Leica CL
Encyclopedia
The Leica CL is a 35 mm compact rangefinder camera
made by Leica with interchangeable lenses in the Leica M mount
. It was developed in collaboration with Minolta
and appeared in April 1973. It was released in the Japanese market in November 1973 as the Leitz Minolta CL. Both the Leica CL and Leitz Minolta CL were manufactured in Japan.
. The exposure is manual and the shutter is mechanical. The shutter speeds are visible in the finder. The finder's framelines are for a 40mm, 50mm or 90mm lens. The 40mm frameline is always present and the 50mm or 90mm frame line is automatically selected upon mounting of the appropriate lens.
Today the CL is a superbly compact and quite cheap camera on which to mount M lenses, but it does not have a rangefinder as precise as that of any Leica M body. The rangefinder base of the CL is 31.5 mm and the viewfinder magnification is 0.60, leading to a small effective rangefinder base of 18.9 mm. This is too short for accurate focusing with lenses longer than 90mm and fast lenses used at full aperture. Some users report the camera is rather fragile, especially the rangefinder alignment and meter mechanism.
The lenses specially designed for the Leica CL can physically mount on a Leica M body, but Leica recommended not doing so because it would not give the best focusing precision, allegedly because the coupling cam of the C and M lenses is not the same. However, some people say that it is unimportant and that they can be used perfectly well on an M.
When sold with a Leitz Minolta CL, the lenses were called Minolta M-Rokkor 40mm f:2 and 90mm f:4. It is said that the 40mm was made in Japan by Minolta while the 90mm was made by Leitz and is rare. With the later Minolta CLE
, Minolta would produce lenses of the same name but with a different coupling system, the same as the Leica M lenses. A new Minolta M-Rokkor 28mm f:2.8 lens was introduced. All these lenses can be mounted on the CL too. Rokkor-branded lenses for the CL and CLE take the more easily found 40.5mm filter size.
The CL can take nearly all the Leica M lenses. Exception are some lenses that protrude deep into the body and could hurt the meter arm, these include: 15mm/8 Hologon, 21mm/4 Super Angulon, 28mm/2.8 Elmarits before serial number 2314921. The eyed lenses, including the M3 wide-angle lenses, the 135mm/2.8 Elmarit, and the 50mm/2 Dual Range Summicron, cannot be mounted either because they are incompatible with the body shape. The 90mm/2 Summicron and 135mm/4 Tele-Elmar are incompatible too. The collapsible lenses can be mounted but they must not be fully collapsed, and Leitz advised to stick to the barrel an adhesive strip of adequate width, to limit the collapsing movement. Another limitation is that the rangefinder is only coupled until 0.8m.
In French:
In German:
In Spanish:
In Japanese:
Rangefinder camera
A rangefinder camera is a camera fitted with a rangefinder: a range-finding focusing mechanism allowing the photographer to measure the subject distance and take photographs that are in sharp focus...
made by Leica with interchangeable lenses in the Leica M mount
Leica M mount
The Leica M mount is a camera lens mount introduced in 1954 with the Leica M3, and a range of lenses. It has been on all the Leica M series up to the current film Leica M7 and digital Leica M9....
. It was developed in collaboration with Minolta
Minolta
Minolta Co., Ltd. was a Japanese worldwide manufacturer of cameras, camera accessories, photocopiers, fax machines, and laser printers. Minolta was founded in Osaka, Japan, in 1928 as . It is perhaps best known for making the first integrated autofocus 35mm SLR camera system...
and appeared in April 1973. It was released in the Japanese market in November 1973 as the Leitz Minolta CL. Both the Leica CL and Leitz Minolta CL were manufactured in Japan.
Description
The Leica CL has a vertical-running focal plane shutter, with cloth curtains, giving ½ to 1/1000 speeds. There is a through-the-lens CdS exposure meter mounted on a pivoting arm just in front of the shutter, like the Leica M5Leica M5
The Leica M5 is a 35 mm camera by Leica Camera AG, introduced in 1971. It was the first Leica rangefinder camera to feature through-the-lens metering...
. The exposure is manual and the shutter is mechanical. The shutter speeds are visible in the finder. The finder's framelines are for a 40mm, 50mm or 90mm lens. The 40mm frameline is always present and the 50mm or 90mm frame line is automatically selected upon mounting of the appropriate lens.
Today the CL is a superbly compact and quite cheap camera on which to mount M lenses, but it does not have a rangefinder as precise as that of any Leica M body. The rangefinder base of the CL is 31.5 mm and the viewfinder magnification is 0.60, leading to a small effective rangefinder base of 18.9 mm. This is too short for accurate focusing with lenses longer than 90mm and fast lenses used at full aperture. Some users report the camera is rather fragile, especially the rangefinder alignment and meter mechanism.
Lenses
The CL was sold with two lenses specially designed for it: the Leitz Summicron-C 40mm f:2 sold as the normal lens, and the Leitz Elmar-C 90mm f:4 tele lens. Both take the uncommon Series 5.5 filters. A Leitz Elmarit-C 40mm f:2.8 was also briefly produced but it is said that only 400 were made.The lenses specially designed for the Leica CL can physically mount on a Leica M body, but Leica recommended not doing so because it would not give the best focusing precision, allegedly because the coupling cam of the C and M lenses is not the same. However, some people say that it is unimportant and that they can be used perfectly well on an M.
When sold with a Leitz Minolta CL, the lenses were called Minolta M-Rokkor 40mm f:2 and 90mm f:4. It is said that the 40mm was made in Japan by Minolta while the 90mm was made by Leitz and is rare. With the later Minolta CLE
Minolta CLE
The Minolta CLE is a TTL-metering aperture-priority automatic 35mm rangefinder camera taking Leica M lenses, introduced by Minolta in 1981.Leica and Minolta signed a technical cooperation agreement in June 1972. One of its results was the joint development of the Leica CL, a compact rangefinder...
, Minolta would produce lenses of the same name but with a different coupling system, the same as the Leica M lenses. A new Minolta M-Rokkor 28mm f:2.8 lens was introduced. All these lenses can be mounted on the CL too. Rokkor-branded lenses for the CL and CLE take the more easily found 40.5mm filter size.
The CL can take nearly all the Leica M lenses. Exception are some lenses that protrude deep into the body and could hurt the meter arm, these include: 15mm/8 Hologon, 21mm/4 Super Angulon, 28mm/2.8 Elmarits before serial number 2314921. The eyed lenses, including the M3 wide-angle lenses, the 135mm/2.8 Elmarit, and the 50mm/2 Dual Range Summicron, cannot be mounted either because they are incompatible with the body shape. The 90mm/2 Summicron and 135mm/4 Tele-Elmar are incompatible too. The collapsible lenses can be mounted but they must not be fully collapsed, and Leitz advised to stick to the barrel an adhesive strip of adequate width, to limit the collapsing movement. Another limitation is that the rangefinder is only coupled until 0.8m.
Production
Sixty-five thousand serial numbers were allotted to the Leica CL, and this number does not include the Leitz Minolta CL. 3,500 examples of the CL received a special 50 Jahre marking in 1975, for Leica's 50th anniversary. It is also said that 50 demonstration examples were made. They are completely operational, with the top plate cut away to show the internal mechanism.Further reading
- Classic Camera, no. 1, January 1997. Milano: Editrice Progresso.
- Francesch, Dominique and Jean-Paul. Histoire de l'appareil photographique Minolta de 1929 à 1985. Paris: Dessain et Tolra, 1985. ISBN 2-249-27685-4
- Kisselbach, Theo. Leica CL. Heering-Verlag, 1976. ISBN 3-7763-3360-X. In German; published one year later in English by Hove. ISBN 0-85242-570-8.
- Lewis, Gordon, ed. The History of the Japanese Camera. Rochester, N.Y.: George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography & Film, 1991. ISBN 0-935398-17-1 (paper), ISBN 0-935398-16-3 (hard) P. 141.
General links
In English:- Leica CL at Cameraquest
- Leica CL at Photoethnography by Karen Nakamura
- Leica CL in Pacific Rim's Photographica pages
- Leica CL pages at CRR (Camera Repairs and Restoration, Luton)
- Leica CL in the Screwmount Leica site by Chris Ozdoba
- Leica CL at Manual Cameras by N. Maekawa
- Minolta and Leica cooperation and Minolta rangefinder lenses in the Manual Minolta website
- Leica CL in English and in Japanese at The Classic Camera
- Leica CL at Pascal's Leica Pages
In French:
- Leica CL at summilux.net
- Compatibility of the Leica M lenses with the Leica CL and Minolta CLE at D. Césari's photo site
- Post in the summilux.net forum with interesting comments about the optics of the CL and CLE
- Minolta-Leitz CL at www.collection-appareils.com by Sylvain Halgand
In German:
- Leica CL in Peter Lausch's website, see also the Leica M5 and CL in Peter Lausch's Leica story
In Spanish:
In Japanese:
Manuals and documents
- Downloadable documents in the Leica CL page at summilux.net: user manual, brochure and leaflet about the M and CL lens compatibility
- Leica CL brochure (ref. 112-92) in English and Leitz Minolta CL brochure in Japanese at Camera Instruction Manuals Online