Leitz and Minolta's compact M-mount rangefinder — the Leitz Minolta CL, mechanical shutter, CdS meter, 1973.
The Leitz Minolta CL is a 35mm rangefinder from 1973, developed jointly by Leitz and Minolta and sold in Europe as the Leica CL and in the Japanese market as the Leitz Minolta CL. It is a compact M-mount body that brought a smaller, more affordable rangefinder to the Leica system, and later led to Minolta's own CLE.
It is a 35mm coupled-rangefinder camera using the Leica M bayonet mount, with a combined rangefinder-viewfinder carrying projected bright-line frames. It has a mechanical vertical-travel cloth focal-plane shutter that fires without a battery, and a built-in CdS meter on a swing arm reading through the lens, with the meter needing a battery.
Its small size and light weight make the CL a natural travel and street rangefinder, giving access to compact M-mount lenses in a body far smaller than a full Leica M. It suits photographers who want M-mount focusing in a pocketable form, though its shorter rangefinder base is best matched to standard and moderate wide lenses.
Check the rangefinder patch for contrast and correct vertical and horizontal alignment, noting the shorter base, and inspect the finder for haze. Test the mechanical cloth shutter across all speeds for capping; it fires without a battery. Confirm the swing-arm CdS meter responds, and be aware the original mercury cell was 1.35V, so the meter may read off with a modern battery unless adjusted.