Re: CL vs CLE features?

[Fred Ward <fward@erols.com>]

Joe, 

I can give you a direct comparison comment since I own and use all the M
cameras and own a CL with its lenses and a CLE with its lenses.

I do not like or use the CL. As I posted here last week, I consider it
to be a design mistake, much like the M5. It is boxy, certainly not
ergonomic, is a mess to reload with its ridiculous strap attached, has
the problem-prone swinging meter arm that just sits in wait for the
unwary to hit it with the back of a collapsable lens, it requires now
non-standard and difficult to get batteries, and its meter is usually
not working half the time. 

Now, knowing the disposition of this list, I will await the usual slings
and arrows that people think are acceptable on the Internet but which
they would never write in a letter or say in person. 

I know that some of you use the CL and love it. I do not. I know you can
buy alternative batteries now, and/or get the CL adjusted to take other
batteries. I know that some like the little meter arm. I even suspect
that some like the CL design. But there is no accounting for taste. Some
people liked the Edsel and think Saab cars are attractive. The CL, made
in Japan by Minolta, was pure and simple a mistake. And that is why
Leica made and sold it a short time and never came back to it. A great
design, like the M cameras, can last almost forever. The lenses are the
same and several Leica lenses fit both the CL and M cameras. So if this
little baby was so great, as has been written on here, why did Leica
kill it? 

Minolta also made the much more innovative and much better designed CLE.
It has the Leica M mount, the behind the lens meter that reads gray
spots on the shutter curtain, has an automated exposure mode or an all
manual mode, has a little totally automatic flash that reads through the
lens if you want, and has a viewfinder that works down to 28mm. It is a
beauty and is the camera the CL should have been. For me it has no down
side and I wish it were still made or that Minolta or Leica would make
it again with a few new features. 

Fred Ward