Minolta Made a Better Leica (And Leica Knew It)

The Leica CL and the Minolta CLE look almost identical — same size, same era, same DNA. But one of them is quietly the better camera, and the story of how that happened is one of the strangest collaborations in camera history. In the early 1970s Leica's M5 was a commercial disaster, so they went to Minolta and asked for help. Minolta built the camera, Leica put their name on it, and the result was the Leica CL — released in 1973. What Leica didn't count on was Minolta going back to the drawing board and releasing their own improved version seven years later: the Minolta CLE. The camera Leica helped create ended up being better than the one with the Leica badge. I shot both cameras back to back on a trip to Seattle — the CL loaded with Kodak Tri-X, running fully manual after a battery issue locked me out of the light meter — and the CLE running in aperture priority auto with its stepless shutter. We cover the key differences: frame lines and lens compatibility including the CLE's 28mm support, how each camera loads film, battery access, metering systems, and the one genuinely frustrating limitation Minolta built into the CLE's meter. Both cameras accept M-mount lenses and sit at a fraction of the price of a Leica M-body. The Leica CL runs $400–700 without a lens. The Minolta CLE runs $800–900 — and it's worth every dollar of the difference. 📱IG: @calebknueven ☕️ Buy Me A Coffee: https://bmc.link/badflashes 🍆 Patreon : https://www.patreon.com/c/BadFlashes?... 📧 Email : [email protected] 🥳 Exclusive BTS patreon.com/BadFlashes 🖼️ Prints: https://calebknueven.darkroom.com 📷 Clever Supply Strap: https://cleversupply.co?ref=MKAZ3 - code badflashes for 10% off https://clever-supply-llc.kckb.me/c24... - Sidekick Pro 🎶 Music: https://www.trackclub.com/referral-la... 🎒Bag: Brevite: Jumper https://www.brevite.co/?rfsn=6938463.... 📹 Cameras: Minolta CLE & Leica CL 🎞️ Film: Kodak Tri-X 📙Chapters: 00:00 | CL and CLE intro 00:58 | Rangefinder choices - making it hard 02:08 | little Leica / Minolta History 03:43 | Frame lines are very important 04:35 | Lenses and Frame Lines 06:15 | Battery's and my CL Frustrations 07:49 | How are these two DIFFERENT??? 10:33 | The Dumbest thing ever!, 11:22 | My Verdict #film #filmphotography #leicaCL #minoltaCLE #leica