Re: Leica CL

[dannyg1@IDT.NET]

Peter,

> I don't expect everything to last forever, and a lot of the griping I
> see posted in the digest seems to suggest that others do. No mechanical
> device is free from defects. 

I believe were working from two extremes here. On the one hand, there's a seemingly 
ubiquitous sense of denial that there is anything wrong with the CL and on the other, that 
everything is wrong with the CL.

I hope I've made my position clear: The CL is good camera that is of middling reliability. 
It suffers from far too thin top and bottom back plates and is fragile, as compared to most 
cameras, because of it/these. The meter cell is mounted on an armature that does stress 
the connective wires and said wires do fracture because of this movement; the original 
Cds cell is nearing (or has) ended its useful service life around now; hence the 
commonality of inaccurate CL meters. The front surface mirror of the RF is commonly 
losing its silver surfacing and is a costly repair. So, don't buy a CL for lots of money 
when it has a dim secondary RF image.

None of this makes the CL a bad camera, though it should be said so that people who 
don't own one can make educated decisions if/when they do become interested in 
owning one. I recommend the camera to others and love mine *but, it's not a completely 
rosy picture.

Sherry Krauter of Goldentouch in NJ does a remarkable job fixing CL's and, as far as I 
know, is the premier CL mechanic out there. I'm sure that Ken Ruth and Dan Goldberg 
fix 'em too and, if money is no object, Leica still supports the camera as well. FYI, Leica 
offers a voltage regulator for the CL and M5 meters (allowing accurate metering with the 
Alkaline batts) for around $50.

Danny Gonzalez