Jono: A Leica M EV1 Review

[student]

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On 10/23/2025 at 10:56 PM, jonoslack said:

Hah - did you find lines you could read between . . . . but I won't be selling my M11 in a hurry!

Thank you Jono- that is as good a line as any, obviating the need to read between .... the lines!

Fun review; enjoyed it and might even get one of these EVs eventually, though not until the always reliably present but out of sight "bugs" have been found, discussed and dealt with

[Jean-Michel]

Hi,

With a caveat: I do not have nor even seen an EV1 

When it comes to magnification to assist focussing, with any electronic finder the magnification is simply a digital zoom. There is no optical magnification. With TLRs, SLRs and large format cameras one could get an optical loupe to magnify the image on the ground glass. I pretty much had the loupes on my Mamiyaflex and Hasselblads permanently on, and had a couple of loupes to check focus on view cameras. 

The only EVFs I have are the EVF2 for my M-P(240) and my SL2. With the SL2 and an AF lens, there is no need for any magnification, especially if one uses "single spot" or focussing. With the EVF2, I have the camera set to show a black and white image, the 5 or 10 times magnification is useful in confirming focus for static images; and the full view is of course more accurate than the OVF — great for viewing my Ti-Elmar (WATE) shots.

I imagine that the finder on the EV1 is an excellent digital finder, plus an excellent M11 attached to it! But I were to be purchasing a new M, I would definitely go for a regular M and buy an EVF attachment for occasional use or to view wide angle lenses – much more costly but also more useful for how I happen to photograph.

 

[jonoslack]

4 hours ago, siddhaarta said:

I would consider myself somebody who is very much interested in using EVF with manual focus lenses.  Indeed for me, Leica M is as much about rangefinder as it is about using these wonderful jewels, called M lenses (and I would add, the same holds for Zeiss ZM lenses and Voigtländer VM lenses).

My problem is that when I bought the Leica SL3 to use it with M and ZM and VM lenses, my photographing experience with manual focus lenses deteriorated considerably, compared to previous use with Leica SL and SL2. Why, because magnified live view (which is my preferred way of focusing) shows a sort of mushy image and, depending on the characteristics of the lens and light situation, makes it very hard and not joyful at all to focus exactly (and yes I use 60 FPS and not 120 FPS). With the SL2, I knew exactly where the best focus point was, now it is more or less in focus but never really sharp (obviously only in live view, the ex-post review is fine provided you nailed focus). I don't know what causes this deterioration, obviously it is not the EVF as it is the same in SL2, but probably the larger sensor size and internal handling of data and pixels in magnified live view.  I recently made some comparisons between Leica SL3 and Nikon Z5 (24MP and 3,7 Mio EFV) focusing the same M lenses. With Nikon it was easy and a joy and with the Leica SL3 it was not.

In case of SL3 one can argue that this is not its main use case, but it is with the Leica M EV1. If that mushy magnified live view persists with the Leica M EV1 it is not for me (and I fear it does because it is the more or less same 60 MP sensor and same processor). 

Have you any insights and conclusions to this topic?

 

3 hours ago, Lev55 said:

I have also the same problem with the maginfication that the image which is magnified is mushy with the SL3-s. The SL2-S was perfect

Hi There

I have the SL3, but I don’t often use it with M lenses - what I will do tomorrow is to compare the magnification between that and the EV 1 and report back. I seem to remember way back at the beginning of the beta there was an issue - but that it was quickly sorted and is no longer a problem . .. 

I’ll report back anyway, and then if there is a problem I can recognise I’ll see if I can get anyone to listen!

All the best

Jono

[jonoslack]

6 hours ago, Derbyshire Man said:

Dear Jono, excellent review, writing and example pictures, a real labour of love, thank you very much.

As I said elsewhere I handled one yesterday in Red Dot Cameras and thought it was very nice. My personal use case would never be wide angles, I know what they are going to capture to within 95% in my head anyway, I just place the subject in the frame where I want them (centre edge whatever) and expect to crop if it’s a good image, I’m shooting prints not transparencies!

Where it would have a place for me is vintage lenses, some of which can be pretty quirky, I love my pre-asph summilux 35mm but it’s a very naughty little lens! While I can’t get enough of the soul of it, just a little too often the image is in concept and composition perfect but ruined by focus shift or an unexpected flare in the wrong place. This means it ends up being left at home too often as that isn’t going to happen with the 35mm FLE or 35mm APO. I do have a visoflex 2 but the resolution isn’t high enough and frankly it’s an ugly carbuncle on top of a triumph of industrial design, I bit like putting the McDonald’s arches atop the Parthenon. It also then means the damn thing won’t fit easily in my bag with the other cameras/kit. 
 

I could therefore see an EV1 being very handy for the vintage lenses collection. In the meantime a higher resolution visoflex which works with the M11 can’t come soon enough but I very much doubt they’d do that! It wouldn’t suppress the urge for an EV1 but it would be handy for the M11D etc. 

Hi There 

Nice to hear from you - I hope you had fun with Ivor - I would like to have been there! I had obviously thought of the issues with badly adjusted rangefinders and focus shift, but I hadn’t specifically though of using it with vintage lenses (not one of my vices, although I do have some of the reissue lenses). 

Thanks for the kind words about the article - I guess it is a labour of love, I sometimes wonder why - but comments like yours do make it seem worthwhile. 

All the best

Jono

[Jeremy Bunting]

Having an EV comes in handy in many instances as nearly everyone will concede.  But for me, I just don't understand why I'd reach for an EV M instead of an M11 with a Visoflex attached to the top. This is a much more practical and versatile setup. I have the rangefinder for quick focusing and all the other benefits of an optical viewfinder, and then the EV when I need it (low light, precise framing, narrow DoF, etc.). The Visoflex's ability to turn to angle up also comes in handy quite often--no such luck with the M EV. And if I really want to say F the rangefinder today, I'll grab my SL3 and also have IBIS.

 

Not for me.

[siddhaarta]

vor 1 Stunde schrieb jonoslack:

 

Hi There

I have the SL3, but I don’t often use it with M lenses - what I will do tomorrow is to compare the magnification between that and the EV 1 and report back. I seem to remember way back at the beginning of the beta there was an issue - but that it was quickly sorted and is no longer a problem . .. 

I’ll report back anyway, and then if there is a problem I can recognise I’ll see if I can get anyone to listen!

All the best

Jono

Thanks for your effort. Much appreciated. Just to clarify my problem. When I press the joystick on the SL3 to activate the live view magnification, the second (middle) of three zoom levels appears automatically (would be interesting to know if the M EV1 also has different magnification levels). In this middle setting, the focus already appears blurry / indifferent, and even more so in the third level. One can change the zoom level using the right setting wheel. My workaround is to change to the first level magnification, which magnifies less but makes it easier for me to find the exact focus point. Unfortunately, the system does not remember this setting, so I have to reset it every time again, which makes the process quite tedious. I haven't been able to find out whether it is possible and, if so, how to change this default setting, which would be helpful and a tip for firmware improvement. Also, the same magnification level on the LCD screen is much better to focus than with the EVF (but not practical for me as I need reading glasses). There seem to be different resolution levels applied by the software in 1) EVF live view magnification, 2) rear LCD live view magnification, 3) review mode EVF and 4) review mode rear LCD.