The Exposure Modes; The Aperture Priority Automatic Exposure Mode - Leica M7 Instructions Manual

If the finger is released without the shutter being
depressed, the exposure meter remains switched
on for approx. 14 s and the corresponding LED (s)
remain on. When the shutter is activated, the
meter switches off and the LEDs in the viewfinder
go out.
If the main switch is not turned on (i.e. the camera
is turned off) and/or the shutter is not cocked
and/or the shutter speed dial is set to "B", the
exposure meter is turned off.
Notes: If the shutter is not cocked or the displays
have gone out, the camera is in "Standby " mode.
At very low levels of luminance, i.e. at the thresh-
hold of the light metering range, the LEDs may
take approx. 0.2 s to appear.
If it is not possible in the aperture priority mode to
create the correct exposure with the available
shutter speeds, the shutter speed display flashes
as a warning (for more details see the section "The
aperture priority automatic exposure mode" on
the right).
If manual setting at very low luminance goes be-
low the measuring range of the exposure meter,
the left-hand triangular LED flashes as a warning.
For the aperture priority mode, the shutter speed
continues to be shown. If the necessary shutter
speed falls below the slowest possible speed of
32 s, this display also flashes.

The exposure modes

The LEICA M7 offers photographers two exposure
modes: aperture priority mode or manual setting.
Depending on the subject, the situation and indi-
vidual preferences, you can choose between the
somewhat faster and more convenient aperture
priority mode or the fixed setting of the shutter
speed and aperture familiar from other Leica M
models.

The aperture priority automatic exposure mode

With the shutter speed dial (11) set to the "AUTO"
position, which engages particularly firmly, the
camera electronics automatically generate the
appropriate shutter speed continuously in the
range from 1/1000 s to 32 s, depending on the
film speed, either read via DX code or set manual-
ly, the measured brightness and the manually
selected aperture.
As a result the aperture priority mode is particu-
larly well suited for shots for which you prefer to
make less settings and where the depth of field
has to be set according to composition needs. The
automatically generated shutter speed can, if
necessary, be changed by adjustment of the
aperture, e.g. to create certain "wiping effects"
with slower shutter speeds or to "freeze" move-
ments with faster shutter speeds.
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