After posting on this site and taking much valuable advice, I recently bought an R4s Mod 2 with a 50 Summicron lens. Although I have not yet developed a film from using it, I am very happy with the look, feel and handling of the camera. It is lighter, smoother, more intuitive and just plain nicer than the Nikon F3 I have been using.

However, I don't have the manual and can't seem to find out if there is an exposure lock in any of the three exposure modes. I have looked at earlier threads and but they seem to apply to earlier R4 models, not the late R4s Mod 2 version that I have. I have tried half depressing the shutter but it doesn't seem to lock the exposure. My only recourse seems to be taking an exposure reading and then switching to manual exposure mode, but I would have thought Leica would have been smarter than that. Maybe not.

I would be grateful for any help.

-- Christopher Goodwin (christopher.goodwin@gte.net), November 03, 2001

Answers

Christopher,

IMHO you have the best of the R4-series cameras. I think the exposure lock works only with spot metering: depress the shutter until the LEDs go off, then re-compose. If this doesn't work send me an e-mail and I'll dig for my manual and try it on my R4sP.

-- Douglas Herr (telyt@earthlink.net), November 03, 2001.

Works only in the A spot meter mode, to qoute from my R4sp manual: "The measured value is stored by depressing the release button beyond the initial pressure point to the 2nd pressure point, the value storage remains intact. As visible sign of value storage you will notice that the symbol (circle A) will become extinguished.....The exposure time may be stored up to apx 30 sec. Storage values are extiguished as soon as finger is removed from the release button."

-- Dave Doyle (soilsouth@home.com), November 03, 2001.

Thanks for the very useful posts. Yes, that seems to work, depressing the shutter to the second pressure point, although it's quite a skill not to press too hard and take a picture. Yes, the A symbol does become extinguished, although the shutter speed readout still moves around as usual, but I have tested it, by pointing the len into a bright light to get a shutter reading of 1000th, depressing the shutter to the second pressure point to store the shutter speed value, then pointing into near darkness to get a reading of 1 second, then firing and I can clearly hear the shutter fire at around 1000th. So, thanks again.

-- Christopher Goodwin (christopher.goodwin@gte.net), November 03, 2001.