CL Meter Repair

[jamxo]

About two weeks ago, I bought a CL + 40mm Summicron for around £200 here in the UK. Whilst the camera is pretty much mint and works fine, the meter seems not to be working properly. I have replaced all the batteries and it makes some attempt to move, but just sort of wobbles and doesnt properly give a light reading. I am doing everything correctly i.e. moving the advance lever slightly out etc.

What I wanted to ask is how much roughly should meter repair be, I think all that needs to be changed is the CDS cell or some of the contacts on the meter, the battery section itself seems to be working fine. The Classic Camera, a Leica shop here in London is telling me £175 for a meter repair, but this is almost as much as I paid for the camera and lens in the first place.

I am hesitant to fork out so much money when I can use an external meter, and my own head (shot an entire roll without a meter to test it and pretty much nailed every exposure).

So yeah, just wanted to ask how much I should expect this repair to cost, and whether £175 is about right or paying too much?

Thanks!

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[sleepyhead]

Hello, well, I had Sherry Krauter in the USA replace the meter cell on my CL last year, and it was surprisingly expensive - her work is normally very reasonably priced - I think it has to do with the cost of the part. I can't remember what i paid exactly, perhaps about £150.

This also included calibration of the meter to take silver oxide batteries, which is a nice thing to do while you're at it.

If this seems too expensive, I would just use a hand-held meter. The meter on the CL is a wide-spot meter, and not so fluid in use in my opinion. It's also not so reliable below EV4 or so.

 

[kully]

CRR Luton (Google them) charge £99 for a new cell, and I (and a lot of others here) can't praise their service enough.

 

[jamxo]

Well maybe when I have some more money I will check out CRR Luton. Thanks for the info guys. Untill then I think I will just use the 40 summicron on the Bessa R2a when I dont want to bring out the beastly Nokton!
J.

 

[photogdave]

I'm having the same repair done. Luckily I know a retired Leica repair technician who works out of his basement for reasonable rates. Still, it may cost me around $200 CDN, but I'm okay with that because I only paid $300 for the camera with 40mm and 90mm lenses.

 

[juno_lau]

i asked Sherry two weeks ago,
to change the whole meter mechanism will cost around 250USD

 

[borismach]

Forget it!

Forget it!

My CL meter is dead as well. But I don't bother at all. I check my setting with a handheld meter, and it works fine.
So forget repairing the meter and use the fund for lens and films,
Have fun. Cheerz.
🙂 bm