Leitz / Minolta CL and EBL

[clarence]

I've always been attracted to small-form-factor designs, and the CL, as we all know, is the smallest rangefinder available that can take m-mount lenses as well as LTM lenses with the appropriate adaptor.

Rangefinder baselength had to be compromised with the design, unfortunately. Gandy suggests that the CL is perfectly able to focus the 40mm / 2 and 90mm /4 lenses at full apertures. If I could extrapolate from that statement, it would mean that any focal length longer than 40mm would not be able to take advantage of apertures larger than f/2.

I would like to know, though, if anyone here, contrary to Gandy's results, has been able to use 50mm / 1.4 or 2.0 lenses on a CL. 85mm at f/2 is probably too much to expect, but how about at f/2.8?

Thank you.

Clarence

 

[Chuck A]

Check out Erwins article on rangefinder accyracy. There is a useful chart that you can use to estimate what lenses might work on the CL.

http://www.imx.nl/photosite/leica/technics/rfaccuracy.html

 

[wlewisiii]

I use a 135/3.5 on my CL on a regular basis and, until I sold it, a J3 50/1.5 as well. Neither lens is particularly difficult to focus. (I do use an external finder for the 135, but that, for this purpose is helpful because the 40 & 50 frame lines are far enough away from the RF patch to keep from crowding it. )

I have also, briefly, used Brett's 90/2 on my CL without any trouble. There are a number of people here - Back Alley joe for example - who are using the 40/1.4 very happily.

The EBL is short and that is one of the compromises of a small form factor. Really, every one's eyes and hands are different so it's difficult to generalize about these things. I can hand hold the CL down to 1/8th fairy often. Others can go slower and others can't go even that slow. I think that sometimes it is a similar thing with focusing faster lenses. If you can, borrow or rent an example of the lens you're thinking of buying and see if you are able to focus it to your satisfaction.

Hope this helps,

William

 

[clarence]

Thank you for introducing that article, Chuck. I really understand a lot more about rangefinder accuracy now.

The vernier acuity is 6 times more accurate than the point distance discrimination. In theory! But the tables are based on a conservative blur circle of 0.03mm. If we would like to use the optical quality of leica lenses to the most, we need a blur circle diameter that is 2 to 3 times smaller. So the figures presented could be halved again to represent theoretical accuracy. Here I am conservative and would use the table above as reference. But be aware that the accuracy now is good enough for the rendition of extremely fine detail at enlargements of 15 times for critical close view inspection.

From this, and the table preceding it, it seems that it might not be entirely safe to use the 85mm lens at 2.8 on a CL. If we are talking about point acuity, the 50 / 1.4 needs an EBL of 17.9. The CL's EBL is 18.9, which is adequate.

Once again, thanks.

Another question: Is it possible to fit a magnifier on the CL to improve the EBL? I have heard that it is incompatible with the standard Leica magnifier.

Clarence

 

[JoeFriday]

I wouldn't base a buying decision entirely on statistics.. as William pointed out, I had a 90/2 Summicron that I've used quite successfully on my CL

one thing that I feel I should mention is that I discovered this weekend what RF patch flare is.. I've never encountered it with my M3 or any of my non-Leica cameras.. but I was using my recently CLA'd CL the other day and the patch was totally unusable in a specific situation.. I hadn't realized the CL was susceptible to that problem

 

[Flyfisher Tom]

Clarence,

I routinely used a 50/2 on my CL before I sold the camera, no problems at all. It is a great little camera, I regret selling mine.

 

[ampguy]

great article

great article

thanks for the link Chuck.

Check out Erwins article on rangefinder accyracy. There is a useful chart that you can use to estimate what lenses might work on the CL.

http://www.imx.nl/photosite/leica/technics/rfaccuracy.html

 

[back alley]

40/1.4 and 90/2.8 so far without problems.

joe

 

[Palaeoboy]

Leica states that the CL is capable of focusing a 50mm f2 wide open. This allows a wider but faster lens like the 40mm f1.4 to be at its focus limit also. A 90mm f2.8 has trouble focusing on a CL at close distances. A CLE with 50% greater EFB can focus a 90mm f2.8. The CL's baselength is short but it has better rangefinder paralax than an M (not to be confused with viewfinder paralax). This helps prevent extra errors creeping in from not having your eye exactly centered to the rangefinder patch.