Does Anyone Use Aperture Priority Mode?

[ROOOO]

So, I have often used aperture priority mode in the past on my SLRs and my GF1. In fact, I would say that I used it more than any other mode, and really had no reason not to unless I felt that I the camera would incorrectly meter the lighting conditions or I wanted to push the shutter speed beyond what the meter thought possible in the given lighting.

However, as I'm starting to use the M8, I haven't once switched the dial to A. I feel like there's a certain disdain--rational or not--for it among Leica M users, and that to get the real Leica experience (and see whether I like it) I would have to shoot in manual mode all the time, every time. And there is something about doing so that forces me to pay more attention to what I'm doing, to be more deliberate about it. It also causes me to miss some shots right now, but I suppose if the goal was to get the shot--and not the experience of shooting--I would have just sold everything and got a 5D MKII.

Anyhow, what do you all think about this?

 

[Makten]

I use A-mode all of the time, except for night shots where lamps and such are fooling the metering. I also use auto ISO, which works great. But I do pay attention to the light and composition, locking the metering and recomposing if it seems necessary.

Edit: But then again I'm coming from a Nikon D700 and have never really shot with film. Perhaps that makes a difference.

 

[miklosphoto]

All the time. Not only on M8, also on M7.
If I don't want the camera to expose at 18% gray, I just use exposure compensation.

 

[dotur]

I have been shooting M8 for two years now, always using aperture priority mode.
For manual I often use M3 with or without a hand-held meter, and sometimes I also guesstimate the distance while using M1 - that is the real pleasure!

www.ivanlozica.com

 

[downstairs]

Have to use it when bracketing for tone maps and exposure blending. No other way.

 

[Becoming]

Still slightly on topic: I use A mode on my R3A which I find really useful when speed's an issue but as for 'The Leica Experience' I obviously can't comment.

My issue with A mode is down to my inexperience of working fully manual. I worry that I'm getting inferior exposure results by using A and wonder if I would benefit from using a handheld lightmeter.

Can anyone help out here?

[Apologies if this classes as hi-jacking]

 

[sepiareverb]

I do I do!

 

[robklurfield]

Why not? I can work faster when I need to. It's a tool, not a panacea for all ills. When I don't want to use it, I turn it off or shoot with my M2. The discipline of letting one's brain do most of the work is great, but sometimes (often, really) the convenience and speed factor is a godsend. Of course, the flipside is that AE can make you really lazy.

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Always. Unless I'm using the M2!

 

[Pablito]

never.
never.

 

[snausages]

Don't have a digital M, but for cameras with AE modes I use it 90% of the time, and use AEL when I want to expose for something not gray in the frame.

 

[RichC]

Always. I compensate if necessary by locking the exposure then reframing.

I'm used to modern cameras - my first camera was a Canon 10D and I took up photography only about five years ago. So, I find the Leica M8 somewhat quaint and the controls antiquated. I simply cannot get on with the dot and arrows in manual mode - I NEED to know the shutter speed.

So, I'm waiting for Leica to bring the digital M into the 21st century - displaying the shutter speed in manual mode, for example, like EVERY professional camera made since the 1970s!

I want a camera based on manual controls that also gives me information I need at a glance like every other modern device...

 

[peterm1]

I can understand that. I use aperture priority a lot with my Nikon DSLR kit as it also makes me think about what I am doing and because depth of field matters to me. I think its true that shooting in manual mode takes this up a notch but maybe not as much as you might think....most time I will use my manual cameras much as if its an aperture priority camera by leaving the aperture set and changing the shutter speed. I find this works for me.

 

[DRabbit]

If the camera has it, I use it... will compensate if needed by locking exposure where I want and then reframing.

I recently came into possession of a couple of cameras that are all manual-only. I got the light meter app for my iPhone, which seems to work fairly well 🙂

I know sunny-16, but I'm certainly not experienced enough at it to fly alone with that method!

 

[kdemas]

I use it 95% of the time on both my M8 and M7. It's great for the type of M work I like to do.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Used to, with M8 and M8.2.

Astonishingly little with the M9.

Much the same rationale (or lack of it) as the OP. The full frame just seems more 'Leica-like'.

EDIT: except that if I just wanted to 'get the shot' I'd rely a lot more on my own 40+ years' experience and a Leica than on autofocus and autoexposure.

Cheers,

R.

 

[bmasonoh]

What's aperture priority? Just kidding. All the time on my digital cameras but not an option on my M6. I prefer it that way when I shoot film. Forces me to slow down and think more about what I'm doing.

 

[Jason Sprenger]

I'll use it if conditions permit to give my lenses their best chance to work at their best and save me from having to adjust the shutter speed.

With an M-type RF, I find it easier to adjust the aperture with framing than the shutter speed.

In low light, I frequently set the shutter to something like 1/30th and adjust the aperture a stop or two on the fly since my hand is right there to focus anyway.

 

[250swb]

I use aperture priority all the time with my M9, or any other camera. I prefer to choose the aperture first and foremost so its the same whether the camera is set to 'Auto/Aperture Priority' on the 'A' setting or in manual. Either way the shutter speed is the thing that changes, not the f stop.

Steve

 

[Sonnar Brian]

I was not mentally prepared for the presence of a built in light meter on the M8. Being digital, no issue. It just never occurred to me that it would have a meter built in.

But it still works just like my M3 as far as exposure. Fires at whatever I set it to.