Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/08/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi Robert, I wrote the page you referred to, its nice to know its showing up in the search engines now: > the CLE (http://cameraquest.com/classics.htm). That description > documents > the life span of the Leica CL (1973-76) and mentions that when the CLE > came > out (1980?), the two Rokkors were revised for the CLE rangefinder and > were > then fully compatible with the M camera focus cam/rangefinder. > Could it be that Minolta changed the lenses to the CLE style prior to > the > CLE's introduction a year later? You could have a variation which I have not seen. Just check the rear cam of the lens. If the lens's rangefinder cam is parallel with the film plane, it has M/CLE style RF coupling. If it makes contact to the camera at a sharp angle to the film plane (perhaps 45 degrees or so) then it has CL style RF coupling. But it really makes no difference, or at least I don't think so. Also discussed is that CL type RF coupling seems to work fine on M cameras. The supposed incompatibility probably had more with Leica not wanting CL lenses to take away M series sales. But it makes no difference what anyone says about your lenses. Test them out on a M body and see if you can find a focusing difference. What Kidders! Those wild and crazy guys at Leica just love a good joke. They are busy working on a "Find Waldo" style poster to "Find the R8 Motor." Stephen Gandy