How Many of Us Started Our Leice Experiance on a CL?

How Many of Us Started Our Leice Experiance on a CL?

  • Total voters
    80
  • Poll closed .
I started on a Minolta CL as my first leica. I didn't have it long as I wanted more accurate focusing and, frankly, I hate the way you load the film. Taking the whole thing apart was cumbersome.
 
I had a CL in the early 1990's but didn't realized it's true potential because I was primarily an Nikon SLR shooter then. Shooting mostly telephotos and zooms. Sold it with two lenses to finance a Nikon F100 when it came out. Now, since I came back to film from digital in 2008, I've been shooting mostly with rangefinders including my two Ms.
 
Looked at the Cl when I decided to fulfill lifelong dream for a Leica M kit. It just seemed to be too close in price to a an M2 or M4-2 to save much money. And of course the lenses, CV and Leica would be a major expense and then there would be an extra viewfinder for a 35mm lens, something I had already bought because of a very good price. In fact, if not for a deal falling into my lap on a couple of CV lenses I would not have considered getting an M kit. Kind of backed into the system, lenses first, then looked for a body. Anyone else get into the Leica M system by buying lenses first?
 
Hardly. They hadn't been invented then. And once they were invented, their impact was very modest. Most Leica users of that era dismissed them as rather nasty little cameras. Those who could afford 'real' Leicas dismissed them as not 'real', and those who couldn't afford them dismissed them because they couldn't afford them.

Cheers,

R.
 
Yes, it was my first, and it's still probably my fave. Shock horror, I liked it better than my M4 and 35mm 'Cron... I know that's wrong, but there ya go.
 
Sounds perfectly reasonable Paul T: what's not to like - it's small, light, metered, fits Leica lenses...
 
Tower Type 3 and a Nikkor 50 f2. Still own it. It is a great camera and it still produces awesome images.
 
Yup. in 2005. Have broken and discarded four or five of them since, I think. Still have the second one, held together by the force of Sherry Krauter, Gerry Smith, duct tape, and foul oaths.

Love the size, the weight, the 40mm lens, and the meter. Will be sad when the day comes that I can't carry one of these brilliant but desperately fragile little soul-traps around any more.
 
+1 for CL
loved mine to bits, literally.

Mine has sadly slowly fallen to bits from being taken everywhere.
Meter gone, film counter went, shutter release button fell off. Was still using it just fine but the advance has now started acting up. Will probably cost as much to repair as to replace it. My ideal Leica would probably be a really beat up looking user M2,3,4,6.
 
It's my first one indeed. I bought a non-working CL attached to Cron-C 40/2 for only $10 from Salvos. The body was officially declared dead by Youxin Ye, who offered me another CL with working meter for a good price, which I grabbed. I have been shooting with it since then, and my story still stays somewhere down here in RFF.

I eventually purchased an Elmar-C 90/4, and after winning a recent challenge on RFF I bought a CV Skopar 21/4 with the discount voucher from cameraquest.

I just love the set!
 
Kind of if you class the Leitz / Minolta CL a Leica and you don't call the Leica D-Lux a Leica. . . . . . . . . . . ;)

It's okay as I use an M6 TTL now.
The CL is still a classy camera though, many happy times had.
 
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