M7 Issue, Help?

[maldo127]

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Hello!

I bought my M7 last year and it started giving me issues when in aperture priority. I had put 50ish rolls through it before the issue started. When it is in aperture priority mode it does not give me the a shutter speed reading, it gives me the the the triangle and circles. When this occurs, two possible things can happen when I click the shutter button. The first thing that happens is no photo is taken; the shutter button does nothing. The second thing that occurs is the shutter goes off but it remains open. It stays open even if it turn off the camera. The shutter only releases when I move the shutter speed dial to to 60 or 125 (the shutter speeds that fire without a battery). 

Things I have tried. New batteries and changing the ISO speed selector from manual to DX.

My questions: Does anyone else have experience with these issues? If you had a similar issue and sent it to Leica, how much did it cost?

Thank you so much for your help, if this has already been answered a link to the topic would be appreciated. 

Edited October 22, 2020 by maldo127
Not Complete when posted.

[Tom1234]

I had a similar sounding problem.  A "jammed camera", where shutter button would not move, and film advance would not move, but I did not look at the display when this happened but it may have been like yours. 

FIX From Leica Repair: This unjammed my M7 shutter, the shutter release button, the film advance system, and the electronic system:  Leica service told me to put it in Bulb mode, then tap the shutter release a few times to get the shutter release to jump up, since the shutter release is probably jammed in the down position.   

Apparently, Bulb mode is some kind of shutter-computer reset or starting point.  Well that is the best sense I can make of it.   

Probably the camera needs to be in the power-on position with batteries installed. It is easy to have it turned off when you think it is on. Possibly move the advance lever back & forth a little bit, and turn it off-&-on.  I tried so many things that it is hard to remember the exact order of all I tried before following the above directions from Leica.    

CAUSE: This may have been caused by, my removing the batteries, without first turning the camera power to Off. The M7 has a computer brain that like any computer has a start & stop procedure that seems to include turning the power switch off before removing the batteries.

I was sent this picture below which is supposed to be of the M7 Leica IC, integrated circuit, with IC attachment legs which give a long life circuit more so than the modern SMD, surface mount devices, that lack the attachment leg but are only soldered onto the surface.  The M7 may last a long time. 

The M7 is one of Leica's best M cameras feature-wise. I love the M7 for its aperture priority mode which automates shutter timing as the aperture is turned.  Aperture priority is all you need really since it makes the camera semi-automatic which means it is under your control and only automating to assist your decisions.

Before I got my Leica, I bought a full manual FM Nikon and disliked it compared to the Nikon EL2 which has the same "auto shutter as your turn the aperture" as the M7.   Some don't even want this one automated element though and choose other M bodies that don't have it. .

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[edwardfill]

Happened to me a few times when I bought my first M7:  In Aperture Priority mode the camera will calculate the correct exposure time when you cock the shutter but forget to remove the front lens cap (e.g. when loading a new roll of film), so the exposure time is much longer then you had anticipated and you may be under impression that the camera has malfunctioned and start turning it on and off or manipulating the shutter lever. Every time I put another roll in I had to remind myself to turn the shutter dial to the manual shutter setting to avoid this. Not sure if that is exactly what might be happening with yours but just check next time it happens.

[lincoln_m]

Yes I had all these issues blocked shutter and also no gap in the shutter at the higher speeds. I think I got one of the last free optical DX reader updates and a shutter release fix. About £200  2 years ago but now they insist on a full service which is over £600 I think. Mine had to go back straight away because they didn’t fix (check?) the shutter speed calibration the first time so almost every other shot was blank. 
good luck whatever you decide to do.