Hands-on play with CL in Sydney

[Tobers]

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Sydney Leica had a CL in store today so I had an extended play.

 

TL;DR - I loved it and will be buying one.

 

It's a beautifully made, compact, solid and elegantly designed piece of kit. Very impressive and well thought out. Here's a few highlights:

 

• Viewfinder is fabulous. Switches on easily as you raise the camera to your eye. You can turn off the rear screen for live view and have the viewfinder only turn on when you bring it to your eye. 
• Joystick for focus area movement is excellent.
• Superb button/dial functionality. Press the top of one of the rear dials to change modes (PASM). Press the top of the other to change ISO. All shown in the little top. In manual mode, one dial is aperture and the other is shutter speed. In aperture priority, one dial is exp comp and the other is aperture.
• The 18mm 2.8 lens is a lovely, small item which makes the camera compact. Seems very sharp with decent bokeh at 2.8 for a normal portrait distance shot.
• The feel of the camera is very nice indeed.
• The little top screen is effective, though I'd like to see ISO on there without a button press.
• ISO is easier to adjust than on my M10
• The menu is the same approach as the M10 with a short and customisable main screen, and then all items a click away.
• Focus with the 18mm and the 18-56 was very snappy indeed. Good light for my test - no low light.
• Viewfinder gives WYSIWYG exposure. Data in the viewfinder can be toggled on and off.
• With the M lens adaptor on, exposure peaking was both accurate and very easy. I used a 24 Summilux which worked very well indeed. Manual focus was so simple. This is one of the main attractions of the camera IMHO - it lets you use M lenses effectively in a compact package with WYSIWYG exposure and focus. 
• Strangely the CL did not recognise the 24 Summilux automatically but did offer manual lens selection. It should have done the auto recognition as the lens is 6-bit coded.
• Ignore the smaller sensor for a moment, and it's like an interchangeable lens Q.

Overall, extremely impressed. I would actually consider ditching my M10 to get a CL, but would ideally like to have both. A CL with an 18mm as a compact travel camera, with my 24, 50 and 90 M lenses would be excellent. Hmmmmm....thinking needed....I'll be ordering a CL once I'm back in the UK.

Edited November 24, 2017 by Tobers

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[mmanda]

Thanks for taking the time to share your impressions with us!

 

I'm so thrilled I've ordered one!

[Tobers]

Likewise - I just ordered mine. I've got a couple of shots with DNGs that I'll put into the Pics thread.

[tom0511]

joystick??

[Guest VVJ]

Perhaps a special edition... 

[Chaemono]

He means pad, obviously. No biggy. Good feedback. Thanks.

[Tobers]

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He means pad, obviously. No biggy. Good feedback. Thanks.

Yes, sorry, the pad thingy.