[Leica] Leica CL

[John Maries <jmaries@compuserve.com>]

>1) On the front of the camera, as you look at the lens, there is a =

>   silver button at about the 4:00 o'clock position. It is located
>   on the body. What is it? What does it do?

It's a battery test button.  To operate, you move the shutter dial
until a black flag or arm (different to the needle) appears in the
TOP viewfinder cutout.  That done, press the silver button and
a good battery will take the meter needle into the central cutout.

BTW (1) note that alkali versions of the 625 cell  (mine were marked
625A) will not give a "battery good" check in this manner and so
are probably not giving you a correct meter reading in normal use.
If you can't get the old mercury cells (in the US this is a problem),
then I've read that a good fix is to set the ISO/ASA half a stop lower
(ie 150 ilo 200 etc).  I've no experience of the Wien cells.

BTW (2) my CL had an erratic metering action that seemed to be
affected by this silver button.  I ran a few drops of penetrating
electrical contact cleaner around it, allowing it to seep around the
button - problem fixed!

Steven Gandy has some great web pages on the CL, haven't got
the URL here but a search on Gandy and Leica will get you in the
vicinity.

John Maries (UK)