Godfrey
Well-known member
Preface: After studying the manual and then evaluating, handling the Leica CL in person, I've decided to obtain one. I should have it by the weekend.
---
The Leica CL ... my first impressions.
Made it up to Leica Store San Francisco on Tuesday and had a good long look at the CL there. I asked and was given the opportunity to reset it, fit my lenses, and make test exposures with my card.
My primary desire for this camera is to use it for copy work, table-top plus other niche uses like long telephoto work, etc. I intend it to be my TTL viewing body for the value of that in precision focusing and digitizing negatives. I'm not too concerned with AF or many of the other convenience features of the CL; what motivates me is that Leica supports all my R and M lenses on it, and it will work with all of my existing accessories. That said, I do expect that any camera I own will get used for some general purpose photography as well—I'll just be using my existing manual M and R lenses via the adapters rather than buying new lenses for the camera.
Picking up the body for the first time, the CL is light and small yet feels solid. The controls all move with the smoothness I expect from Leica gear, and the sense of precision in their click-settings is there. The camera is nicely spare and lean on number of buttons, etc. It looks like a "mini" Leica M.
After resetting the body, then setting the file output types to JPEG+raw, I fitted my Color Skopar 28mm to the M Adapter L, and set the lens profile for the Leica 28mm Summaron-M. This was always one of my favorites when shooting with the Ricoh GXR, although I got it somewhat late in that game, and is that sweet "wide-normal" with an FoV equivalent of about 42mm on the APS-C format. A few moments fussing about to figure how to set the ISO and EV compensation, then brought the camera to my eye.
While not the "state of the art" of the SL, the EVF on the CL is very nice. I turned on focus peaking, it worked as expected. I stepped up the magnification and it worked as expected. No problems. One press on the center button on the four way pad and all info is there, another press and it's a clean view. Nice.
Down to f/5.6, I had no difficulty seeing the 28mm lens go in and out of focus as I turned the focusing ring. Below that, I found magnification became necessary for precision. I didn't have the time to try to evaluate how accurate the distance scale was on this camera with the mount adapter, but I expect it to be slightly off (allowing one to focus slightly past infinity) if it's like all the other bodies I've tried this adapter on.
I tend to forget just how good a lens this little 28mm really is. It's simply terrific, and the Summaron-M 28mm f/5.6 lens profile seems to suit it perfectly on APS-C.
Next I fitted the WATE. I took four or five exposures at each of the primary focal length settings, both at 6-8' distance and from a close up position. If that 11-33 is actually a better lens than this one, it's probably beyond my ability to see the difference. The WATE produces just awesome image quality ... and that's hand held, without the benefit of a tripod to really make it sing. It's just an amazing lens, IMO, and I'm very happy I sprang for the big bucks to get it.
Finally I did a series of exposures with the Macro-Elmarit-R 60mm and the APO-Macro-Elmarit-TL 60mm: my standard reference shot, a number of close ups, some tests shooting a tape measure to check the magnification indication on the barrel, a couple of portraits of the sales person who was helping me. Both of these lenses are a bit bulky, but they both balance beautifully on the camera IMO ... not too large, not too heavy, not too light. The TL lens obviously has AF and focuses very quickly and surely. The R lens also focuses quickly but manually. Neither is any problem to focus with extreme accuracy even at f/8, without so much as either peaking or magnification turned on.
Notice I haven't said much about the CL's controls? There's a reason for that: the little beastie was fitted with firmware v2, I'd quickly set up the dials and buttons based on my reading the manual before I got here, and everything about it worked exactly as it was designed to ... and very nicely for me. The only ergonomic niggle, for me, is that like with most small digital cameras, there's not enough space to fit my mitts comfortably on the naked body (of course, that doesn't matter at all for copystand and tripod use). I tried the grip and it made a big "Meh." sound in my head. I tried the half case and that does the job of thickening and making the camera just a hair taller, with a bit more room for my thumbs, etc. So for walking around picture taking, I'll need the half case (or Protector, as Leica likes to call it). I'm pleased that they put a magnetically closed trap door in the bottom so you can swap the battery and access the SD card without taking it off.
I thanked the salesperson for her time, told her I'd be in touch, and left for home. Once there, I moved all the DNG + JPEG files into Lightroom v6.14. Everything opened right up and looks great right at the DNG defaults. The 28, the WATE both shine beautifully on this body. The truly interesting comparison, to me, is the Macro-Elmarit-R 60 vs the APO Macro-Elmarit-TL 60: With the latter being cropped to APS-C, I imagined that it might look a bit shuttered or confined since Leica makes such a big deal of tuning their lenses. Well, nothing to fear with this one. It is hard to see any difference whatever between the TL and R lenses, and both are just superb performers on this body. From 1:2 to a half-length portrait, the images couldn't be too much more similar without saying that they're the same optics just in a different lens mount, although I know that's not the case.
Of course, I don't touch on AF or many of the cameras' other features yet. They're all niceties that I expect are of value to someone, but my primary notion was to examine the quality of the viewfinder, the control layout, and the imaging performance with my intended lenses. I think I'm going to be well satisfied with the Leica CL as both an adjunct for my niche needs and as a peer sibling to my M-D.
onwards!
G
---
The Leica CL ... my first impressions.
Made it up to Leica Store San Francisco on Tuesday and had a good long look at the CL there. I asked and was given the opportunity to reset it, fit my lenses, and make test exposures with my card.
My primary desire for this camera is to use it for copy work, table-top plus other niche uses like long telephoto work, etc. I intend it to be my TTL viewing body for the value of that in precision focusing and digitizing negatives. I'm not too concerned with AF or many of the other convenience features of the CL; what motivates me is that Leica supports all my R and M lenses on it, and it will work with all of my existing accessories. That said, I do expect that any camera I own will get used for some general purpose photography as well—I'll just be using my existing manual M and R lenses via the adapters rather than buying new lenses for the camera.
Picking up the body for the first time, the CL is light and small yet feels solid. The controls all move with the smoothness I expect from Leica gear, and the sense of precision in their click-settings is there. The camera is nicely spare and lean on number of buttons, etc. It looks like a "mini" Leica M.
After resetting the body, then setting the file output types to JPEG+raw, I fitted my Color Skopar 28mm to the M Adapter L, and set the lens profile for the Leica 28mm Summaron-M. This was always one of my favorites when shooting with the Ricoh GXR, although I got it somewhat late in that game, and is that sweet "wide-normal" with an FoV equivalent of about 42mm on the APS-C format. A few moments fussing about to figure how to set the ISO and EV compensation, then brought the camera to my eye.
While not the "state of the art" of the SL, the EVF on the CL is very nice. I turned on focus peaking, it worked as expected. I stepped up the magnification and it worked as expected. No problems. One press on the center button on the four way pad and all info is there, another press and it's a clean view. Nice.
Down to f/5.6, I had no difficulty seeing the 28mm lens go in and out of focus as I turned the focusing ring. Below that, I found magnification became necessary for precision. I didn't have the time to try to evaluate how accurate the distance scale was on this camera with the mount adapter, but I expect it to be slightly off (allowing one to focus slightly past infinity) if it's like all the other bodies I've tried this adapter on.
I tend to forget just how good a lens this little 28mm really is. It's simply terrific, and the Summaron-M 28mm f/5.6 lens profile seems to suit it perfectly on APS-C.
Next I fitted the WATE. I took four or five exposures at each of the primary focal length settings, both at 6-8' distance and from a close up position. If that 11-33 is actually a better lens than this one, it's probably beyond my ability to see the difference. The WATE produces just awesome image quality ... and that's hand held, without the benefit of a tripod to really make it sing. It's just an amazing lens, IMO, and I'm very happy I sprang for the big bucks to get it.
Finally I did a series of exposures with the Macro-Elmarit-R 60mm and the APO-Macro-Elmarit-TL 60mm: my standard reference shot, a number of close ups, some tests shooting a tape measure to check the magnification indication on the barrel, a couple of portraits of the sales person who was helping me. Both of these lenses are a bit bulky, but they both balance beautifully on the camera IMO ... not too large, not too heavy, not too light. The TL lens obviously has AF and focuses very quickly and surely. The R lens also focuses quickly but manually. Neither is any problem to focus with extreme accuracy even at f/8, without so much as either peaking or magnification turned on.
Notice I haven't said much about the CL's controls? There's a reason for that: the little beastie was fitted with firmware v2, I'd quickly set up the dials and buttons based on my reading the manual before I got here, and everything about it worked exactly as it was designed to ... and very nicely for me. The only ergonomic niggle, for me, is that like with most small digital cameras, there's not enough space to fit my mitts comfortably on the naked body (of course, that doesn't matter at all for copystand and tripod use). I tried the grip and it made a big "Meh." sound in my head. I tried the half case and that does the job of thickening and making the camera just a hair taller, with a bit more room for my thumbs, etc. So for walking around picture taking, I'll need the half case (or Protector, as Leica likes to call it). I'm pleased that they put a magnetically closed trap door in the bottom so you can swap the battery and access the SD card without taking it off.
I thanked the salesperson for her time, told her I'd be in touch, and left for home. Once there, I moved all the DNG + JPEG files into Lightroom v6.14. Everything opened right up and looks great right at the DNG defaults. The 28, the WATE both shine beautifully on this body. The truly interesting comparison, to me, is the Macro-Elmarit-R 60 vs the APO Macro-Elmarit-TL 60: With the latter being cropped to APS-C, I imagined that it might look a bit shuttered or confined since Leica makes such a big deal of tuning their lenses. Well, nothing to fear with this one. It is hard to see any difference whatever between the TL and R lenses, and both are just superb performers on this body. From 1:2 to a half-length portrait, the images couldn't be too much more similar without saying that they're the same optics just in a different lens mount, although I know that's not the case.
Of course, I don't touch on AF or many of the cameras' other features yet. They're all niceties that I expect are of value to someone, but my primary notion was to examine the quality of the viewfinder, the control layout, and the imaging performance with my intended lenses. I think I'm going to be well satisfied with the Leica CL as both an adjunct for my niche needs and as a peer sibling to my M-D.
onwards!
G
Last edited: