Leica CL / Minolta CL - what lens?

Hi everyone

 

I have an opportunity to buy an Leica CL / Minolta CL body at a good price. It

would be my first foray into the Leica universe and I was wondering what my lens

brand options are - if that's not too blasphemous a thing to say?

 

Budgeting up to $300 and hoping to find a decent wide-angle

 

thanks

 

- Russ

The standard f:2.0/40mm Summicron is one of the rally great lenses.

Agree with Bill, 40 Cron is superb if it is wide enough for you.

 

regards

 

andy<div></div>

Great, thanks guys.

I use, on my Leica CL, the Summicron C 40/2 and is a very excellent lens. As portrait lens, i use a Jupiter 9 85/2 with a LTM/M mount adapter. Very good shot, Andy.

 

Ciao.

Another vote for the Summicron 40/2. Fantastic lens.

Absorb this website:

http://www.cameraquest.com/

and you will learn about all your options for the CL. You've got a great camera and will really enjoy using it.

Thanks Jim - I have to purchase it first, but that site is very cool.

 

So far I'm looking at a cost of $700 (body + a Summicron, thanks everyone).

 

I've seen third-party lenses as well (all online as I'm buying outside of the US) - should I take them seriously?

Mine uses the 40 cron and it works very well, The CL also has frame lines for 50's so any 50 will work, but I wouldn't use lenses that collapse into the body. I've used the 50/2 summicron and it works fine but it feels a little front heavy for the CL. I also use the 35/2 summicron and that works pretty well too.

Don't forget the 40/Rokkor also built for the CL & CLE. Both of the 40's were built compact to accomodate the CL's small size. Most 50's will be very nose heavy on a CL.

Thanks for all your input guys. Now it's time to convince the wife...

I use the 40mm Summicron that came on my CL, and it is one fantastic lens. I also use the Voigtlander 25mm Skopar. It is also a very good lens. Very sharp, but vignettes in the corners a bit at wide open aperttures.

40/1.4 CV Nokton - wide enough to be useful for hyperfocal street shooting, fast enough for

nigh time and available light use, image quality is nice. Maybe not leica nice, but it's only

$350...

 

http://flickr.com/skwp9 - most of my recent pics are with Leica CL and Nokton, some with

CLE

Hi Yan, thanks for the tip. I just added you to my flickr contacts list

A few suggestions:

 

The 40mm f/2 Summicron was designed specifically to be used with the Leica CL, as there weren't (and still aren't) any other Leicas with viewfinder frame lines for 40mm lenses. Whatever else one uses on a CL, the 40mm f/2 Summicron would appear to be the first choice.

 

It's probably a better choice on the CL than a 35mm f/2 Summicron, even though that is a deservedly legendary lens, for a couple of reasons. First off, good examples of the 35mm f/2 Summicron are usually a lot more expensive than the 40mm Summicron. In addition, the CL viewfinder has framelines for a 40mm lens, not a 35mm lens. while the 35mm will work fine, you'll be getting a bit more image on your negatives than what shows inside the 40mm frameline. With the 40mm being more affordable but matching the framelines exactly, there isn't much point in spending more money to use a 35mm with the CL.

 

Another good choice would be the 90mm f/4 Elmar-C designed specifically for the CL -- a compact, lightweight and sharp lens that works very well with this camera. (See discussion below about why this would be a better choice for the CL than a 90 or 85mm lens with a larger f/2.8 or f/2 maximum aperture.)

 

Use only fixed-mount lenses on a CL, and don't use collapsible lenses with the CL. The CL has a light meter sensor on a lever in front of the shutter curtain, which swings out of the way when the shutter button is pressed and the picture is taken. Collapsing one of the collapsible Leica lenses into a CL body usually damages the light meter lever irreparably.

 

While the CL has an M-series bayonet mount, it will also accept Leica thread mount (LTM) "screwmount" lenses with a screwmount to bayonet adapter, so there is a broad range of possible lenses that can be used with this camera.

 

If you're buying a CL, try to determine before you buy whether the light meter is still working properly. From what I understand, it can be difficult or impossible to obtain replacement parts to repair a CL light meter if it isn't working, so try to get one with a working meter if you can.

 

The CL has a somewhat shorter rangefinder baseline (the distance between the viewfinder and the smaller window for the rangefinder patch, visible just above the lens mount) than other Leica M models. This means that its rangefinder is slightly less accurate than the rangefinders of other M models. It is accurate enough to work just fine with 40mm and wider lenses, and probably with 50mm lenses as well, focusing them accurately and reliably at all apertures including maximum aperture. It will also work with longer lenses, including 90mm lenses and their 85mm counterparts, but its focusing accuracy is reliable only down to about f/4. Below that, at apertures such as f/2.8 or f/2 for which the depth of field is shallower, it is more difficult to focus accurately, so focus at those apertures may turn out to be hit or miss, sometimes accurate but not reliably so.

 

This is why the 90mm f/4 is the best telephoto choice for the CL. Larger aperture 90mm or 85mm f/2.8 or f/2 lenses will fit and work on a CL, but will work best when you shoot them at f/4 or above. Something like a 90mm f/2.8 Tele-Elmarit would work fine with a CL, shot at f/4 and above. Because the CL body is relatively small and light weight, a relatively large and heavy lens such as a 90mm f/2 Summicron, while usable on a CL, would probably not balance well in terms of handling, and there wouldn't be a lot of justification for paying more money for the lens and carting all that extra weight around because the CL wouldn't reliably focus it accurately at maximum aperture, and a smaller and lighter lens would be just as effective at f/4 and smaller apertures.

 

If available-light photography is what you want to do, a CL will do that fine -- just use the 40mm f/2 or a close equivalent, and leave the 90mm for brighter light.

 

This doesn't mean that the CL is a lesser camera than other M-series Leicas. What it means is that the CL was designed with a somewhat different objective in mind. Most M-series Leicas were designed as heavy-duty professional cameras, capable of focusing even big, heavy large-aperture 90mm lenses reliably and accurately while shooting at maximum aperture in available light conditions. The CL wasn't designed for that. It was, instead, designed to be a more compact, lighter and somewhat more affordable camera, using compact and lightweight lenses, that would be particularly suitable for travel photography because it would be more convenient to carry on a trip. It was the sports car of M-Leicas, small, light and nimble. It's highly effective when used in that way, and perhaps the best choice for someone who wants to travel light with just one or two lenses.