Last year I got back into analog photography. As more and more of my devices seem to randomly turn on me, dumber devices have become surprisingly comforting. I've acquired a lot of analog cameras in the past year, as I try to find one that gets me. I wanna talk about these devices, and this Leica Cl is one of them.
The Leica CL is a 35mm compact rangefinder camera with interchangeable lenses in the Leica M-mount. It was developed in collaboration with Minolta who manufactured it. It first appeared in April 1973 and was released in the Japanese market in November 1973 as the Leitz Minolta CL. Both the Leica CL and Leitz Minolta CL were manufactured in a new Minolta factory in Osaka.
I am a sucker for old devices and ones with a good story behind them doubly so. The Leica CL is pretty close to being the perfect camera for me, it's a really compact and light camera, with terrific lens options and a great ecosystem around it. I particularly value its size, as it makes it a great everyday camera, I usually use a compact flash with it, it's a pretty great package and pretty comparable to my favorite digital camera, the Fuji X100v.
It can use most M-mount lenses and was originally sold with the Leitz Summicron-C 40mm f:2 and the Leitz Elmar-C 90mm f:4. Both are really compact lenses with great build quality. I haven't used the 90mm much, I really like the 40mm lens and well, I am a creature of habit.
I got quite lucky and got a full set, with both of it's original lenses in like-new condition for 900 euros. A fair price, I believe.
Here's a couple of my favorite pictures from the past couple of months, all taken with the Summicron-c 40mm F2:
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