What is Leica not telling us about the "T" exposure timing setting?

[Peter Gallagher]

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I don't mean this as some sort of 'conspiratorial' question. It's just that I have the impression that there's more to the "T" setting than the Leica Q2 Manual states.

The Manual says it's a "bulb" setting that keeps the shutter open until you press the shutter button a second time.

But I recently discovered by accident that it's somehow more than that. I had a 6-stop filter on the lens and was shooting a waterfall looking for the typical 'long exposure', "creamy foam" shot.

I normally shoot long-exposures using the "Fotos" app to set the parameters, focus and shoot (on a tripod). But recently I experimented with setting the Camera directly (aperture, ISO, shutter-speed), pressing the shutter manually and using a 2-sec 'self-timer' to account for shutter-shake

I  set the aperture to f8, the focus to AF, the ISO to 100, the shutter speed to "+1" and dragged the timing slider on the back-screen to the minimum setting which is "T". I got the 'live view' up on the screen, set the focus by tapping on the screen and pressed the shutter -- not really knowing what to expect.

The camera took a perfectly exposed shot without further intervention from me. I did not press the shutter to stop the exposure, I simply stood back. Hmm...

• I changed the ISO from 100 to 50 and shot again. Another perfectly exposed shot!
• I changed the aperture. Same result.
• I fiddled with the EV compensation. Pretty good exposures (at least rescue-able in Lightroom). 

I can only conclude that the "T" setting is more sophisticated than "bulb" would suggest. 

Have you tried it? What"s your experience?

Peter

 

[T25UFO]

With the T setting, the longest exposure time is still limited to 2 minutes, or less depending on the ISO value.  If you press the shutter again before the longest time has elapsed, then it will close.  If you leave the camera alone the shutter will close automatically when the longest time period has elapsed.  In this respect it is not a true bulb setting.

[Peter Gallagher]

Thank you Erfahrener, that explains it: the variation of the maximum exposure time depending on the ISO value.