it's also quite easier to see through the Fentek cap than it is to see through the original one. Sadly, the first photo of the capped cub isn't perfectly focused, so this muddles the comparison a bit.
- Keypad with the three (two?) distinct kinds of clear key caps.
- clear-5.jpg (330.41 KiB) Viewed 1842 times
I kept the original keycaps on the leftmost and center key clusters, and I put the new ones on the rightmost, accompanied with non-clear keycaps for comparison purposes. The ¿old stock IBM? caps are right under the keys F1 and F5, while the Fentek caps are under the novelty caps (both the red DT logo and the
very special red cap).
The Fentek keycaps fit perfectly and, as you can see, make the keypad look much better. I'm happy with my purchase (and now I kinda regret not having bought more).
