RE: [Leica] Latest RF Rumors

[AlastairF@bhs.grampianshealth.org.au]

CLE;
the minolta turned off the meter for two reasons (as told me by an insider)
1. At the time it was designed, the only serious Leica was the M4 and it did
not have a meter; so if a serious photographer wanted to go to manual, he
would not want an inboard meter--- how they must have squirmed when the m6
arrived and 
2. If you were going to use the meter in the camera, you could lock the
setting if it were off centre and if it were not then why not use auto

it was a "painful" feature ;-)

- -----Original Message-----
From: Ken Iisaka [mailto:kiisaka@pacbell.net]
Sent: Friday, February 11, 2000 4:37 PM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: Re: [Leica] Latest RF Rumors



> LEICAMAN56@aol.com rumoured:
> >
> >> - Minolta is resurrecting the CLE.  It will be identical to the
original
> CLE,
> >> only some of the parts will be made out of newer materials.
>
> I had the whole CLE kit and sold it with no regrets. There was, to me,
a
> serious flaw with the CLE - you could either have auto-exposure (with
no AE
> lock) or no metering at all.

Agreed, this was the most serious and product killing flaw.  I still
can't believe they did that, but I remember hearing an explanation for
it.

> The metering pattern could be improved as well. The dotty averaging
pattern
> could be replaced by a more useful and more sensitive M6 style central
dot.

Actually, this is an easy mod.  Use a matt-black permanent marker.  As I
wrote previously, someone has used this trick to make M6 meter a true
spot meter.  However, the original metering pattern is centre-weighted.