mamiya 7II and aperture priority

[david b]

This weekend I did some shooting with my M7II and I had the camera set on automatic "A" and the negs came out great. The exposures are dead-on.

I also had a light yellow filter on it with the exposure compensation set to +1.

I shot tri-x at 400 and developed in xtol 1+1.

So I am wondering how often M7 owners shoot this camera on the auto setting?

 

[Aggie]

It has an automatic setting? Darn and I read the instruction manual three times cover to cover! I do know the multi function button well. That button is my good friend.

 

[Snapper]

Yes, the Mamiya 7II has an auto-exposure function which sets the shutter speed to the nearest 1/3 stop. I never use anything else it is so good (well, actually I usually use the auto-exposure lock setting.) I believe the manual setting only sets the exposure to the nearest stop, so the AE is a lot more accurate.

 

[Thilo Schmid]

The characteristic of the built-in meter depends on the lens. Since the meter is not TTL (cannot be, because the leaf shutter is usually closed between shots), it covers a fixed angle within the finder. So the meter works selective with wide angle and integral with tele lenses and somewhere inbetween with the 80mm lens.

I prefer the AEL setting on my M7, if I don't use an external meter. IMO, the built-in meter is fine for CN and B&W. But I found it not that reliable for slides.

 

[L Gebhardt]

I use the Auto mode with lock for slides as well as negative film with my M7 and get good exposures. The trick is to know what is being metered and what the camera will do. I frequently scan the scene with the meter and then choose a section to meter off of that gives the settings I think it should have. This works fine for all but the most contrasty scenes, which generally don't work well with slide film any way.

 

[Thilo Schmid]

The problem is that the metering area is not marked in the finder. Of course, this can be evaluated (e.g. by aiming at a streetlight at night), but it is not much intuitive, esp. if you do not use this camera very often.

 

[Aggie]

I used the internal meter a few times when I first got it. Since that time I use a spot meter exclusively. I have no more blocked up shadows or blown highlights.