Re: [Leica] How about this.....

[Godfrey DiGiorgi <ramarren@bayarea.net>]

>A former Minolta lens designer wrote that Minolta was frustrated by CL, and
>went ahead and designed an M body as their designers liked it to be, with
>parts already available.  The result is the CLE.  Minolta execs approached
>Leitz about possibly marketting it with a Leica label, but Leitz execs at
>the time declined, saying that the mechanical M body is the soul of Leica.

And I have it from good authority that Leica was frustrated with the CL 
project and Minolta, due to the very high incidence of rework required to 
make the cameras that Minolta was manufacturing meet the quality 
specification. 

I've used both the CL and the CLE. When I decided to buy one, I chose the 
CL as I like the ergonomics more (although film loading continues to be a 
pain for me). All I want is an M meter in it rather than the old 
swinging-arm style CdS meter. It's a much handier size then the M for my 
uses, the shorter baseline rangefinder is perfectly adequate for the 40mm 
lens (my preferred focal length) and shorter lenses that I like to use 
with this type of camera.

Godfrey