Jono: A Leica M EV1 Review

[Olaf_ZG]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Btw, @jonoslack thanks for the review. I always read your before buying sth from Leica.

[SrMi]

2 minutes ago, Olaf_ZG said:

I can only speak for myself, using M’s for some years only, and having (had) several M’s and Q’s. 
I wasn’t interested at all in any iteration of the m11. The ccd versions are enough for me to enjoy a rf experience. For me, photographing in portrait mode is tough, hence my SL for portraits.

If I could make portraits with this new camera, as quick as with my SL (my portraits are made one click at a time), I can see myself buying this camera.

A q2m plus m 50lux would be a most wonderful setup for me.

I would have ordered it already, if I wasn’t afraid to deal with bugs. The latest releases of Leica (m11/sl3) had a bit too many of them…

All my M11s are rock solid, and M-EV1 seems to be as well. The issue with SL3 never bothered me, as I never removed the battery while the camera was on.

[Viv]

20 hours ago, jonoslack said:

Then stick with your M11! . . . or buy both!

Thank you. I  can't justify having both, so will keep my M11, which produces good results.

[jjroroek]

Thanks Jono, this review is exactly what I was looking for. It also convinced me that this version of the m11 is not the camera that makes me sell my q3 en returning to the m system again ( i switched from a m10r to the q3 last year) 

[jonoslack]

10 hours ago, farnz said:

A typically thorough and informative review that's full of superb pictures,  @jonoslack.

11 points out of 10 for your alliterative comment with respect to focussing being the result of "maths and mirrors, mechanics and machining".  Priceless.

Pete.

Hiya Pete

I hope you’re flourishing? Really must meet up again sometime. Thank you for the kind words about the article - it genuinely means a lot!

As for the alliteration - I’m glad you noticed it, I was rather proud of it too!

Maybe it deserves value judgement - how about:

A masterpiece of maths and mirrors, mechanics and machining?

All the best

Jono

Edited 13 hours ago by jonoslack
poncing it up

[jonoslack]

8 hours ago, Kiwimac said:

I agree there ought to be no difference from the camera (but as always with Leica the reality might not be as we assume!). Jono replied above and said he’d slightly changed his process so perhaps that’s affected how the images show on the web?

Could be that with my developing cataracts I’m zapping up the colour a bit 😂

[jonoslack]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

5 hours ago, IkarusJohn said:

Well, I guess existing M owners (of whatever flavour) know what they’re in for (once their rage over the M EV1 has subsided) and have a reasonably good idea of what they’re looking for in the next M camera - it’s a wide and weird world out there!  For myself, I’m really interested in a simple process, with manual lenses, direct control of essential options and a good DNG file as the outcome.  I can tolerate AF, but I will always hate it and fight against it.  But, that’s just me (waiting for the M Classic).

What I do think about is the new Leica buyer.  This mythical beast has money (a surprising number of Millennials do).  They may have a Sony, an RX1 or a Q, or “just” an iPhone; but they’re interested in photography and they have money (why else would they be in a Leica Store, and why else would we be interested in this Unicorn buyer).  They go into one of the remaining “photography” stores - Harvey Norman or JB HiFi here in Australasia or the equivalent crammed in electronics store in the US/Canada (see what I did there?) or Europe - with shelf after shelf of Sonys, Canons & Nikons with all their specs and profusion of lenses and options, they can’t get a sensible sales person to help and they walk away.

This Unicorn buyer likes going into the relative calm of an Apple Store, with its few options, clearly laid out and helpful staff - the sales are easy, as the options are clearly defined, and not too many.  Few Apple buyers want to know the specs of the Mac they’re looking at to compare with the PC equivalent.  They want to know it has enough storage and enough RAM.  They’ve also seen lots and lots of movies where, when most of us were young the photographer was carrying an F3, the stars these days are holding a Leica M camera (Brad Pitt etc etc).

They walk into the Leica Store because it’s different and they can afford to be there.  Offered a Q, an SL or an M, they go for the M.  Why?  Because it’s the camera Brad Pitt was carrying in Spy Game, or whatever the movie was; because they can’t remember, but they recognise the Leica - a camera for life the stars and cognoscenti use.  They want that cool camera. They justify it because it has interchangeable lenses.  The shop owner extols the virtues of the SL3, as it is a better camera; but, our Unicorn didn’t come in for a “better” camera; for that, he would go back to JB HiFi and buy an A7R(n).  He came for a Leica!

So, he has the choice of an M11-M (only B&W? He’s not that old); an M11-D (weird); or an M11?  Now you’re talking.  Would sir like an OVF or an EVF?  They are the same camera, just a different viewfinder.  What does our Unicorn say? He’s familiar with EVFs because every other camera he’s used has an EVF - it’s the manual focus which surprises him, but the lenses are “reassuringly expensive”, if you’ll forgive me channeling Rutger Hauer.  And the M EV1 is not only familiar (all the information he needs in the view finder, including a histogram), and it’s a bit cheaper …

In a twist, he exclaims “but M means mesßucher!  If it has an EVF, it should be a Q with interchangeable L mount lenses!”

I don’t think so …

 

Hi There - thank you for this

This is a much more eloquent and funnier way of putting what I said to Leica a couple of years ago - as you say, there are a surprising number of millenials 

[jonoslack]

5 hours ago, IkarusJohn said:

Well, I guess existing M owners (of whatever flavour) know what they’re in for (once their rage over the M EV1 has subsided) and have a reasonably good idea of what they’re looking for in the next M camera - it’s a wide and weird world out there!  For myself, I’m really interested in a simple process, with manual lenses, direct control of essential options and a good DNG file as the outcome.  I can tolerate AF, but I will always hate it and fight against it.  But, that’s just me (waiting for the M Classic).

What I do think about is the new Leica buyer.  This mythical beast has money (a surprising number of Millennials do).  They may have a Sony, an RX1 or a Q, or “just” an iPhone; but they’re interested in photography and they have money (why else would they be in a Leica Store, and why else would we be interested in this Unicorn buyer).  They go into one of the remaining “photography” stores - Harvey Norman or JB HiFi here in Australasia or the equivalent crammed in electronics store in the US/Canada (see what I did there?) or Europe - with shelf after shelf of Sonys, Canons & Nikons with all their specs and profusion of lenses and options, they can’t get a sensible sales person to help and they walk away.

This Unicorn buyer likes going into the relative calm of an Apple Store, with its few options, clearly laid out and helpful staff - the sales are easy, as the options are clearly defined, and not too many.  Few Apple buyers want to know the specs of the Mac they’re looking at to compare with the PC equivalent.  They want to know it has enough storage and enough RAM.  They’ve also seen lots and lots of movies where, when most of us were young the photographer was carrying an F3, the stars these days are holding a Leica M camera (Brad Pitt etc etc).

They walk into the Leica Store because it’s different and they can afford to be there.  Offered a Q, an SL or an M, they go for the M.  Why?  Because it’s the camera Brad Pitt was carrying in Spy Game, or whatever the movie was; because they can’t remember, but they recognise the Leica - a camera for life the stars and cognoscenti use.  They want that cool camera. They justify it because it has interchangeable lenses.  The shop owner extols the virtues of the SL3, as it is a better camera; but, our Unicorn didn’t come in for a “better” camera; for that, he would go back to JB HiFi and buy an A7R(n).  He came for a Leica!

So, he has the choice of an M11-M (only B&W? He’s not that old); an M11-D (weird); or an M11?  Now you’re talking.  Would sir like an OVF or an EVF?  They are the same camera, just a different viewfinder.  What does our Unicorn say? He’s familiar with EVFs because every other camera he’s used has an EVF - it’s the manual focus which surprises him, but the lenses are “reassuringly expensive”, if you’ll forgive me channeling Rutger Hauer.  And the M EV1 is not only familiar (all the information he needs in the view finder, including a histogram), and it’s a bit cheaper …

In a twist, he exclaims “but M means mesßucher!  If it has an EVF, it should be a Q with interchangeable L mount lenses!”

I don’t think so …

 

Thank you for that! 

This is a much more eloquent and funnier version of what I said to Leica a couple of years ago - I seriously think this is the most important demographic for the EV 1 - there are lots of Millennials for whom this is a drop in the ocean (and plenty of Gen Z as well!) - and what a way to get them into Leica!

Arguments about whether it brings anything new to the table, or whether it’s good value for money are pretty beside the point in this scenario. . . . . Is it sexy? Does it take good pictures? Bang!

All the best

Jono

 

[jonoslack]

2 hours ago, SrMi said:

All my M11s are rock solid, and M-EV1 seems to be as well. The issue with SL3 never bothered me, as I never removed the battery while the camera was on.

Leica have put a lot of serious work into this - and a lot of beta testers have as well - there have been multiple tests of different iterations of the firmware - it’s been quite hard work - They really do take this stuff seriously, and as you say, the M11 and it’s siblings are pretty rock solid now (as is the Q and SL3)

best

[jonoslack]

25 minutes ago, jjroroek said:

Thanks Jono, this review is exactly what I was looking for. It also convinced me that this version of the m11 is not the camera that makes me sell my q3 en returning to the m system again ( i switched from a m10r to the q3 last year) 

Hi There

Excellent - it wasn’t meant to be a sales pitch! 

All the best

Jono

[Kiwimac]

24 minutes ago, jonoslack said:

Could be that with my developing cataracts I’m zapping up the colour a bit 😂

You should be selling them as presets…! 🤣

[Derbyshire Man]

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. 

[rfunnell]

Love your review Jono.

Happy to see you still love your 75APO M as much as I do, I think my next favourite lens is the 35APO M and reckon it should be perfect on this new M EV1 as a general purpose wonderful "light" combination.

Being older I appreciate light and being able to focus easier.

Cheers mate.

 

[pgh]

23 hours ago, jonoslack said:

Because that would exclude all those young people who fancy an M but don't want a rangefinder

What is the data behind this supposed group? Young people I know like rangefinders and want it with film more often. 

The trend (and it is just a trend probably) is towards less computerificarion of their gear. Most young people I know are also way too broke to sniff at even used Leica stuff, or sell a proverbial kidney for an m4 and beat up lens. 

Would be fascinating to know Leica actually have concrete data this market exists. 
 

Appreciate the review and your work even though I personally think it’s sort of an absurd tool given the existence of SL series and m adapters. 

[jjroroek]

32 minutes ago, jonoslack said:

Hi There

Excellent - it wasn’t meant to be a sales pitch! 

All the best

Jono

i know, but i was curious about focussing after stopping  down the aparture  and you confirmed  what  i was afraid of. Its not different from the visoflex. Because of that problem i never used my visoflex on my m10r and in the end i switched to the q3 to solve my problem.  But despite the q3 is being a great camera i miss the DOF of the lux 50 en lux 75.

[louiedi]

Thank you Jono for a wonderful review. I always love your approach of combining beautiful images with a personable evaluation of whichever Leica product you’re testing.    

[Olaf_ZG]

1 hour ago, jonoslack said:

Leica have put a lot of serious work into this - and a lot of beta testers have as well - there have been multiple tests of different iterations of the firmware - it’s been quite hard work - They really do take this stuff seriously, and as you say, the M11 and it’s siblings are pretty rock solid now (as is the Q and SL3)

best

I do believe that. The Q3 43 I had was flawless. Yet, the EVF is a new piece of hardware which might cause its own problems.

The fact of the SL3 losing images, and a two year long period of problems with the m11 simply doesn’t make me feel confident to spend 8k€ blindly. I will wait some months.

(and if meanwhile HB announces a second version of the cfv100, my money might go to HB, which also will mean I will buy HB lenses instead of Leica’s one)

[siddhaarta]

Am 24.10.2025 um 00:11 schrieb jonoslack:

I agree a fresh perspective on symbolic focusing would be fabulous - and I think that Leica agree as well, but It would (will) cost a huge amount of money in R&D, and perhaps nobody wants a manual focus camera with an EVF anyway? (Lots of people think that - both here and at Leica - just look at the threads here). 

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?

Edited 9 hours ago by siddhaarta

[Lev55]

vor 54 Minuten schrieb siddhaarta:

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 (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?

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

[Advertisement]

Hallo,

Look here: Interesting Leica gear

[siddhaarta]

vor 1 Minute schrieb Lev55:

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

sorry to hear that. I had the hope, that this problem was not an issue with the SL3-S, as it has another sensor with less resolution than the SL3