Leica Cl Thumb Rest
The distinctive thumb rest of the new Leica Q2 and the sophisticated diamond pattern of its leather trim ensure optimum grip and highlight the symbiosis of function and form. Sliding the thumb rest into the accessory shoe enhances the ergonomics of the Leica CL. With the thumb pressed up against the thumb rest, the camera can be.
Thanks for the tip re RRS alternative to Leicas 'foot' I'll have to check it out - you'd think Leica (at least ) would have made it Arca compatible.I don't mind the Leica hood -:)Enjoy th e visit to Leica store - I'm ch illing out on the beach at Ma nly. not only the RRS foot is small and flat and arcaswiss type it is also QD compatible at the same time, makes attaching a sling strap both super quick and super safe.
I was to shoot sunrise in Northern Beaches (wth SL and SVE 15-35) but decided it’s to early to wake up this week 🤣. I initially bought just the thumb support. After using the CL with just that during a 4 hour community event that i had to cover and i had the camera always ready on my hand, 2 hours on - i felt my hand cramping. Eventually, i bought the handgrip for better comfort. And for the next event that i had to cover (still 4 hours), i got caught offguard needing to capture a moment when i was changing battery! The design flaw on the handgrip that i thought was bad hindered me from changing batteries fast.
Anyways, i just closed the battery door and shoved the handgrip in one of my pouches while i took the photos. After that, i put it back on. Hope they come up with an updated version with a cutout/window for the battery/memory card door. I use both also (thumb support + handgrip)They provide an easier handling for heavier lenses such as Summilux-TL 35mm or longer lenses such as APO-Macro-TL 60mm or APO-Vario 55-135mm. But they are still manageable with a naked CL (you can support the whole setup with two hands: body and lens together)However they are an absolute necessity for the biggest M lenses (APO 75-90, Lux 21-24-28 etc) because you have to support the whole setup with the body only. The left hand has to be free for manual focusing. I use both also (thumb support + handgrip)They provide an easier handling for heavier lenses such as Summilux-TL 35mm or longer lenses such as APO-Macro-TL 60mm or APO-Vario 55-135mm.
But they are still manageable with a naked CL (you can support the whole setup with two hands: body and lens together)However they are an absolute necessity for the biggest M lenses (APO 75-90, Lux 21-24-28 etc) because you have to support the whole setup with the body only. The left hand has to be free for manual focusing.Err. How do you focus?? Unless you hold the camera in a weird way, the left hand supports the lens during focusing.
Not really.You rest the camera on the palm of your left hand to take the weight and use your thumb and index finger to control the lens, with all types of lenses (except very long ones with the controls more up front). You'll find your pinky locks against the EVF.The mount on TL lenses even has ribbing next to the bayonet to rest your thumb and index finger on when not used, giving extra grip.It is not very practical to 'hold the camera by the lens' You will, as you say, operate the lens controls such as zoom ring and focusing ring by accident.The right hand is for stabilizing and steering the camera, operating the wheels by thumb and the shutter by index finger.
Oh- and essential: don't wave your elbows around, in against your body.Try it: it is better than IBISSee the post I linked to. That is valid for both M and CL. I have the Thumbie and grip on my CL, as I have weak and arthritic hands. It is however, a pain to have to unscrew the grip to access battery or card every time.
SD card is more frequent at present, due to the error on the firmware update, which disabled webserver access. I am more than a little disappointed that Leica, even though they are aware of this problem, have not got around to correcting it, by reversing the faulty FW update to this feature. The upside is that my SL is getting a bit more use these days, as its webserver access remains unimpaired.Wilson. Wilson,I have found the Lim case which incorporates an effective grip, dovetail for tripod use and provides access to the battery/card compartment useful. It adds a little weight and bulk to the camera body but works well with larger and longer lenses.Hello guest!Please or to view the hidden content.Hello guest!Please or to view the hidden content.That looks excellent. I will get one from him. I see he does rather a smart looking one in black with red stitching, which will go well with my Artist and Artisan red rope strap.Wilson.
Thanks to all these suggestions I got the Thumbie for thumb grip and a front pad from flipbac, specifically a G3It all looks like it should and works very nicely. Usually I don’t like sticking stuff on a Leica, but both are removable.
I wanted this camera to be a streetshooting one handed small light machine. Now it is with the small 18mm.I also use a very minimalist shoulder strap from optech that is little more than a string.I keep it over my right shoulder and the camera hangs from a single lug. Under a jacket it is completely invisible but easy to reach. A heavier camera and lens would be too much weight, but the CL and 18mm is so light.Finally, I have added a UV filter on the 18mm and have dispensed with the lens cap.Hello guest!Please or to view the hidden content.Hello guest!Please or to view the hidden content.Hello guest!Please or to view the hidden content. Lim half case arrived from Korea this morning (no duty to pay, thank goodness) and thanks to forum member Ayewing, for pointing me in its direction. With a bit more thought, this is how Leica should have designed their grip. It has two big advantages over the Leica grip: 1) It is not necessary to unscrew the grip to replace the battery or access the card.
The latter is even more important at present, since Leica screwed up web browser access with the last FW update, so I am having to remove the card quite frequently to get images onto my laptop. It has a built in Arca compatible quick mount.
This excellent bit of kit, I am afraid, puts Leica to shame for their lazy and poorly-thought-out design of the standard grip.WilsonHello guest!Please or to view the hidden content.Hello guest!Please or to view the hidden content. Edited January 17 by wlaidlaw.
The great thing about the Leica CL, when new, was that it shed the trappings of the brand whose name it wore. It wasn’t trying to be a Leica M. It was its own thing, its own design. It was a radical departure from the M mount cameras that came before it, and a short-lived harbinger of what would later succeed. In 1973, the Leica CL was a great camera by its own definition.In 2018, the definition may have changed.
These days the youngest Leica CL is more than forty years old. The importance of durability and longevity in any conversation around classic cameras has naturally taken on more weight than at any other point in these machines’ lives, and discussing a Leica CL is now all but impossible without direct comparison to its cousins,.Time withers. The war of attrition that each of us will inevitably lose has compromised the greatness of the Leica CL. Aging electronics and critical components made of less-robust-than-brass plastics have made ownership of this camera something akin to falling in love; beautiful and worthwhile, but ultimately doomed.Woah, that got dark. What am I even talking about? It’s cold here, and I do believe I’m fighting a bout of seasonal affective disorder. Forgive my bleakness.
Let’s get back on track. What’s a Leica CL?Co-designed by Leitz and Minolta and manufactured by the latter in Japan, the CL was known at various times and in various places as the Leica CL, the Leitz Minolta CL, or the Minolta CL. In addition, there’s a relatively rare “50 Jahre” anniversary edition made to celebrate fifty years of Leica cameras (1925-1975) and these come with special serial numbers denoting their place in the production run.Functionally, all of the differently-named cameras are identical.
Our writer Dustin has it on good authority from Sherry Krauter, herself a famed Leica repairer and occasional grumpy Gus, that later versions (serial number 103XXXX and above) of the Leitz Minolta CL have over twenty internal modifications and improvements. If you want the best Leica CL, pinch a grain of salt and look for one of these later models.The Leica CL began life in 1973, one of the many products birthed of the fruitful coupling of Leitz and Minolta that began in 1972. It was manufactured for just three years, and though it reportedly had enormous sales success, Leica decided to discontinue the camera in 1976.It’s an M mount rangefinder camera, like the famous Leica M.
But unlike the Leica M, it’s small and light. And though that last sentence definitely irritated a fair number of Leicaphiles, it’s true. The Leica CL has the distinction of being the smallest and lightest M mount film camera ever made.
That counts for something, though that something won’t matter to some shooters.It essentially packs into this diminutive frame most of the things that people love about Leica M cameras. It’s simple and intuitive, with only the controls that one needs to make a photo. But it also lacks some of the most important things that make M ownership the enviable goal of many of the most impassioned camera likers. Specs and Real-World UseThe Leica CL spec sheet is really quite similar to many of the classic pre-meter Leica M cameras. It’s got an all-mechanical, cloth focal plane shutter capable of speeds from 1/1000th of a second down to 1/2 of a second, plus Bulb mode for long exposures. It’s got a coupled rangefinder that displays a focus patch in the viewfinder, and parallax-corrected automatically-selected frame lines for set focal lengths. There’s a tripod socket on the bottom, a film counter and hot-shoe for flash sync (1/60th of a second) on the top, and strap lugs on the side.Actuation of switches and levers and dials feels the way it should feel; direct and mechanical.
The shutter speed dial clicks into detents with precision, and the film advance lever swings with a beautifully smooth motion. The shutter cocks into place with clockwork precision, and pressing the shutter release button, which is firm and springy, yields a delightfully quick and near-silent Thwick!But the comparisons to the older Ms end there.
There’s plenty (good and bad) to differentiate the CL from the brassier Leicas. Metering System and ViewfinderAside from the smaller size, the differences between the CL and the M most obviously show in the viewfinder. And of the many differences hinted at in this VF, the most obvious is found on the right hand side, where we see a big, vertical light meter display. This needle display is linked to a through-the-lens CdS light metering cell positioned in front of the focal plane on a swinging arm system.
The 7.5mm diameter metering cell meters 7% of the film area in a spot pattern, which causes the needle to rise and fall in relation to the amount of light passing through the lens (note that this meter is swung into position only when the shutter is cocked and swings away just before shutter release). The meter sensitivity is set via the ASA/DIN control within the shutter speed dial.
It’s then activated by pulling the advance lever slightly away from the body, after which we set the lens aperture and point the camera at our subject. The needle in the viewfinder swings to its latent light reading, and we dial in toward a proper exposure by rotating the shutter speed dial in the direction that we’d like the meter needle to move (towards the “correct exposure” mark in the viewfinder).It’s a fast and intuitive system, helped along by the vertically-mounted shutter speed dial’s correlation to the vertically-oriented meter display.This system alone makes the CL a very unique M mount camera. At the time of its release, only. The relative enormity of that camera precludes comparison between the CL and M5.
For shooters who wanted a compact M mount camera in 1973, there was only one real choice (and it remained that way until Minolta released the CLE in 1980).Viewfinder differences continue – it shows frame lines for comparatively odd focal lengths (40mm, 50mm, and 90mm). If this revelation doesn’t make you want to argue about things then you’re probably not a die-hard Leica fan (these people will argue about rangefinder baselength, viewfinder magnification, and “the best” frame lines, ad nauseam).The takeaway is that the viewfinder is very good. For those who want to shoot a 40mm lens, there’s no better viewfinder. For shooters who will never go wider than a 50mm, there’s probably a better M mount camera for you (try the M3 at the cost of size). For those going wider, 28mm for example, there’s also a better M mount camera (try Minolta’s CLE).
Bones and Batteries and Breakdownsis not as durable as a Leica M. It wasn’t made to be.
It was made to be a lighter, smaller, technologically advanced M mount camera that offered more camera for less money. It did all of that, yet today the only variable of this equation that most people talk about is the part about the CL not being chiseled from a block of brass, the part that leaves the CL at a disadvantage.I get it. People want their film cameras to be made of metal. But I also accept plastic as a viable material in certain applications. Game of thrones sigils black and white.
The CL uses plastic in places where it definitely make sense. But it also uses plastic in places where it probably makes sense, yet leaves me feeling uneasy.Chiefly this uneasiness stems from the use of plastic in the camera’s film take-up spool. The tines that grab the film leader are plastic, as is the spool itself. I’ve seen a few too many of these types of take-up spools break.
I should clarify – I’ve not personally seen these break in any Leica CL or Minolta CLE, but I do occasionally flick the plastic fins and feel a pang of impending dread. The battery that the Leica CL uses is the classic 625 1.35 volt mercury battery, the availability of which is now an impossible challenge. Meters can be adjusted for the new battery voltage of 1.5 volt, or adapters can be used to stifle the voltage.
This battery is located under the removable camera back, which is something of a pain in the event that the battery dies mid-roll. One will need to finish the current film before removing the back to install the new battery.Once the new battery is inserted, let’s hope the meter springs to life. Unfortunately this isn’t a given. The metering system inside the Leica CL is not the most robust in the world of classic cameras. The result is that many Leica CLs arrive with nonfunctioning meters. LensesThe Leica CL was made to be used most often with the 40mm F/2 M Rokkor standard lens. It’s a tiny, super sharp lens, and absolutely loved. It’s a typically excellent Minolta lens with all the precision we’d expect in German-made glass, but at a Japanese lens price point.
For shooters who are planning to shoot their Leica CL with this 40mm attached, there’s not much to say except “Enjoy!” It’s an amazing combination. The second, newer version – made for the CLEFrame lines for 50mm allow the CL to natively shoot many of the best 50mm M mount lenses from brands like Leitz and Zeiss and Voigtlander. The 90mm focal length is handled by the corresponding Minolta-branded lens, which is actually a Leitz lens rebadged to suit the Minolta-built machine.
This 90mm F/4 Elmar is also quite excellent.But the CL isn’t made to work with every M mount lens, something that most of the Leica Ms can claim. The swinging meter arm positioned in the body precludes the use of lenses with deeply set rear elements, and collapsible lenses are also not recommended. In brochure it was recommended that users fit gaffer tape to the barrel of collapsible lenses to keep them from collapsing into that camera’s similar metering arm, and I’m sure the method could be employed for the CL as well (even if I wouldn’t personally risk it).Literature of the era claims that the lenses made for the Leica CL will not focus properly on a Leica M. I’ve shot on quite a few Leica Ms and haven’t noticed any focusing issues. Shooting in the Real WorldI’ve spent a fair amount of time talking about pros and cons of the Leica CL; the things that make it more or less a camera that some people call a Leica M killer.
I resent doing that. As I mentioned in the first words of this article, the Leica CL should have succeeded originally on its own merits.I learned this first hand when I packed it in a travel bag for my most recent getaway. Ten days with three different cameras meant there’d be decisions to be made at the start of every day. Bring, or, or the Leica CL? Nothing separates the wheat from the chaff faster than continuous concurrent use (not that any of these amazing cameras could ever be considered winnowed husks).Of the three cameras I packed, it offered the best combination of portability and versatility. Its 40mm lens, with its fast maximum aperture of F/2 and its pleasant ability to create shallow depth-of-field when desired and ultra-sharp results when stopped down, was the lens I enjoyed the most.
Its tiny form factor and intuitive meter made shooting on-the-move a seamless and fluid experience. Its delightful mechanical qualities made it a tactile joy to use.
And all of these things persistently mark it as one of the best M mount cameras for people who enjoy small, capable machines.I won’t go so far as to say that the Leica CL was the best camera I used across those ten days. But I do know that it’s the camera that exposed the most rolls of film, for whatever that’s worth.
Buying a Leica CL in 2018Henri Cartier-Bresson used a Leica CL, but that’s not a reason to buy one. His ethereal touch wasn’t elevated by the CL, and neither are my talentless mitts. The camera doesn’t make great photos, great photographers do. But a really excellent camera can help, and the Leica CL is just that, even if it’s also flawed and decidedly niche.The decision of whether or not to is paradoxically difficult and easy.
If you want an everlasting, made-of-metal, infinitely rebuildable M mount camera that will last your entire lifetime, and your kids’ lifetime, the Leica CL may not be the right camera. But if you want the smallest M mount camera that does not require a battery, this is it. If you want a tiny, full-manual M mount camera but don’t need a built-in light meter, this could also be that camera (just don’t put a battery in it).
If you want a gorgeous M mount machine that’s small, capable, and a fantastic daily shooter, the CL is hard to beat. Want your own Leica CL?
Follow Casual Photophile on,. If only the meter was more robust, accurate and reliable. I have had my CL meter tweaked twice, over the last few years and it is still a PITA. With the MR-9 battery adapters, I have found it is best to wake these up with a quick push on the battery check button, before taking an exposure reading – and no I don’t understand why either. Even then it is best to have an approximate exposure value in mind and discard any obviously wrong reading. Before you start, make sure the meter contact switch is properly on by opening and closing the wind on lever a couple of times to the meter on position.
I now won’t take this camera on long trips with me, due to the meter unreliability. If I am going to have to use an external meter anyway, to get sufficiently accurate readings for my regular colour reversal film, I might as well take my M7 or M4-P with the tiny, reliable and very user friendly Voigtlander VC-2 accessory shoe meter, as I can then use a motor drive (Motor-M or M4-2 Winder) and save the pain in my arthritic right thumb, which hates the motion of a wind lever.Wilson. Hmmm, interesting comment above by Wilson Laidlaw. With the announced partnership between Leica, Sigma, and Panasonic (the so-called L Mount Alliance) you should be seeing some nice third party lenses for the L mount very soon, I would think! I agree with you about the feel of the 18mm.
It’s a nice lens, but it does feel a bit cheap (mentioned this in my last lens review, actually). And yes, it does seem like the CL does have a notable weakness in its light metering durability. Even the most recent models with the “twenty internal improvements” have often non-functioning meters.
The wearing of time. What I like about this review is the valid point that you shouldn’t really compare CL to the bigger M cameras — different purposes. A later M with the Leicavit / rapidwinder or the M motor is a hard core bang bang camera appropriate for fast moving action and breaking news in the hands of a skilled operator, something that most usually is going to be shot digitally now. The CL at best is one frame a second if you can advance the film lever fast enough, and I for one can’t advance it as fast as on a M or a Nikon FM or Olympus OM even without motordrives or levers. So the CL is really best for pocketability and slightly slower shooting; also we aren’t carrying around 20 rolls of film at a time like we used to, more like 3 or 4.
For the digital age now the CL may be the best film camera to carry along with a digital or two, especially as you can mount the M lenses on mirrorless cameras so that the 40 becomes your 60, and if you carry the tiny 90 f/2.8 tele-elmarit as I sometimes do that becomes a 135 on a Fuji. I have never really desired to own this camera. Like you said in the review it has quite a few plastic parts and that thought has always deterred me from this camera.
Leica Cl Used
Plus the cl is selling now on eBay at almost the equivalent to a m4-2, m2 or m3.(after bargain shopping) Looks to me like good working ones between 450 – 1300$. The size of the CL is very appealing though. I do however want to buy one of the 40mm sumicrons and the 90mm f4 Elmar.
I have heard so many good things about these lenses. Is the 90mm the same element design as the collapsable 90? I always loved the way these looked. All this discussion on the light meter seems IMHO bit unnecessary to me in 2018: you have a light meter app in your phone, if you’re still shooting film you can probably guesstimate to within one stop in almost any situation, and if you really need me precision you should be shooting an all electronic film camera which is 99.99% of the time going to have a more accurate meter than the one in the CL.
I love mine, I don’t have a battery in it most of the time even though Sherry Krauter adjusted it to the 1.5v modern batteries. She also put on another strap lug for me so that the camera hangs horizontally rather than vertically. It’s virtually the same size as a Fuji X-e2 or x-e3, and if you’re mostly shooting digital but want to bring a film camera along too, it’s perfect.
Leica Cl Lenses
Sherry Krauter will fix yours, she’s the specialist on them.