Operation Manual

136 / Exposure modes / Aperture priority / Metering memory lock
EXPOSURE MODES
The Leica M9 provides two exposure modes: Aperture
priority and manual mode. Depending on the subject,
situation and your individual preferences, you can
thus choose between
– the familiar “semi automatic” operation, or
– setting a xed shutter speed and aperture.
APERTURE PRIORITY
If the shutter speed setting dial (1.17) is in the
A posi-
tion the electronics within the camera generate the
shutter speed automatically and continuously in the
range
1
/
4000
s to 32s, depending on the set sensitivity,
the metered brightness and the manually selected
aperture.
The generated shutter speed is displayed digitally in
the camera viewnder; for better clarity it is displayed
in half steps.
For shutter speeds longer than 2s 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
display 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.
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
/
4000
s or longer than 32s. In such cases the specied
minimum or maximum shutter speeds are neverthe-
less used, and these values ash in the viewnder as
a warning.
METERING MEMORY LOCK
For compositional reasons, important parts of the sub-
ject are often not in the center of the picture, and as a
result such important subject items may on occasion
be excessively light or dark. However, metering on the
Leica M9 is strongly center-weighted, essentially only
an area in the center of the picture is calibrated to an
average gray scale value.
Subjects and situations of this sort can be overcome
very easily even in aperture priority mode, using meter-
ing memory lock.
To do this:
1. First turn the camera so that the center of the view-
nder 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 viewnder at the top in the digits
line as conrmation, and the shutter speed ceases
to change even if the lighting conditions are dier ent.
3. Keeping the shutter release pressed, swing the
camera round to the nal 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 eect 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).