Leica M auto question

[daned]

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So it seems manual focus might be a good way to get creative but what about shooting modes does it have an auto shooting mode for situations where you just want the camera to do everything or pasm? Or it’s all manual.

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[jdlaing]

No PASM. The only thing automatic is Aperture Priority where you set aperture and the camera picks shutter speed.

[evikne]

8 hours ago, daned said:

So it seems manual focus might be a good way to get creative but what about shooting modes does it have an auto shooting mode for situations where you just want the camera to do everything or pasm? Or it’s all manual.

If you select Auto ISO and Auto shutter speed (set with one wheel on each side of the camera) exposure is as simple as it gets. But you always have to set the aperture yourself, this is done directly on the lens. Just choose a sensible aperture (preferably not f/16 in a dark room) and the camera will take care of the rest. Just focus and shoot away.

Edited October 26, 2023 by evikne

[dpitt]

With wide angle lenses like 28mm or 21 mm, you can set it to F 5.6 and 3m distance and shoot away. This is called zone focusing, anything between x and y distance will be in focus. You can vary how big the zone is with the F stop. And you set your lens to 1/3 of the zone. In the example above with 28 mm, anything from 2 - 10m distance will be in focus. With a 21mm that becomes 1,5 to infinity with the same settings.

If you set the M to the A position, all you have to do is point it to the subject and click. This is as close as it gets to auto anything. It is also faster than any AF system. Ideal for street and unpredictable subjects like playing kids or pets.

There is no chance that the M will act up and refuses to shoot at the decisive moment because it hunts between two objects. Or it refuses to focus on what you want. This often happens to me when I use a real auto anything camera. And in some cases, I think everything is as expected, just to find out, when I see the shot on my computer screen, that the camera focused on a stupid thing that messed up its focus algorithm.