Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/04/05
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Welcome John! Many people on this list use and are enthusiastic about the Leica CL. I am the contrarian. I find the camera too small for my hands. You cannot accurately focus all lenses, especially lenses faster than f2.0 for wide angles and faster than f4.0 for telephotos. I find that the front mounted shutter speed dial to be accident prone and easy to ding up. Worst of all, Leica used too brittle an adhesive to attach the meter cell to its stalk, and over the five years I owned a CL, at least three times the cell fell off and twice jammed the shutter. These shutter jams resulted in relatively expensive repairs. That said, the two lenses made specifically for the CL, the 40mm Summicron-C and the f4.0/90 Elmar-C are both great lenses...I especially miss the forty. As I said, many list members love the CL...it is compact and pocketable...but I would be cautious about using one as your primary body. I am not sure of relative prices, and whether or not you are committed to an in-board meter, but you may want to hold your fire until you can pick up a user M6 with its meter or, for a whole lot less money (?) than an M6, an ugly user of the M4, M4-2 vintage if you can do without the meter. I never used a 35 Summicron with the CL, but if you buy the CL, I would search out the forty Summicron anyway because it is close enough to 35mm, and the CL has frame lines for the 40 but not for 35. If you need the meter and are of very limited funds, the CL will get you into Leica at a relatively low cost. However, I predict that you will pretty soon want to own an M series body anyway and might just as well spend the extra money up front. Good luck with your decision. Buzz Hausner - -----Original Message----- From: JOHN SCHEUERER [mailto:jhs8956@hotmail.com] Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2001 11:52 AM To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us Subject: [Leica] Intro and questions Greetings to all, My name is John and I'm new to the LUG.I don't own a Leica as of yet but hope to buy one some day,the 35mm summicron lense at least. At this time I use the Olympus slr system cameras and lenses.Now,I'd like to get a rangefinder and Leica seems to me to be the only one I'm really interested in.I have a few questions and would greatly appreciate some advise from folks in this group. Thankyou in advance for your input! [1] Is a cl a good camera body to use? [2] any typical historical problems with them? [3] Is a 35 summicron compatable with a cl? [4] Any disadvantages in using the 35 summicron on a cl if it IS compatible? _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com