Autofocus turned out to be fast and reliable.
Leica cl review full#
A second press shows the full menu list, which is short, simple, photographer-oriented and handsomely written.Īfter card formatting, I started taking photographs with the 18mm pancake lens. Like in the recent M10, pressing the menu button once displays a customizable quick menu list. The small but easily readable display in the middle does a great job so that even an M photographer like your humble does not miss old-time dedicated dials and rings.Īs far as the menu system is concerned, Leica has made their homework at their best, deserving nothing less than an A+. The best of which are the two clever wheels/buttons on the top, allowing aperture, shutter speed, exposure compensation and mode selection setting, along with a wealth of optional controls. This downside apart, the CL is a concentrate of awesome ergonomics and innovative solutions in a classic-ky photographer’s tool. I do not object Leica’s pricing policy, I’m just considering this detail in a value-for-money perspective. Not a dealbreaker, but we could expect more care in a not-so-affordable product. Build quality is on par with Leica standards, except for the battery/SD card compartment cover, which is definitely on the flimsy side. Not that I dislike this, but it’s a point worth to be made. It winks to the older 39mm thread-mount cameras line-up more than to the M lineage, in compliance with the vintage-is-good-hipster-is-better aesthetics mantra which inspires so many consumer products these days, from cars to motorcycles to bicycles, wrist watches and, well, cameras. Leica engineers brilliantly managed to shape a product which fully bears the DNA of the German manufacturer’s industrial design.
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I sat down for a coffee and looked at the camera. Thus my main curiosity was to find out if the digital CL can really be considered as a mini-digital-M. Shortly, the film CL could be considered as a fully featured mini-M: same lenses, same format, same controls, same (more or less) build quality, all in a small, almost pocketable and cheaper package. I recall having owned two of them as back-ups for my M4P bodies, and they were a joy to use. The old CL was a marvelous tiny 35mm film camera with an M bayonet.
Leica cl review iso#
Leica CL – Adapted Leica Elmarit-M 90mm – ISO 5000Īs a film-era born photographer, Leica’s homage to the original CL of the Seventies aroused my expectations. I only had three hours to play with the much awaited CL, so I ran out of the store and had a walk in downtown Rome. As soon as we met, he handed me the camera along with the newly introduced Elmarit 18mm TL and an M-to-TL adapter.
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Thanks to my friend Gilberto Benni, manager of the Leica Store Piazza di Spagna in Rome, I had the opportunity to quickly try the Leica CL just a couple of days after its official launch. This Leica CL mirrorless camera review is by Gianni Galassi ( Flickr | Blurb):