Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/09/26
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi Charlie, The CL is a wonderful camera if you learn to live within its limitations, the most important of which is, as you allude to, the short base of the rangefinder, which makes the longer lenses basically unusable unless you shoot at infinity. So I would not bother with the 135mm Hektor, and not even with the 90mm Elmar C which was meant for the CL but which in my experience rarely focused on target. During 2003 and 2004 I used a couple of CLs with a 40mm Summicron C and a 21mm Color Skopar to take most of the pictures in my Seville gallery: http://www.frozenlight.eu/fotosevilla/ There is something nice and liberating about a tiny and light camera bag, and only a limited choice of lenses. Nathan Charlie Meyer wrote: > Well, my new (ok, to me!) Leica CL arrived in the mail today. For > $225 off RFF, it looked as nice or nicer than those selling for more > on that 'big other auction site'. I really wanted a user M2 or M3 as > a second body, but the market has gone loony on M2/3 prices. With > 40mm framelines, it mates up well with my VC 1,4/40 Nokton. The small > focusing patch is going to take a bit to get used to after being > spoiled with the M3 finder. It's half the age of my M3, and there's > @#$%&! PLASTIC (ok, just a bit) inside), but there's still a nice heft > to it. At less than half what 50 year old M2/3s are fetching on that > 'other big auction site', I can live with an internal meter that's off > and still know I will be financing part of Sherry's retirement > account. My Leicas make my LunaPro F look as unobtrusive as a boom > box at a wake, but it is accurate. It'll be a cold day in hell when 9v > batteries are obsolete and unobtainable. > > I guess it really isn't fair to compare the cl with the Ms. I'm > starting a roll in the morning to see if I can adjust to a less > sensitive and precise rangefinder. For the money, I certainly cannot > bitch. > > Rounding out the lens department of the bag is a 135 Hektor that I > picked up from the post office this morning. Hell, they're cheap > enough ($83 shipped), but the damn 12575 hood was a bear to find at a > price less than the damn lens. The Hektor is stiffer focusing, but a > CLA should rectify that. I bought a nice 12575 hood for the Elmar and > Hektor last night for less than $30. Everything now fits comfy in a > Domke F-803 bag. Big enough to carry the kit...small enough to keep > the G.A.S. in check (yeah, right). > > Anyone have pointers about using a CL? I figure sticking to shorter > lenses and stopping down should be a first step. > > I'm still hoping just to luck out at some estate sale for another > M2/3. I was lucky the first time. > > > Charlie > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > -- Nathan Wajsman Almere, The Netherlands *Opportunistic Image Acquisition* General photography: http://www.frozenlight.eu http://www.nathanfoto.com http://www.greatpix.eu Picture-A-Week: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws Seville: http://www.frozenlight.eu/fotosevilla Stock photography: http://www.alamy.com/search-results.asp?qt=wajsman http://myloupe.com/home/found_photographer.php?photographer=507 Blog: http://www.fotocycle.dk/blog SUPPORT FREEDOM OF SPEECH, BUY DANISH PRODUCTS!