Peculiarity, any idea?

[Nevin Nevin]

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Today I found that in extreme environmental lighting situations, the Leica X1 -- I put it near my ear -- made short, low continuous mechanical sounds (cha cha cha cha cha cha...) when it was pointed consecutively to two extremely lit areas (e.g. bright sky / shadowy area).

 

I replicated the scenario at home, and this peculiarity happened when I spot-metered a lit light bulb and then an area away from it. When the camera is on multi-field metering, the same was noticed when the extreme lighting scene covered almost the whole frame.

 

I believe that the camera is automatically (pre-)metering the scene, not mal-functioning. Or any idea? I can't find a clue in the manual. Would anyone kindly try the same and let me know the result? My X1 is on M mode, and this is where my guess doesn't add up.

 

Thanks a lot.

(PS: The same is found with the D Lux 5. I'm not worried, just being curious.)

[nickma]

On Manual focus, whether shallow or wide DOF, whether spot or multi metering, mine makes a half to a second long mechanical shutter noise when half depressing the shutter release, and that's it. No cha-cha-cha as per AF. No shutter lag to speak of either when fully depressing the release button. Sorry.

[Samuelson]

Mine is 2 weeks old and I have noticed the same sound in some situations.

I have instantly thought of the same thing, that the camera is automatically premetering.

 

I tried it again to verify. It can be heard when pointing the camera out the window to the bright daylight and then back inside the rather dark room.

So I guess it's in fact premetering.

[ECliffordSmith]

Hi,

 

This is normal and is just the aperture automatically stopping down.

[Nevin Nevin]

Hi,

 

This is normal and is just the aperture automatically stopping down.

 

I see. That confirms the guess. Is there way to turn this working off cos it's very audible in certain inconvenient situation?