Minolta CLE meter/shutter shared parts with Minolta G SLR's?

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Stephen Gandy mentions he thought many of the same the parts from the early 1980's Minolta XG series SLR are used in the CLE. Does anybody actually have practical experience of taking parts from a Minolta G SLR and using them succesfully in a CLE? For some reason, I have a hard time believing the meter/shutter assembly can just be removed from an XG camera and will just bolt on and plug right in without any modifications. I like my CLE and wouldn't mind grabing a XG7 body cheap for parts if its innards were really the same.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), June 08, 2001

Answers

Andrew:

I was hoping someone would answer you as I am very interested in this topic as well. All I can offer is this e-mail I exchanged with a repair shop recently. They guy got the history/geneology of the CLE a bit wrong but the rest appears right on.

Subject: RE: CLE Repair Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 10:44:40 -0600 From: "Scott Mills" To: "'Mark R. Ackermann'"

Mark, I checked with a couple of people who knew more about the CLE than I did. It is a Minolta made for Leica in Canada. Parts are scarce and service is limited. Yes you can use a few(I stress a few) parts to fix them, if the xg is in good condition. You asked if they are "prone to failure ?" , as in most old cameras, the older they get, more problems arise, especially when/if the camera was/wasn't serviced earlier in its history. I really can't give a more honest reference than that, they are good for collection purposes. We can work on them, but keep in mind of what I mentioned above regarding parts and service. If I can be of any other service, let me know. Scott Mills, PCV REPAIR

-----Original Message-----

-- mark (mramra@qwest.net), June 13, 2001.


I just contacted a place that advertises CLE repairs (limited ones at that) Here is their response:

There are some common parts in the XG shutter that can be used in the CLE and a few components in the metering circuit are also similar. I don't know if it's worth getting a XG body for parts, the chance that it could supply the parts needed for any given repair would be small. Dave Edwards Precision Camera & Video Repair Dept.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), June 13, 2001.


Andrew

this might be useful

scott mills e-mail address is

smills@precision-camera.com

-- mark (mramra@qwest.net), June 14, 2001.


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