I Tried To Quit the CL but............ I Couldn't Do It.

[cboy]

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I don't think the sigma lenses are compromises especially the the new DG DN art lenses whist they're FF they'll work especially well when cropped. Even the FF compact primes are no slouch, especially when on a budget 

Edited February 28, 2023 by cboy

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[Ray Im]

I believe that everyone in this forum has decent opinions for the CL and I guess we all agree with CL and TL lenses are a wonderful system. Lens quality is quite close to M glass quality and mostly outperform even full-frame high-end lenses in the market. Leica carefully designed CL and TL lenses to pursue its high standard while minimizing the price. It was just not practical to adapt to APS-C market because of budget nature of crop sensor system. So Leica abandoned it.

However, I can tell you that any Leica mirrorless camera has a full benefit to use M glasses (related sensor thickness matter) and I know that many M and SL photographers have CL body as backup option including myself.

Although Leica abandoned APS-C market, it is more of price competition to other brands, not its quality. I want to say that all TL lenses are worth to keep but I know people are using cross system in general, so want to decide more definitive lens option when you keep CL.

If you want to use CL to replace X or Q system, I recommend to keep 18mm or 23mm. 18mm is for the compact form factor like Ricoh GR III or Fuji X100V and 23mm if you care more for the resolution. Unless you are not a street photographer, 23mm is a definitely easier to maintain more flexible focal length control.  

If you want to keep CL for light landscape and general option, 11-23mm is no doubt to keep, 18-56mm is a good option for landscape and general daily use as well. If you understand Leica's variable aperture philosophy, you would be fine with 18-56mm kit zoom. possibly best kit zoom ever made in the history. I can't believe that people selling this lens around $6-700 in the used market these days. Get one if you see any of this price happens.

I really like 55-135mm but this is one of the most awkward options from TL lenses. Telephoto lens in general requires image stabilization function in digital photography era, but Leica decided to maintain compact size instead of keeping necessity stabilization option. it creates a beautiful image but hard to maintain same quality without stabilization function. so this would be the least keeping option for CL.

If you are a prime shooter based on 50mm focal length, 35mm Summilux is the only option to keep and macro shooter need to keep 60mm.

If you are rely on budget, any Sigma Contemporary prime and zoom would be a good option, like Leica 24-70mm F2.8 proved, Sigma is providing very decent replacement option for CL.

I talked very general opinions, so maybe many people already recognize it. Hope someone can get useful opinion from it.

Edited March 4, 2023 by Ray Im

[o2mpx]

Reading through this thread as I’ve picked up a 18-56, and have been looking to add a CL to accompany a M10R setup, but…cannot find any silver CL listed anywhere. 
 

There’s an astronomical ermalite? version on eBay, but no silver at least for last couple of months; what’s going on?

[tommonego@gmail.com]

Many more black CLs were made, I almost get the feeling that the silver ones were more of an after thought by Leica. You are right, there are none on US EBay. I like the black, cover the red dot and you have a camera that is barely noticeable. 

[DenverSteve]

3 hours ago, o2mpx said:

Reading through this thread as I’ve picked up a 18-56, and have been looking to add a CL to accompany a M10R setup, but…cannot find any silver CL listed anywhere. 
 

There’s an astronomical ermalite? version on eBay, but no silver at least for last couple of months; what’s going on?

Try Leica Camera San Francisco.  They just got a shipment of Leica display pieces from Leica.  They may have a silver.  When I re-purchased into CL I purchased a silver this time around.  There were several then but things change daily. 

Added: a quick search shows B&H with, at least, one used silver.

Edited March 19, 2023 by DenverSteve