Help! Should I Buy a mint CLE for $700?

[Imagesfromobjects]

thanks everybody for the replies... i just bought it. yup indecisive one minute, gung-ho the next. lol

i've always wanted one... this body & lens was A+ condition and i thought, stuff it, i work damn hard so lemme treat myself. what also swayed me was, as a few of you mentioned, the lens is stellar and can be resold easily so not all that bad if any unfortunate circumstance arises (touch wood.. )

thanks again!

Oops! missed this - congrats!

 

[Imagesfromobjects]

I had two mint, perfect condition ones which jammed up.
Had bouncing leds etc too.

Bottom line is this.. they can be fixed. Both mine didn't need parts - even though that was the reason given that almost no-one would touch them. What they needed was a strip down and all the electrical connectors cleaned/deoxidized. This is just due to age.
If you can find someone to do that, no problem. Dave Easterwood was the only person I could find who would do that. His work was excellent and the price was very reasonable (under $200 IIRC). But it took forever with a lack of communication which was worrisome.

In other ways this is the world we live in. Very few people actually want to fix things. The majority just want to replace parts.

By any chance, are you AKA Desmolicious? If so, howdy!

To echo what you said - full disclosure here - I got my CLE for a scant $250 from a super honest seller on the auction site. He was forthright about the dancing LEDs, which was of zero consequence to me, as I intended to shoot full manual anyway. I've been wanting one for years now, finally said F it and jumped. It's already paid for itself in pictures and pure enjoyment, as far as I'm concerned.

However, while waiting for the camera to arrive, neurosis set in and I began scouring the web for info on where to take it if something *should* need to be repaired, and... yep. Nada. The fella you mentioned.... maybe it was your post, but someone mentioned him going AWOL with their camera for a long stretch of time, and that frankly doesn't work for me.

Started trying to hunt down a manual... also NADA. I posted here, maybe came off like a jerk... I dunno.... but nobody was able or wllling to offer anything besides the TWO EXISTING ARTICLES on the web re: repairing this camera. Oh yeah, one of the articles is in French, btw.

So, the camera gets here, I pop in some new batteries, and it is FINE. Fast forward a little while, though, and the rangefinder starts going out of whack. Like, wayyyyy out of whack. I open it up as per the articles and do my impression of someone who should be trusted with sharp objects, let alone fine machinery, and by some miracle get the rangefinder SOLID.

Three days later, it's slipped again. Oh well.

So, now I've just taped over the rangefinder patch and use it in scale focus mode, mostly with a 21 and 28. Not ideal, but still fun and still manage to snag some keepers. The line about "walking wounded" is beautiful, btw.

Maybe someone will post some better instructions on basic CLE repairs, here's hoping.

Anyway, enjoy your camera, I certainly love mine.

 

[BernardL]

Warning: provocative post ahead.

So I have this Minolta Hi-Matic 7SII with 40/1.7 Rokkor. Is one of my favorite take-out cameras (together with Oly 35RC and Retina IIa). I paid 20€ for the Hi-Matic. In what ways is it inferior to a Minolta CLE with 40/2 Rokkor? Yeessss, fixed lens. But we know that Real Photographers use a single focal length... (urban legend, btw)

Admittedly, the 7SII, last-of-breed of Japanese rangefinders, does not feel very substantial, esp. compared with a 60's era rangefinder. But it does the job.

 

[leicapixie]

Enjoy!
The 40mm lens is great, the body neat.

 

[olifaunt]

Warning: provocative post ahead.

So I have this Minolta Hi-Matic 7SII with 40/1.7 Rokkor. Is one of my favorite take-out cameras (together with Oly 35RC and Retina IIa). I paid 20€ for the Hi-Matic. In what ways is it inferior to a Minolta CLE with 40/2 Rokkor?

Seems like a nice camera, but shutter speed only up to 1/500th, compared to 1/1000th for the CLE. This matters for photographing moving subjects, so the Hi-Matic would not be as good a street camera if that is the use case.

 

[olifaunt]

However, while waiting for the camera to arrive, neurosis set in and I began scouring the web for info on where to take it if something *should* need to be repaired, and... yep. Nada. The fella you mentioned.... maybe it was your post, but someone mentioned him going AWOL with their camera for a long stretch of time, and that frankly doesn't work for me.

I've learned the hard way - unless you absolutely can't work around what might be wrong with the camera, don't send it in. They will ruin it; I can guarantee it.

 

[Huss]

Warning: provocative post ahead.

So I have this Minolta Hi-Matic 7SII with 40/1.7 Rokkor. Is one of my favorite take-out cameras (together with Oly 35RC and Retina IIa). I paid 20€ for the Hi-Matic. In what ways is it inferior to a Minolta CLE with 40/2 Rokkor? Yeessss, fixed lens. But we know that Real Photographers use a single focal length... (urban legend, btw)

Admittedly, the 7SII, last-of-breed of Japanese rangefinders, does not feel very substantial, esp. compared with a 60's era rangefinder. But it does the job.

Very nice camera.

Advantages of the CLE:

CLE has Interchangeable lenses
CLE has the best 28mm frame lines out of any RF camera that I have used.
CLE has greater shutter speed range - 8 secs (about) to 1/1000 vs 1/8 to 1/500
CLE - Much more sensitive light meter (spd vs cds)
Greater film speed range - 7sII only is 25-800
CLE reads slower speeds' exposure from film plane
CLE has OTF ttl flash readings vs manual or flash sensor on flash itself
Super sensitive lower pressure shutter release vs old skool plunger on 7SII
Meter on 7sii is always on in auto mode
View finder is tiny and dim on the 7sii vs the large clear and bright on the CLE
Design defect that allows the vf on the 7Sii to haze up easily.
Lower aperture readouts obscured in VF of 7sii
7sii needs to be recalibrated to run on modern batteries
Self timers very fragile on the 7Sii
Rangefinder base length shorter on the 7Sii

Advantages of the 7sii:

Cheap
Mechanical - does not need batteries to fire.

 

[Huss]

I've learned the hard way - unless you absolutely can't work around what might be wrong with the camera, don't send it in. They will ruin it; I can guarantee it.

Dave Easterwood fixed my broken CLE.

 

[Huss]

By any chance, are you AKA Desmolicious? If so, howdy!

Hi Lou!

Best
Huss/Desmolicious

 

[Imagesfromobjects]

I've learned the hard way - unless you absolutely can't work around what might be wrong with the camera, don't send it in. They will ruin it; I can guarantee it.

Fair enough.

Thing is - I *can* work AROUND the wonky rangefinder by just using it in scale focus, but it would be nice to fix it properly. The other day I shot a roll with the CV 40/1.4 this way and it actually worked out fine, but I was careful to keep the aperture above f/4 and subjects >1.5m away. Would be great to get closer and open up wider, but not wise without a calibrated rangefinder.

http://justinlow.com/articles/repair-minolta-cle

...Is a good tutorial on opening up the camera.

http://www.suaudeau.eu/memo/rep/Minolta_CLE.html

...gets more into the rangefinder, but I'm 99% sure they have the screws identified improperly, and I'm not positive how to engage/disengage the "lock" in order to adjust the horizontal alignment. I have a few emails in to a few different folks, so hopefully some kind soul will advise.

In the meantime, I'm still shooting it daily, so it's obvoiusly not a deal-breaker for me, just would be nice to DIY it, since the professionals won't.

 

[ryca]

hi all. just want to follow up saying thanks again. received the CLE and its an absolute treat to shoot with. cheers for swaying me over the line... so stoked! here's some pics from the first 2 test rolls: https://imgur.com/a/XhdWmGv

 

[olifaunt]

Great pics. It's a very pleasurable camera to use indeed.