Leica CL: The Volkskamera The early 1970's were not kind to Ernst Leitz GmbH. They had missed the boat on the SLR revolution, andthen they released two cameras, one of which was not good enough for what it was, and another whichwas too good. Together they came close to sinking the company, and Leica never were quite the samesince. The camera that was not quite good enough was the Leica M5. It was Leica's attempt at answering theSLR challenge. It added some highly advanced features for the time: a longer-baselength rangefinder andimproved viewfinder, making it the most precise-to-focus Leica ever, and through-the-lens metering witha needle indicator. However, it also ditched the clean, elegant lines of previous M's in favor of a moreangular "brutalist" look, and it was significantly larger than previous models. Even if it is a lot betterregarded nowadays, it tanked in the marketplace, and left Leica on the ropes.

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