I recently acquired a Leica CL, and I have a question about the framelines. Basically, when I attach a Summicron-C 40 mm lens, the 50 mm framelines appear (the 40 mm lines are always visible, of course). When I borrow my friend's 90 mm lens, the 50 mm lines disappear, and the 90 mm lines appear.

So, why do the 50 mm lines appear with my 40 mm lens? Is it a simple switch between A and B? I would have expected the viewfinder to be clear with only the 40 mm lines with the corresponding lens attached. We tried it with his Leica CL, and it was the same. If this is intentional, what's the logic?

Thanks, Dave

-- Dave Flanagan (dwf@caltech.edu), April 04, 2002

Answers

Dave,

My CL behaves the same (one of the last 300 produced) but from what I understand all do.

I've never seen a Leitz explanation but suspect it was an economy move. The range and accuracy of the narrow base length RF is such that 40 through 90 was the extent of its useful range. They probably realized that folks with a 50 may use it so they supplied those frames also. Configuring them so it was only necessary to have "two positions" (40 and 50, 40 and 90) in the selection mechanism.

The CL stands for Compact Leica and in many respects its a handy little M mount body, and the most under rated result of the effort were the companion 40mm 'cron and the 90 Elmar-C. In comparison with the full feature M bodies however, it could also stand for cheap Leica.

Best,

Jerry

-- Jerome R. Pfile, Jr. (JerryPfile@msn.com), April 04, 2002.