How to limit shutter speed to no longer than 1/30 in A mode?

[Snuff]

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I shoot everything at ISO 160. But in low light the camera sets a long shutter speed and I have to switch to manual mode at 1/30, which is very inconvenient.

I would like the camera not to make the shutter speed longer than 1/30 in A mode. But it does, despite the fact that in the settings I set auto ISO 160 1/30. How do you get around this limitation?

[Topsy]

If you've maxed out your aperture you can't, if not open up the aperture.

[adan]

Normal digital-M behavior. Still the same in the M10 (and probably the M11).

You can "strongly suggest" a shutter-speed limit in the auto-exposure/auto-ISO settings, but that is a "soft" limit. The camera will obey it only if that will not compromise the exposure.

If your limit of 1/30th  would result in an underexposure due to dim light, Leica's firmware assumes (rightly or wrongly) that most users would rather have a more correct exposure (at 1/15th or 1/4 second) than an underexposed picture at 1/30th.

If you want to absolutely limit the shutter speed to a fixed value (i.e. simulating "Shutter Priority" exposures), you indeed must set the shutter dial manually to the desired "hard" limit you want.

I do that all the time, shooting "active/moving" band musicians in horrible light, with focal lengths 21-135.

I set 1/250 or 1/350 on the shutter dial manually, as a firm limit, to avoid blurred movement, and let the auto ISO (between 200 and 10000) adjust the exposure for me.

(What a shock - a photographer actually setting the shutter speed via the dial! 😜 )

In this sample, I accepted a possible underexposure (it turned out to be ~1.5 stops, even at ISO 10000), in order to freeze the action.

M10, 90mm Summicron at f/2.0, 1/350th second set manually on the shutter dial to freeze the musician's movement; brightness and noise adjusted in post-processing.

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[farnz]

On 8/18/2025 at 6:12 PM, Snuff said:

I shoot everything at ISO 160. But in low light the camera sets a long shutter speed and I have to switch to manual mode at 1/30, which is very inconvenient.

I would like the camera not to make the shutter speed longer than 1/30 in A mode. But it does, despite the fact that in the settings I set auto ISO 160 1/30. How do you get around this limitation?

Just for completeness, the other way would be to use a lens with a larger maximum aperture, say, f/1.0 or f/0.95, to allow more light onto the sensor but that might present other undesirable effects.

Pete.