leica cm or minilux. fatboymax

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fatboymax

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can anyone help me out here. i'm considering buying either a leica cm or a leica minilux [fixed focal length] second hand on e-bay. the cm costs more than double the price of the minilux - is it worth paying the extra or are both essentially the same camera? fatboymax.:bang:
 
Hi,

My father in law has a minilux adn got the er02 error. Cost 180 Euro's to repare.
My wife had a minilux and also got the er02. She now has a minilux zoom which costs me 200 Euro. The broken minilux is no a paperweight.
A few weeks ago I ran into a CM. Very nice camera but htis one has the battery failure. It can't tell for sure how full the battery is. This seems only a problem in the first batches.
Apart from that the CM is much better than the Minilux. The vf is bigger and has info in it. It can remeber your settings. It is smaller. It can use flashes.
It has however more shutterlag.
I'd go for the CM. In the end the minulux is a real p&s. The CM comes much closer to a real camera.

Cheers,

Michiel Fokkema
 
I only have the minilux so I can't compare. I was very happy with 9 rolls of slide film from my summer vacation.
 
I've only the CM. I think the err message was typical in the early run but hopefully is not so prevalent now. I've shot about a dozen rolls of HP5+ and several rolls of color print film. Am very pleased with the results. Only 1 roll of Provia and all 36 were under exposed. PS took care of them but it still gives me pause. I shot those in P mode since that is what has given the better results with the wider latitude film. Next roll of positives I try AV. Auto focus is super. No shutter lag to speak of. As quiet or quieter tham the M6. A great, no thought required camera. Expensive as most other Leica stuff but comes new (from B-H) with a 4 year warranty. If I had it to do over that's the way I would go but I bought/traded mine from a friend who said he would take care of me with the 3 years warranty that is left. To this point it seems that it may not be neccessary. Oh yes, I've gone through 15 or so 36 exposure rolls and my battery has not begun to show discharge (knock on wood). From what I've read that is the exception rather than the rule.
 
The lenses on the Minilux and CM are identical, so picture quality should be equal. What a CM does give you though, is the ability to store the flash setting when you switch it off. That means you don't have to press the flash button 6x to cancel it every time you power up the camera..
 
I've had the Minilux for about ten years. It's my favorite camera and has taken many prize winning photos and so easily paid for itself.

There is still some new old stock around, and as you say, about half the price of the CM.
 
I have a Minilix and CM zoom. I like the CM for reasons others have given -- mostly the autofocus feature. Had many more focus errors with the Minilux. The inability of the Minilux to store flash settings is a real annoyance, especially when using available light. One other thing is the limitation of the f stop/shutter speed on the Minilux. If you use ISO 400 film, you will get blown highlights in daytime because of the f16 and 1/400 second limitation. I don't have the CM with me right now, but I believe it goes to f22 and 1/500 second, at least.
 
the minilux is limited outdoor if you load 400iso film in it due to the f16 and 1/400 limitation. My minilux suffered from Error2 shutter failure. I bought new old stock in belgium for 230 euros, then had it repair in Paris with the leica warranty. Now its working good I must say, and with this little camera that is so little and so sharp, I can have something like 90% of a roll being nice image. I love to shoot slides with it. Don't know if the CM is worth the 400 euros more...
 
C-41 film which is nominally ISO 400 usually works even better at ISO 200. This means that if a scene needs an exposure of 1/400s @ f/22 or 1/800s @ f/16, it is still well within the capability of the Minilux with its 1/400s @ f/16 limitation.

I never got anything overexposed using ISO 400 film in the Minilux (although I incorrectly suggested the possibility of overexposure in a web site many years ago, which I can't correct now because for some reason the site was kept online by AOL after I dropped AOL as my ISP).

Richard
 
I have a CM and its worth every bit. I dont find many pictures on the internet that fully expose what kind of pictures its capable of... maybe Ill get some up. Once you get used to the controls its quick to operate. Program shift with the aperture/shutter speed in the viewfinder is huge plus for me. Say I need to make a quick shot and need a fast shutter speed, you press the shutter release halfway, spin to a larger aperture and get a shutter speed readout instantly.

I have one for sale, really dont want to sell it but it has to help pay for lens for an M6 ;)
Interested? Its near perfect minus a small scuff on the bottom and a spec of dust in the viewfinder. $640.
 
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