The Bright-Line Viewfinder - Leica M7 Bedienungsanleitung

The bright-line viewfinder

The bright-line viewfinder of the LEICA M7 com-
prises not only a high-quality, large, bright and
high-contrast viewfinder showing every detail
which will appear on the final picture, but also a
highly accurate lens-coupled rangefinder.
The size of the frame corresponds to an image
field of 23 x 35 mm (slide format) at the closest
focusing distance for each lens. At longer
distances, the image will contain a somewhat
larger subject field than that shown within the
bright-line frame.
The frames are coupled to the focusing mecha-
nism such that parallax errors (the distance
between lens and viewfinder axes) are automatic-
ally compensated for as the lens is focused, and
the bright-line frame is the same as the film
image in the entire range from 0.7 m to ∞.
Three LEICA M7 models are available with differ-
ent versions of this viewfinder; the only difference
is in their magnification:
When lenses with focal lengths of 28 (Elmarit from
serial No. 2411001 onwards), 35, 50, 75, 90 and
135 mm are used on the LEICA M7 with 0.72x
viewfinder magnification, the corresponding
bright-line frame is automatically reflected into
the viewfinder in the combinations 28 + 90 mm,
35 +135 mm and 50 + 75 mm.
When the LEICA M7 is used with the higher 0.85x
viewfinder magnification, five frames are reflect-
ed into the viewfinder for the focal lengths from
35mm upwards (90mm, 35+135mm, 50 +75mm).
In the LEICA M7 0.58 five bright-line frames for
the focal lengths up to 90 mm (28 + 90 mm,
35 mm, 50 +75 mm) are projected into the view-
finder.
The center of the viewfinder contains a somewhat
brighter rectangle: this is the rangefinder. All
lenses with focal lengths from 21 to 135 mm
couple to the rangefinder when attached to the
LEICA M7.
With the exposure meter switched on, the lower
edge of the viewfinder also displays the LEDs of
the exposure meter or the LED flash symbol.
For more details on distance and exposure meter-
ing and flash modes, refer to the corresponding
sections on pages 94/96/108.
Note: On the LEICA M7 0.85, the central section
of the lower 50 mm bright-line frame is covered by
the display.
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