The Leitz Minolta CL
Back in December, I had an itch for a new camera, and that itch led me to buying the Leitz Minolta CL. It’s a 35mm M-Mount rangefinder co-produced by Leica and Minolta and released in 1973. After putting 10 rolls through it, here are some of my thoughts about it.
Why I Chose The CL
I wanted to really shoot more film this year and the camera I was using prior to the CL was my Canonet QL17 GIII. That was my first rangefinder, which is more of a beginner rangefinder, and I felt it was time to upgrade to a better one with interchangeable lenses. I heavily considered and almost bought a Canon P, but thought it might be smarter to get an M-mount camera instead of the LTM mount that the Canon has because I will inevitably buy a Leica M body down the line, and so I’ll have lenses for when I do that.
I bought the CL on Ebay for just under $500 after all the taxes/fees/shipping, which was just for the body. It came with a working light meter, and it had this little dent at the top but that doesn’t affect the use of it whatsoever.
Leitz Minolta CL + Voigtlander Color-Skopar 35mm F2.5 MC + Keks KM-Q light meter
Specs & features
This camera is small. It’s literally the same size as the QL17. I was actually surprised when I got it because I didn’t think it’d be as small as it is.
It has framelines for 40/50/90mm lenses and the viewfinder is nice and bright. It’s definitely not as bright as some viewfinders you might find on more high-end cameras, but for this price, I think it’s very solid and a significant upgrade from the QL17.
You have the strap rungs on one side of the camera so it hangs vertically which is a bit different, and I’m still not sure if I like it.
The shutter speed and ASA (ISO) dial are at the front of this camera instead of the top which makes for a nice and clean top plate. You get shutter speeds from 1/2 to 1/1000 as well as bulb mode, and you can set your ASA from 25 all the way to 1600 if you want to use the light meter.
I actually have not used the light meter in this camera for a few reasons. One is that I don’t like to rely on in-camera meters because batteries can die and if that’s your only way of metering, then that can be a bit of a pain if you don’t have another battery with you. With this camera specifically, if you are using the meter and your battery dies, you have to finish the roll before you replace the battery because the battery compartment is right under the take up spool, so that’s a bit of a quirk.
The main (and only lens) I use with this camera is the Voigtlander Color-Skopar 35mm F2.5 MC. Before I bought it, I did some research and asked people who owned the camera and used a 35mm lens on it how it was using a 35mm lens on a viewfinder whose widest frame lines are 40mm, and most people just said that they used the entirety of the viewfinder to kind of get their composition because it’s not too much wider than 40mm. It does involve a little bit more guessing and looking into the corners of the viewfinder but for me, it hasn’t been an issue where my compositions were way wider than I estimated them to be.
Things I like
Honestly, I don’t think there’s one best thing that stands out about this camera — I think all its parts and features put together in such a compact body — make it a very popular and maybe underrated M mount camera.
The size of the camera is probably the thing that stands out the most. A lot of Leica 35mm film cameras are bigger/heavier than this one, so to have such a light body stands out when it comes to M mount cameras.
This camera is a great gateway into the world of M mount lenses. There are so many different options and when you save money on buying the CL versus an M6 or M3 or whatever it may be, you might have some budget left over to get an extra lens.
One thing I missed having on the QL17 was a fast shutter speed of 1/1000 (the QL17 topped out at 1/500) and you get that on the CL. Even though that’s a pretty standard thing. it’s nice to have if I want to shoot an 800 speed film in bright conditions.
Last thing is that it works without a battery which I like because that means the camera won’t ever brick due to electronic failure.
Things I don’t like
I think the biggest issue with this camera is the durability and reliability.
This camera is mostly made of plastic and for the most part that’s fine for me — I don’t exactly mind that because it was built to be smaller and lighter than some other brass M bodies.
I’ve had two different issues with this camera:
Issue #1 - Occasional jamming
This camera has jammed up on me a few times. where the advance lever and shutter button were both stuck. The shutter curtain is made of a cloth material and a common issue with this camera is that the shutter curtain is subject to getting stuck. One of the solutions is to remove the lens and basically pull down on the shutter with your finger or even bang on the camera to get it to fall back into place. I think this happened on 2 or 3 separate occasions and I did notice that it happened when it was really cold outside, so I’m not sure if there is any correlation between the cloth curtain freezing up and getting stuck when shooting in very cold conditions.
Issue #2 - Loading mechanism
Some people like the loading mechanism on this camera. Personally I’m not a fan, but maybe that’s just a skill issue.
In order to load film, you have to remove the entire bottom half of the camera. If you have a tripod plate attached to the camera, you’ll have to remove that if you want to load a new roll because it covers the notch that you need to twist to take off the back.
When it comes to loading the film, it can be a bit tricky and it might take a few attempts to get the film into the take up spool without it slipping out when you advance it. I typically have to burn through a few shots to make sure the film is properly caught in the take up spool which can be a bit annoying.
The reason it’s a bit difficult is because of these white plastic “teeth” on the spool. You have to make sure you slide the film through a few teeth before you can advance it, otherwise it will slip. Those white teeth are also plastic, which are very easily cracked. When I was searching the internet for a good copy of this camera, there were a lot of bodies that had cracked teeth. Now this usually doesn’t affect the use of the camera, but it’s more for peace of mind.
On other occasions, I would load a roll in, it would catch and everything would look good so I closed the back, advanced the film a few times, and then I’d check to see if the rewind knob was turning when I advanced the film and it wasn’t. When that happens, it usually means you loaded the film incorrectly so I would take off the back to check but it turned out the film was loaded properly and I just burned whatever shots I’ve taken up to that point. I’ve noticed that sometimes the knob won’t turn on the first few frames but it would start turning after a few shots so it just feels like mind games at a certain point.
So those are the issues that I’ve had. I’m not sure if these are by chance or if I still need to learn how to use this camera but it’s definitely given me some headaches over the last 2.5 months that I thought were worth mentioning.
Who is this camera for?
This camera is perfect for someone who wants an M mount camera without the high price tag but still has that Leica (or in this case — Leitz) branding.
It’s also great for someone who knows they will eventually upgrade to a Leica M body but wants to start with this camera first in order to test out different M lenses and just figure out what features are important to them before upgrading in the future. This is the case for me. I wanted a camera that was a significant step up from the QL17, but also good in its own right. I like fully mechanical film cameras because that’s what I’m used to and I think feel like it adds to the experience of shooting film. Getting a camera that was co-produced by Leica was also kind of cool.
Conclusion
Aside from the issues that I’ve dealt with, this camera has been really fun to use in the streets because of its size. It’s really light and I bring it with me on walks about my neighborhood and it doesn’t get in the way. The loading can take some time but overall, it’s a fun camera to use when everything is functioning as it should, and it should. The issues I’ve had could either just be my copy of the camera which would be annoying or simply user error, which would be even more annoying BUT they could be fixed.
With all that said though, this camera is just another step in the road towards getting a real Leica M body in the future. I’ll be using this until I feel I’m ready to invest into a new body that’ll probably cost me about 3 times what I paid for this but at least I’ll have some lenses for when I do decide to upgrade. For now, I’m going to keep using this and see how it performs over a longer period of time and hopefully some of the issues I dealt with will work themselves out.
If you’ve been thinking about buying this camera, I actually would recommend it, especially if you want to shoot 40mm because the Minolta 40mm F2 Rokkor lens that sometimes can be found with it is supposedly really good. If you’re someone who wants to shoot 28mm without an external viewfinder, this is not the camera for you.
This pack is a collection of 6 different presets that I use to edit my photos, including 5 color looks and 1 monochromatic look. If you’re looking for presets that give you rich, bold colors and deep shadows, this is the pack for you.