I nearly bought a Cherry Brown Multicam a few year ago but bottled out due to the colour! Thank God I didn't buy one because it transpires that I hate the feel of Browns. This then, after a long delay and a few wrong turns, is my Blue switch Filco Muticam.
I love Blue switches, not only for typing but also for gaming. There's a juiciness to each key-press that's bizarrely pleasurable. In truth I think Reds are better overall for games, but for me Blues just have something special to them.
When I ordered the Filco Multicam I knew I'd either love it or hate it, so it was with some relief that I fell in love with it at first sight! It has an almost ironic cool vibe to it as if to say 'yes, I'm a camouflage-coloured keyboard but we're both in on the joke'. On the desk it's more Punk Rock fashion than E-Sport Geek.
Filco used to advertise these boards as having braided cables. Their website doesn't reference the cable now and sure enough mine came with a green standard plastic effort. I'm used to braided cables and it's surprising now much of a difference this makes aesthetically.
The Multicam paint-job is lovely. The printing is so good that it almost seems to be part of the plastic. Light seems to sink in for a millimetre or two. It doesn't of course, but the impression is there. It's really nice.
The board its completely flat on the table with feet up or down and the excellent rubber stoppers ensure that it stays put. The weight of the board also helps to keep things grounded and with the addition mass on the full Filco double-shot key-caps installed, that weight increases significantly.
I ordered my doubleshots form the Keyboard Company in the UK. As luck would have it, I asked about availability just when they were expecting a delivery. It looks like they'll be stocking them for the moment, so anyone wanting the get them in Europe is advised to drop them an email for availability.
What I wanted to achieve was the feel of an 80's keyboard with the customisation options of Cherry switches. I love Model M boards, but having luxuries like multimedia controls is always nice. Weirdly, when the double-shots are combined with Blue switches, the Filco Multicam feels very 80s indeed...but in a good way ;-)
The quality of the caps is astonishing. The standard Filco caps are quite nice, but they look very low-budget compared to the double-shots. The new caps have walls that are at least double the thickness of the standard caps. Each double-shot is also noticeably heavier than its standard equivalent.
The caps are a third higher than the standard Filco laser-etched efforts. They tower over the standard caps! Each has a conical shape with a shallow dish-shaped top surface. The plastic looks very similar to Bakelite in both colour and feel. It's hard to capture the keycap colour on camera but to the eye there's no mistaking that these are brown with cream-coloured letters. I've created a subjective colour comparison diagram to help give you a feel for how different the standard and doubleshot Filco caps are. I've exaggerated the brown to better convey the overall appearance of the installed double-shot caps.
Low-light visibility is excellent. The large, clear font pops off the key-cap to such an extent that even in very low light the caps are easily legible. Speaking of the font, it seems to be a very close relative of Helvetica. The 'R' lacks the slight curl it the end, and the lowercase 'a' lacks the top curl, but other than that it's a close match. The written commands ('backspace', Caps Lock. etc) have a very hand crafted look to them . They're very characterful and charming and add to the general artisan feel of the caps.
The doubleshot keycaps change the typing experience to such an extent that in effect this is a completely different keyboard. The caps carry so much weight into each stroke that actuation is noticably lighter. It's not a massive change, but it's there never the less. The structure, weight and material content also alter the bottoming-out action. The sound of the Blue's click is much more muted, and the cap impact sound softer, with a warmer sensation. That softeness can also be felt too.
While typing with my usual filco wrist-rest, I've found the height of the double-shots to give a much more intuitive hand position. I can type faster and with more comfort. The same applies to gaming too, and using the board with COD Black Ops 2 is an absolute pleasure. The spherical cap-tops are so pleasant to use that one questions why they fell out of favour. I much prefer them to cylindricals.
Overall, if you have a Multicam Filco, then these will add to both the user experience and the aesthetic impact of your keyboard. The colour is an excellent match and the quality of the caps is top-tier.
Combining these two products has created the single best keyboard I've ever typed on. It works equally well as a work tool and as a gaming platform with stunningly quirky good looks. I highly recommend both.
