It would be another eight years before light metering came to the M with the introduction of the M6. The CL outsold the M5 (65,000 v 33900 according to the production numbers) and many believe that this is the reason Leica halted manufacture in 1976. Many adopted it because they wanted the light metering ability of the M5 but in a smaller package. After its launch in 1973 it succeeded in that goal. In desperation, Leica brought the M4 back from the dead, shortly before the company’s Canadian phase when the unmetered Leica M4 re-appeared in two new guises, the M4-2 and the M4-P.īut in the background at this time was the Leica CL, a smaller camera which was designed in cooperation with Minolta and intended to be a more compact rangefinder alternative to the M5, but sharing some similar features such as metering. Despite its advanced features, including light metering, it wasn’t well received, not least because of its large size. The M5 model was produced in small numbers between 19. The popular and successful M4 had been superseded by the advanced - very underrated but ultimately too ‘unconventional’ for mainstream success - Leica M5. It arrived at a time of great flux in Wetzlar, when the company was undergoing yet another identity crisis. Whatever happened to the Leica CL? Many consider it was too good for its boots. Minolta also sold a version of the camera called the Leitz Minolta CL and later Minolta developed a more advanced version called the Minolta CLE. ‘CL’ stood for ‘compact Leica’, a compact rangefinder camera, which was manufactured in Japan by Minolta for Leica between 19. The recent introduction of a modern Leica CL has focused attention on the original CL from the 1970s. Leica CL with 40mm Minolta M-Rokkor f/2 (Image Red Dot Cameras)
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