Which lens stays on your CLE the most?

[MP/CLE]

I love my CLE...the size, the weight, the quality, the way it sits in my hand, the memory of seeing one for the first time and my desire to own it, the compliment of lenses and their versatility, compactness and durability, and the idea that when I am not using it, it is sitting safely at my home awaiting its next exposure.

That said, I find that almost 80% of the time, my CLE wears it's 40 mm lens. I have used the 28 to great effect and feel that on my CLE the rokkor is only bested by the Leica 28 f/2 asph, but not by much. The 90 has also produced notable and memorable photos, and but for the speed, it is almost as useful to me as the Leica 90 f2.8 elmarit-m. But when I leave the house, I grab my CLE with the 40 without a thought of any of the auxilliary lenses. I take them on trips, but for shooting on a daily basis it is my CLE with the 40.

My CLE with the 40 simply fits, whether in my pocket, inside my jacket when hanging around my neck, that place between my driver's seat and the center console, or even in my hand. The 40 does what I expect it to do without requiring me to think about anything besides the shot. I can rely on the 40 to help me place my idea on film and it does this with an ease and accuracy that my aging eyes could not have seen. And while I prize its sharpness, it can also accurately reflect the softening edges I am becoming more accustomed to seeing. With the 40, my CLE becomes an automatic extension of my mind and locks in memories on film that will fade if left to the harried and inaccurate file in my head.

I have had alot of beautiful cameras over the years, but my CLE with its 40is the only one that I have ever regretted selling and that I have ever repurchased. It just works for me.

So, what does your CLE wear the most and why?

 

[gian]

59% 40mm, 40% 28mm, 1% 90mm... I love the M-Rokkor lenses, the 40mm has an amazing bokeh!! 40mm and 28mm are quite sharp, small and handsome! 90mm is not what I enjoy on a rangefinder, so I really use this lense very often...

to sum up... I love my CLE!! 😉

I got an after market lens hood for the 40mm, because I didn't like the original rubber one...

 

[MP/CLE]

gian, your wonderfully photographed assembly exactly mirrors my previous set-up...mp (black paint), M7, CLE and every focal length lens represented along with the same bag...beautifully done and with quality beyond reproach (I assume that is a 24mm on the M7 with the viewfinder...I kept my 21 asph on the M7 and a 75 'lux on the MP and a 40 on the CLE!). I loved it all, but on a trip through Italy I had the MP, M7 and many lenses along with the CLE...I got tired of carrying the 20 to 25 pounds of camera equipment and went with only the CLE with the 40...with only the camera and one lens I produced the best photographs of the entire trip...I used the 28 asph that my wife agreed to carry in her purse a few times, while the 40 was the mainstay. I loved my Leica equipment, for pure physical beauty and evident quality there is nothing like it...I sold all of it except for two lenses...the 28 f2 asph and the 90 f2.8 elmarit-m and my two CLE bodies because after living with the CLE on a daily basis, there was no justification for me to continue to carry the weight when a smaller, extremely capable camera could produce the same output with less. This is just me...your Leicas are a thing of beauty, a joy forever and no one can dispute that...for me, it became obvious I only needed, and could only appreciate the CLE. I sold almost all of it and made a profit...(an economics professor told us that we should "always buy the best and with a recognizable name because if we have to sell it we will always have a market")...it helped that the Leicas did not increase the quality of my eye and the resultant photos...again, that is me.

I, too, seldom use the 90...it probably speaks for less than ten rolls of film through my CLE, while the 28 has easily done in excess of 60, but the 40 just feels right and while I've often thought that the 28 defined my outlook, the 40 has silently but consistently produced...it has only been time and my facing reality that I have come to this conclusion, but it is unavoidable.

What camera did you use to take the pictures of your arsenal? While I know that what has been photographed could do it, they couldn't do it while sitting in it...and, once again, those photos are beautiful and depict a fantastic level of photographic capability and excellence that is hard to equal with any other equipment. I do remain an amazed fan of the tremendous level of quality inherent in the Leica products and that will never change...I have found that for me, all I need is the CLE, the 40, and maybe, sometimes a 28 or 90 as an alternative lens.

And, like you, I love my CLE...

 

[madstorben]

Gian,
Nice gear.

I have a Leitz Summicron-C 40 and I am not happy with its rubber hood. Your after market hood looks good. Where did you get?

Mads

 

[gian]

thanks MP/CLE and madstorben...

MP/CLE... the pictures were taken with a FujiFilm Finepix J250... nothing special!
Madstorben... I got the hood on EBAY, for around 15.00 US$...

cheers

 

[John Rountree]

For me, the Rokkor 40mm (I'm not actually sure if it is just a lens, or could be classified as a jewel) is on my CLE about 90% of the time. My 90mm Elmarit sees the other 10% of the time. In fact, I like the Rokkor 40mm lens so much I bought a modified, multi-coated version to use on my M7.

 

[payasam]

A girl I knew in England in the 1970s bought a CL with 40mm and 90mm lenses. She asked me to teach her how to use it, so I had to learn it first by exposing a roll. Yesterday she sent me a photo of her new grandchild, taken with the same CL and Elmar-C.

Hang on, I'll come to the point. The point is that although she does a good deal of portrait work with the 90mm, it is the 40mm that is most often to be seen on her camera. With the CL there is no easy 28mm option.

 

[ellisson]

Cle + Cv 28/3.5

Cle + Cv 28/3.5

I like the CV 28mm on my CLE. Very compact and comfortable.

 

[snausages]

My 40-c stays on my M6 most often!

Totally love that little lens, though still figuring out how to best anticipate the framing, relative to 35mm FL.

 

[payasam]

An excellent compromise between 50mm and 35mm, the two focal lengths most commonly called "normal". The Rollei version of the Bessa, with 40mm and 80mm lenses, is perhaps as good ("universal") as the original CL kit.

 

[chambrenoire]

~50% 25/4 Voigtländer, 25% 40/2 Rokkor, 12,5% 40/1.4 Nokton, 12,5% Rokkor 28/2.8

 

[cribox]

I mainly use the 40/2.

60% 40/2
35% 28/2.8
5% 90/4

 

[JBC]

Rollei 40mm f/2.8 Sonnar

 

[Palaeoboy]

With the CL there is no easy 28mm option.

I strongly urge anyone wanting to use a 28mm on their CL to invest in the Voigtlander 28/35 Mini finder. In black it looks like it was made for he CL and barely effects its size and it gives you the ability to accurately frame both 28 and 35mm lens in one. Mr K had to have the CL in mind when he created that one.

 

[jdvf]

Rollei 40mm f/2.8 Sonnar

Me too

Greg

 

[Doug]

For the first couple of decades of ownership, the 40 Rokkor was almost always on the CLE, a lovely combination. I didn't have an M-mount 28, and the 90 Tele-Elmarit was on it very rarely, mostly because of the small framelines but also due to the bulk/weight.

In recent years it's more often had a 40 Nokton or 43 Pentax, and about equally as often a 28 Summicron. Never the 90mm now.

 

[MP/CLE]

The 90 seems to only be used for set shots where I focus on a face. Other than that, or a really far out landscape, it just barely warrants space in my bag. The 28 has earned its keep, but from a daily use standpoint the 40 is a constant, and I can always move to get the best shot. In Pompeii, I got there early and the sun was doing some great gymnastics with clouds and I was trying to get a set piece with the sun, the clouds an some ruined columns...I realized belatedly that I only had the 40 on the camera and a crowd was rapidly approaching that would pollute the scene...I backed up to duplicate the space the 28 would have covered and have been satisfied ever since.

I used the nokton single coated lens for awhile, but its feel and results kind of threw me out of sorts...thats just me, I know, but frustrating none the less.

Great to hear what everyone else thinks and uses...

 

[ChrisC]

Rollei 40mm f/2.8 Sonnar

I am very curious. What camera was this lens made for? Is it an 'M' fit, LTM, or has it been modified? Is it an expensive lens, do they appear for sale? Questions, questions; all information gratefully received.

............. Chris

 

[Doug]

Chris, it was sold with a Rollei-branded chrome Bessa R2 body. As I recall it was a Leica thread-mount lens barrel with an M-bayonet adapter fitted so that it seemed to be a bayonet lens. The glass comes from the earlier little Rollei pocket camera set in a new focusing barrel. This lens and the body had a very high suggested retail price, but were closed out more reasonably when discontinued. Not very commonly seen.

 

[Monz]

In order, I use:
1. 40mm Summicron-C (with after market hood)
2. 15mm Voigtlander super wide heliar
3. 28mm Voigtlander Ultron 1.9
4. 90mm Elmarit-M

1 and 2 get 80% of use from me.