Impressive
innovations include:
As an alternative to the familiar manual exposure balance, which of
course, continues to be available, the M7 features a comfortable
stepless automatic shutter speed control with metered value storage at
the shutter release button.
The legendary cloth focal plane shutter in all Leica M cameras was
thoroughly redesigned to control exposure times electronically,
virtually inaudibly.
A system that is very unusual in rangefinder camera displays: a total
of 33 different readings is shown in the viewfinder, an area of less
than two square millimeters, enlarged 15 times for optimal
information.
An on/off switch is positioned ergonomically right next to the release
button. In the "on" position, it turns the electronics of the M7 on. In
the "off" position, it blocks the shutter release button.
In addition to the regular 1/50 second sync speed, the M7 in
conjunction with special Metz flash units can now flash at sync speeds
up to 1/1000 second. In this mode, the settings of the exposure and the
flash are made manually.
In conjunction with a specially equipped flash unit, the M7 can also be
triggered by the second shutter curtain. The advantage is a natural
pictorial rendition, for instance, with long exposures and fill-in
flash.
There are two options of setting the film speed: manual and automatic
(with DX coding). This eliminates faulty exposures that result from
setting wrong ASA film speeds. An override feature of +/-2 f/stops is
available for exposure corrections in the automatic exposure
mode.