Exposure Modes; Aperture Priority; Metering Memory Lock - Leica M9 Instructions Manual

Exposure modes

The LEICA M9 provides two exposure modes: Aper-
ture priority and manual mode. Depending on the sub-
ject, situation and your individual preferences, you
can thus choose between
– the familiar "semi automatic" operation, or
– setting a fixed shutter speed and aperture.

Aperture priority

If the shutter speed setting dial (1.17) is in the
tion the electronics within the camera generate the
shutter speed automatically and continuously in the
1
range / s to 32 s, depending on the set sensitivity,
4000
the metered brightness and the manually selected
aperture.
The generated shutter speed is displayed digitally in
the camera viewfinder; for better clarity it is displayed
in half steps.
For shutter speeds longer than 2 s the remaining shut-
ter speed is counted down and displayed in seconds
after the shutter release. The actual shutter speed
generated and continuously controlled can, however,
vary from the half step value displayed: For example,
16 (as the nearest available value) is shown in the dis-
play before releasing the shutter, but the generated
shutter speed is in fact longer, as is shown by the
countdown after the shutter release starting at 19.
136 / Exposure modes / Aperture priority / Metering memory lock
Under extreme lighting conditions the exposure meter
may even, based on all the parameters, generate a
shutter speed that is outside its working range, i.e.
brightnesses that demands an exposure shorter than
1
/ s or longer than 32 s. In such cases the specified
4000
minimum or maximum shutter speeds are neverthe-
less used, and these values flash in the viewfinder as
a warning.

Metering memory lock

A posi-
For compositional reasons, important parts of the
subject are often not in the center of the picture, and
as a result such important subject items may on occa-
sion be excessively light or dark. However, metering
on the LEICA M9 is strongly center-weighted, essen-
tially only an area in the center of the picture is cali-
brated to an average gray scale value.
Subjects and situations of this sort can be overcome
very easily even in aperture priority mode, using
metering memory lock.
To do this:
1. First turn the camera so that the center of the
view finder is aimed at the most important part of
the subject or alternatively at another detail of
average brightness,
2. Press the shutter release button (1.19) to the 2nd
pressure point to measure and save the value. As
long as the pressure point is held, a small red dot
appears in the viewfinder at the top in the digits
line as confirmation, and the shutter speed ceases
to change even if the lighting conditions are diffe-
rent.
3. Keeping the shutter release pressed, swing the
camera round to the final picture framing,
4. and the shutter can then be released using the
exposure originally determined.
Changing the aperture setting after using metering
memory lock has no effect on the shutter speed, i.e.
it would lead to incorrect exposure.
The lock is cancelled when the shutter release is let
go from the pressure point.
Note:
Metering memory lock is not available if the shutter
release function is set to Soft (see p. 115).