Sort of. There were three iterations of this basic design, two as the
Leica CL, and last as the Minolta CLE. The first were collaborations
between Leica and Minolta with a mechanical shutter and sort of wonky
metering mechanics. Never really like that camera personally because
of that. Minolta and Leitz parted company in the last design, and
Minolta used a modern electronic shutter and added a 28mm lens to the
CL's 40 and 90. The whole package was (is) very very pretty if you
like efficient design. Unfortunately, Minolta pulled the plug on the
CLE after a few years. I suppose it went under appreciated in it's
time, and even today Leica aficionado's will distain it as a "lady's
camera" because of it's compact size. Distain away I say, I prefer
the Minolta CLE to M Leicas personally.
I could go on, but since this is off topic I'll give a link to a site
with more CLE (and other Leica) info.
Dave
----- Original Message -----
From: Arthur Entlich <artistic@ampsc.com>
To: <filmscanners@halftone.co.uk>
Sent: Monday, July 02, 2001 4:03 AM
Subject: Re: filmscanners: Digicams again was Re: filmscanners:
Minolta DiMAGE Scan & Dimage 7 camera
> Am I mistaken, or wasn't the Minolta CLE also sold in a different
skin
> as a Leica?
>
> Dave King wrote:
>
> >
> > I'm a big Minolta CLE fan also. I sold my Leica M camera years
ago to
> > get one. It doesn't have the build quality of an M, and the auto
> > exposure shutter electronics can be finicky (don't shoot in the
> > rain:), but for sheer image quality vs camera size and ease of use
> > there has never been better IMHO.
> >
> > Dave King
>
>
