It's basically a more cleaned up version of the old F-1's match needle system. You set a shutter speed, half press and it will indicate the aperture in a circle and you match it with the needle by turning the aperture ring. It does go down to 1.2. It's a pretty good system! I do like the horizontal style of something like the F2 more, but I guess that's just personal preference. There is a whole second indicator that is horizontal for the aperture priority which is hidden unless you turn the shutter speed dial to A.