It first appeared in April 1973 and was released in the Japanese market in November 1973 as the Leitz Minolta CL.

[3] The Leica CL has a vertical-running focal plane shutter, with cloth curtains, giving ½ to 1/1000 speeds.

There is a through-the-lens CdS exposure meter mounted on a pivoting arm just in front of the shutter, like the Leica M5.

Today the CL is a superbly compact and more affordable camera on which to mount M-mount lenses, but it does not have a rangefinder as precise as that of any Leica M body.

Some users report the camera is rather fragile, especially the rangefinder alignment and meter mechanism.

Exception are some lenses that protrude deep into the body and could hurt the meter arm, these include: 15mm/8 Hologon, 21mm/4 Super Angulon, 28mm/2.8 Elmarits before serial number 2314921.

[9] Mechanical | Mechanical TTL |   Electronic Controlled Shutter TTL This article was originally based on "Leica CL" in Camerapedia, retrieved at an unknown date under the GNU Free Documentation License.