Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/11/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Greetings Daniel, and welcome!
A great many people are devoted to the Leica CL, but I am not one of them.
I owned a CL for six or seven years and have the following observations...
I find the body just too small and I was forever ghetting my fingers in
front of the rangefinder or the lens.
The front mounted shutter speed dial is too exposed and tends to bang into
solid abjects and will cost a good deal of money to repair.
The meter cell is cemented to its moving stalk with an adhesive that is too
brittle. The cell tends to come off the stalk and can jam the shutter,
causing another expensive repair.
I for one do not like the placement of the strap lugs and the vertical hang
of the camera.
The CL will not acurately focus telephoto lenses with an f/stop wider than
4.0 and cannot be trusted to focus any Summilux or for any close focus
purposes.
The build quality of the camera is not up to M body standards. In
particular, I found that the CL did not seal well against dust and moisture
and I had to clean the interior of the camera far too often to prevent grit
from scratching the film.
The CL actually isn't that much smaller than an M body and is even closer in
size to a LTM body. I don't find that the smaller size of the CL outweighs
its disadvantages.
As I noted, the CL has many devoted users and it is certainly capable of
taking fine photographs, especially with its matched 40 mm Summicron and 90
mm Elmar-C, which are bothe exceptional lenses. However, I would urge you
to consider the disadvantages and perhaps purchase an M or LTM body instead.
Buzz Hausner
>
> From: daniel.rocha@free.fr
> Date: 2004/11/12 Fri AM 09:20:24 EST
> To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
> Subject: [Leica] The Leica CL !?
>
>
> Hello Everybody !
>
> I have just subscribed to the LUG and I would like to
> ask you a question !
>
> I have planed to buy a small camera with great lens(es).
> A camera wich produce the less noise possible when I
> shoot.
>
> I have choose the Leica CL. It's very small, take great
> lenses. And it's cost less than a "real" M body.
>
> Anybody here is using this kind ob equipment ?
> I would like to read personnal views of the camera !
>
> I'm interested too, in the 80/4 lens. Is it easy for using
> the lens ? Is the 90mm frame is not too smal on the
> finder ?
>
> Regards,