[Leica] CL Commercial Flop? Not so fast

[Stephen <cameras@jetlink.net>]

Andrew S Jordan wrote:  (snip)

> . Don't forget that the CL was a commercial flop. As the saying goes,
> "once burned, twice shy" or something like that.

I  don't think so.  According to the Leica pocket book, 65,000 #'s were
allocated to the CL between 1973 to 1976 over only three years, or
21,666 units per year.

That compares to a TOTAL production of the M4 & M5 of 21,020 over the
same three years.

Even if true CL production was only half of the number allotted,  the CL
out produced it's bigger M brother to the tune of 3:2     Although I am
not sure of the exact figures, I do know that I see a lot more CL's than
I do M5's and M4's.

that I believe, was the problem.  The CL almost certainly outsold the M
series during those years, therefore endangering the M.

Realizing that it  was a shrinking market, Leica sensibly decided to
kill the small camera to keep the M alive.

Stephen Gandy