CL to Joep

I finally sold the Leica CL. The camera has been on sale for a long time. I had a few would-be buyers, but for some reason none of them followed through. Just before the ski holidays, I was contacted by a Dutch photographer, Joep Jacobs. He was interested and asked me to call him back upon my return. We quickly agreed on the terms for an eventual sale, but Joep wanted to see the camera for himself before he decided. So he came down from Eindhoven and ended up buying what is indeed a very nice CL.

I never really caught on to this camera. Maybe a little too small for my hands. I found the viewfinder a bit cluttered too. And the shutter noise and mechanics is not exactly vintage Leica. But it's because I have plenty of alternatives that I can afford to be critical. It is in fact a very nice camera with a lot of strong points. If it were the only camera I had, I could live with it. The photo shown above is one of the few I have taken with the CL (Switzerland, July 2005).

Joep wants to equip the CL with the new 35mm Summicron Asph. He obviously likes quality: his workhorse camera is an ALPA SW12 ;-) A nice tool for a professional architectural photographer. We had a brief but pleasant conversation before we parted. Afterwards, I visited his website. Here and there, particularly in the landscape work, I had flashes of recognition: his eye seems to look very similar to mine. There's an interesting little essay in Q&A format under the "About" heading where Joep explains his photographic approach and his opinion about digital vs analog. I sympathise with a lot he is saying. Once more Leica proved to be a powerful "transitional object" in networking!