Officially announced: discontinued!

[Simone_DF]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

1 hour ago, rob_w said:

They are not the only manufacturer to throttle back their APS-C investment,

Actually they are the only company reducing investment in the APS-C battlefield.

Fuji is allegedly about to drop 2 new APS-C cameras soon, the X-H2 and the X-H2S.

Sigma is doubling down their commitment to APS-C lenses for Fuji, this is an official news since the people talking are a Fujifilm and a Sigma manager: https://dclife.jp/camera_news/article/fuji_film/2022/0519_02.html

Canon is also announcing 2 new APS-C mirrorless, the R7 and R10.

Nikon has launched the FC about one year ago,

Sony is rumored to release 3 new APS-C lenses soon.

Ricoh is doing well with the GRIII and GRIIIx.

[caigy]

I've read all of the comments so far in this thread, and at the risk of being repetitive, I'd like to add my own thoughts.   I own a Q, as well as a CL with 18, 23 (never use it), 11-23 and 18-56 lenses, and I feel the same disappointment with the discontinuation of the CL line as everyone else.   

But I have no plans to dump my equipment on the second-hand market.  I'll continue to use my CL until it drops dead, as I love its output (though the Q's output is better) and I'll hope that the electronics in my lenses hold up so that in the future I can use them on whatever future camera body iteration that Panasonic perhaps comes out with (I'd hope for a future smaller-bodied S5 with 47 or even 60mp so that the crop factor with TL lenses still leaves sufficient resolution).

As for the CL body itself, I always did and still do find it frustrating to use, and I found Leica's rather slow and infrequent firmware upgrade path to be a sign of lack of commitment to the line and a sign of disdain for or disinterest in their customers.   In particular, the failure to ever address the wandering focus point issue has been a source of great annoyance to me.  In addition, I dislike Leica's "We know better than you" attitude about limiting the maximum exposure length at various ISO's and the inability to turn off long-exposure noise reduction.  Yes, I want the highest-quality images from my investment in Leica equipment, but I feel I should have the choice if I want to expose at high ISO for more than 30 seconds for astrophotography, for example.  Perhaps failure to listen to the customer was the cause of failure of the line to be successful for Leica; it appears Fuji and others are finding reasonable success with APS-C so I don't believe the issue is the APS-C format itself.

I had hoped for a CL2 which would demonstrate Leica's commitment to the line and responsiveness to customers' wants, but alas it is not to be.  This does turn me off the Leica brand, and so I doubt I will buy another future Leica product.  Nevertheless, I expect the kit I have will last a long time and I intend to use it to it's (and my) fullest capabilities.

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[dkCambridgeshire]

I'll continue using the TL 11-23mm on my S1R ... Writing was on the wall for months ref Leica not continuing APS-C ... If the sales were not there then better to channel precious resources into FF ...  Leica is a small company with limited resources ... far fewer resources than Canon, Nikon, Fuji, Sony ... Leica's survival requires profitable products. 

[wda]

7 hours ago, pop said:

Now that the camera, lenses and accessories obviously have stopped working, they have become useless and degenerated into mere decoration. Best you make a gift of them to the closest museum that will take them.

Gift them to CL and TL loyalists. They will use them rather than just display them.

[dkCambridgeshire]

https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/328573-looks-like-bad-news-for-hopes-on-cl2/?do=findComment&comment=4367380

 

[nicci78]

One tangible consequence about CL discontinuation : no more firmware update. 
CL did not receive the last round of updates. 

CL will never have the highlights metering mode. What a pity. 
Such metering made Ricoh GR III/IIIx awesome. 
Only SL2, M10, M11 and Q2 series have it 

 

Edited May 20, 2022 by nicci78

[wda]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

26 minutes ago, nicci78 said:

One tangible consequence about CL discontinuation : no more firmware update. 
CL did not receive the last round of updates. 

CL will never have the highlights metering mode. What a pity. 
Such metering made Ricoh GR III/IIIx awesome. 
Only SL2, M10, M11 and Q2 series have it 

 

Why not formally request a firmware update  from Leica and see if anyone listens to its customers? You make a very good point.

[lct]

Firmware updates would be due if there is a bug to fix but adding new features for free can only depend on the good will of Leica.

[jaapv]

1 hour ago, nicci78 said:

One tangible consequence about CL discontinuation : no more firmware update. 

Incorrect: Leica has a long history of firmware updates for discontinued models (just a few examples: ISO improvement for DMR, WB improvement for M8 and a series of updates for M cameras to expand and improve lens corrections) Extra features none, but that is reasonable.

[Le Chef]

I think it would be a good gesture to offer updates like the highlight metering, better connectivity etc. 

[jaapv]

A farewell gift? 

[Le Chef]

Not a farewell gift more a reward for staying on. If you could keep encouraging owners to use their CL's by offering updated firmware, how many might stay on and wait for the small light FF camera Leica might launch?

[lct]

6 minutes ago, Le Chef said:

Not a farewell gift more a reward for staying on. If you could keep encouraging owners to use their CL's by offering updated firmware, how many might stay on and wait for the small light FF camera Leica might launch?

Leica may also commit to launch a camera to some posters' liking here. Could be called "LUF-L" and would sell the same price as a nicanofuji camera .

[anickpick]

Am 17.5.2022 um 15:42 schrieb jaapv:

If this is true... The OP is unconfirmed. 
Indeed and a radical departure from Leica's standard 10 years + !  That will not do the reputation of the company any good. It was part of the premium we paid for Leica. 😡😡. They should fire the person(s) who thought this up and start behaving like the brand they used to be. No new Leicas for me.😡

 

I can accept the reasoning behind the discontinuation, but cutting down on support is beyond the pale. I cannot imagine anybody buying one of the remaining CLs/TL2s with this in the background. Who is going to buy a camera at this price that may turn into a brick within six years? One may hope that this will not become the new "Leica standard" for all models.
The competition will be popping bottles of champagne.🍾🍾

 

"Going forward, the company will primarily focus its attention on the production of full-frame cameras."

How I read it: Leica has not only killed the CL/TL, they also killed the S line. Who is next in line - SL?

No new Leicas for me except the M line.

[IkarusJohn]

I haven’t had any firmware updates for my M-A

[lct]

6 minutes ago, IkarusJohn said:

I haven’t had any firmware updates for my M-A

You qualify for the famous Reward For Staying On Gift 👏

[IkarusJohn]

1 hour ago, lct said:

You qualify for the famous Reward For Staying On Gift 👏

Irony, there is a point … 🦅

[RSH-Photo]

History repeats itself. Leica abandoned the film Leica CL after one model (though it's Minolta partner offered a second model with auto exposure) and now the digital CL is abandoned after one model.

[hdmesa]

"Another six years of comprehensive customer care" sounds like a six-year Passport Warranty added onto to the existing warranty and having nothing to do with an end date to serviceability.

[Advertisement]

Hallo,

Look here: Leica L-Mount

[ramarren]

1 hour ago, RSH-Photo said:

History repeats itself. Leica abandoned the film Leica CL after one model (though it's Minolta partner offered a second model with auto exposure) and now the digital CL is abandoned after one model.

The Leica CL film camera was a wonderful design and an extremely popular model. They certainly didn't want to discontinue it when they did ... BUT, that camera was a collaboration with Minolta. And Minolta did not meet spec on so many cameras, needing rework before even being packaged, that selling the CL amounted to shipping about $40 per camera out of the company. No company can survive that for long, they were losing money on it hand over fist and had to pull the plug. 

Minolta customers weren't as picky as Leica customers on the quality control, evidently, and Minolta negotiated to continue using the CL name as derivative on the CLE model ... which had no Leica DNA in it at all. It was a design based on the Minolta XG SLR (IIRC) in large part, it just resembled the orignal CL. The CLE was a very advanced design for its day, and pretty expensive; it had a number of flaws (just like any other camera, really) and a relatively limited run (supposedly somewhere around 34,000 units total produced according to Steve Gandy @ CameraQuest.com). I think they were made for almost as short a period as the original CL (2-4 years max). 

The modern digital CL has been on the market since 2017, so it outlived the production lifespan of both the CL and CLE models. I wonder what the total number of units sold is. I suspect units will prove to be significantly longer lived without service than either the original CL or the CLE models, both of which didn't have the greatest reputation for reliability.

Personally, I loved the film CL and had three of them over the course of years, and made many photographs with them. The CLE never appealed to me much ... Too much electronics for my comfort in its day. 

G