Soon to be M7 owner.

[maddoc]

I've used 4x SR44 batteries successfully, although Leica Japan didn't like that and removed them from the camera when I got my M7 checked over one time (a service they offer for free for the M7 and other current production cameras).

... they can become short cut inside the battery compartment and overheat. It happened to me once, I couldn`t touch the batteries, they were that hot and it took only about 10s from inserting battery, switching on, over-heating. (No, the batteries were not inserted in wrong direction ...)

 

[Bill Clark]

Welcome to Rangefinder!

I'm here to help. And learn.

I like manual operated Leicas! No electronics on board. I use a hand held selenium cell light meter, no batteries!

When I get hired for a gig I use my digital stuff in manual mode. Even the off camera lighting. 100% RAW capture; it's my workflow.

My cars I usually get with a manual tranny.

I'm just a manual person. Nothing automatic for me!

I've gone through life in manual mode. Had to learn what I know. And I'm still learning!

Nothing much automatic for me.

 

[jonmanjiro]

... they can become short cut inside the battery compartment and overheat. It happened to me once, I couldn`t touch the batteries, they were that hot and it took only about 10s from inserting battery, switching on, over-heating. (No, the batteries were not inserted in wrong direction ...)

Interesting. I used my M7 for several weeks with those batteries without a problem. Maybe I got lucky?

 

[Dez]

I'm not familiar with this particular problem, but it is generally a good idea to wrap thin tape around the circumference of the stackup of button cells, to make sure nothing contacts the shells of the middle cells.
Thin tape, so the stack doesn't stick in the battery chamber.

Cheers,
Dez

 

[David_Manning]

M7 is a good camera. I almost went this route, but ended up getting an M9 eventually. As I understand it, the M9 is a digital M7...if that's the case, you'll love it. I really like the simple center-weighted meter, whether using A-priority (which I like) or manual exposure.

Congrats. Also, the 50/2 Zeiss Planar is a stellar performer...you chose a good lens.

 

[Aaron04]

Thanks David. I am super excited! Still not being able to shoot is tough.

Batteries and lens should be here before Christmas.

One more plus, its a Japanese "engraved" top plate camera. Saying Leica made in Germany. Pretty cool.

 

[Aaron04]

I said eff it and stuffed 4 lr44 batteries in it just to get through a few rolls. COULDN'T WAIT.

 

[Nelson Tan]

Congratulations on your M7. I've just purchased a M7 a week ago myself. Had two many years back and sold them away, but decided to acquire one because I miss its quiet shutter. I'm really loving mine, and hope you'll enjoy yours too!

 

[35mmdelux]

How can you tell the upgraded finder? My understanding is the older finder left room for dust/grime to enter the camera. It was not sealed.

Initially I owned an M7.72, sold it after less than a year. I didn't know enough about them. The red dot kept appearing, then the battery went dead. Enough.

A while later I purchased an M7.58. It is an absolutely dream camera. Sent it to Leica for the optical upgrade. They threw in a CLA and replaced a circuit board at no charge.

Sometimes I shoot full manual. Other times I drop it into automatic and snap away. Enjoy-

 

[jonmanjiro]

How can you tell the upgraded finder? My understanding is the older finder left room for dust/grime to enter the camera. It was not sealed.

There are two upgrades.

The first is the addition of a condenser lens in the rangefinder optical path to reduce focus patch flare. This upgrade happened when the MP was introduced so is usually called the "MP finder upgrade". M7's from about s/n 2885xxx onward have this upgrade from the factory and their boxes have a bright orange sticker on them which says "Now with new upgraded finder" or something like that.

The second is a sealed eyepiece to prevent dust getting in. I'm not sure when this happened. Maybe from about s/n 3100xxx onward. Its a straighforward DIY job to seal it yourself though.

 

[Aaron04]

Interesting thing I noticed today... With 4 lr44 batteries, the DX reader worked fine. Swapped to the lithium cells and now its reading iso 25 instead of 400...

Swapped the batteries back and it worked fine again.

 

[_goodtimez]

Interesting thing I noticed today... With 4 lr44 batteries, the DX reader worked fine. Swapped to the lithium cells and now its reading iso 25 instead of 400...

Swapped the batteries back and it worked fine again.

Is your M7 equipped with an electrical DX reader or an optical one ?
You can tell by looking in the film canister chamber. Usually if the canister drops by gravity when the baseplate is removed, you have an optical system.
The issue you are mentioning should not happen with the optical reader unless you lithium batteries are depleted.

 

[Aaron04]

Its the old one. I'm just gonna set it manually. Never really trusted many DX readers anyways.

I do like the feature that the ISO setting comes on for 2 seconds when the camera gets turned on.

Now if I could only remember to pull my yellow filter off when I load color film into it haha.