Leica M EV1: The first M with EVF instead of Rangefinder

[SrMi]

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58 minutes ago, charlesphoto99 said:

Remember when Leica used to use actual photographers to promote their cameras? Salgado, Gibson, Webb, Manos, etc. I miss those days. 

How about Joel Meyerowitz? Does he count, even though he seems to like M-EV1? 😜

Steve McCurry is still promoting the Leica SL system, Alan Schaller promotes Monochrom cameras, and Todd Hido promotes SL and S systems. There are many others.

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[rxj]

Having used the camera outside of launch day for the last 48 hours and I'm not a reviewer keep in mind, here's my initial thoughts.

• Even owning a Q2 and a M11, I prefer the M11 over the M EV1.
• It feels more like an M than a Q
• This is their test of the market and hopefully they'll bring better features
• It takes getting used to if you're used to a rangefinder but once you do it's quick and punchy and you get the sharp, in focus images that most desire.
• Function button on the front for the frameline isn't gimmicky and makes sense being there.
• The EVF needs to be 120fps like the SL3
• At night or high ISO isn't that great and probably the downsides of an EVF, not sure how they'll get around this
• I see Q users who want the M liking this more as the skill to entry is a lot lower than a M Rangefinder
• I get the "eyesight" argument and it's convinient but other reviewers out there shouldn't be using this as the main point on youtube videos

Edited Sunday at 03:08 PM by rxj

[LocalHero1953]

8 minutes ago, rxj said:

At night or high ISO isn't that great and probably the downsides of an EVF, not sure how they'll get around this

Is this worse than the Q2? Or just the downside of any EVF?

[S Maclean]

2 hours ago, charlesphoto99 said:

Remember when Leica used to use actual photographers to promote their cameras? Salgado, Gibson, Webb, Manos, etc. I miss those days. 

Get a suscription to LFI magazine (not their website) and enjoy plenty of great photographers linked to Leica.  Also, Paul Reid, Phill Penman, Thorsten Overgaard, Billy Kid, Baron, Jon Nicholson, Bowery Pope......You may not like their work.....but they are, without doubt, great photographers.

[Velo-city]

On 10/23/2025 at 7:48 PM, pgh said:

I haven’t seen this. I am largely critical of this almost private equity luxury firm that happen to squirts out cameras next to their outsourced watches now. Air your thoughts. Don’t make political comments or personal attacks, but that’s easy enough when discussing Leicas strategy and technology. The political rule is applied a little differently and vaguely in more philosophical discussions but I think you can safely avoid it with this subject. 

I’m pretty sure 90% of my comments about my M11 got passively aggressively commented on by moderators. Followed by a warning about being banned. 
I mean I got blamed for ‘going looking for problems’ when I pointed out that pictures on my m11 were randomly turning upside down (a known problem seemingly as a topic was already started). 
There”s a strong biased moderation here even if it’s not always done so obviously. Which is a shame because Leica could use some genuine critical feedback and proper alpha/beta testing. 

On another note I’m pleased to see they implemented the Fuji colour balance offset. Too late for me, and wouldn’t fix the randomness of the colours, but it’s nice to see some acknowledgment of the issue and a solution. At least can be steered from magenta - a big step. 

Edited Sunday at 07:05 PM by Velo-city

[Alberti]

On 10/24/2025 at 1:01 AM, IkarusJohn said:

That said, I get the reservations about focusing with the EVF.  I don’t like focus peaking as I don’t find it accurate enough, and auto-magnification is very slow.  I’m not sure if many remember, but when @jonoslack reviewed the SL, he made the comment that he just focused looking at the image.  This has been my approach since then and I’m sure it would work with the new camera.

• I’ve often wondered how Nikon included a little green focus confirmation light in the viewfinder of the F5, even with a manual focus Nikkor lens.

If the 'focus confirmation' is just in a precise spot (like our RF square, in the center) then it is just a different presentation layer from red blobs that confuse the image there (like a red nose or eye); when there is good focus alignment having a led light up in the side or bottom works well too imho. 

I just hope that the focus peak spot does not follow my nose . . . 

Edited Sunday at 07:27 PM by Alberti

[Alberti]

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On 10/24/2025 at 9:29 PM, sebben said:

I would only be interested in a Leica M EV1-D

Why are they not available at the same time? Would that be a marketing sin?

[IkarusJohn]

18 minutes ago, Alberti said:

If the 'focus confirmation' is just in a precise spot (like our RF square, in the center) then it is just a different presentation layer from red blobs that confuse the image there (like a red nose or eye); when there is good focus alignment having a led light up in the side or bottom works well too imho. 

I just hope that the focus peak spot does not follow my nose . . . 

The manual for my F5 is long gone, but I did do some cursory googling.  In practice, with a manual Nikkor 180/2.8 IF ED  lens mounted on the F5, there was a focus spot in the viewfinder (remember, this was an SLR) which you could move around the frame using the “D” button.  You then had a little red arrow telling you which way to turn the focus ring and a green dot telling you when it was in focus.  It was a film camera, and it pre-dated CMOS sensors and did not have PDAF, as often asserted here.  PDAF came later.

I have no idea how it worked, and I’m only marginally interested.  What did interest me was that in film days, the F5 had a movable focus spot which was simple (in practice), effective and accurate.

On my M10-D, with the EVF, I can move the magnification point around the frame, but it requires simultaneously pressing the fn button and turning the thumbwheel - the spot then scrolls across the frame before going up to the next line, etc - not very workable.

The X2D also has a movable spot (albeit with AF) which you move with your right thumb on the right hand side of the LCD.  This is very effective and simple to use.

I suspect Leica just needs to look a bit more outside the box, and not just at their own M based ideas. The TL2 has a good implementation of the touch screen, though I would like it to tilt - I find myself using my phone a lot, with Fotos, with my TL2, M10-D and X2D.  For landscapes, Fotos is invaluable, and for portraits I don’t like having a camera in front of my face.

[FlashGordonPhotography]

Your F5 did have PDAF. Just not on sensor. It was a separate little receiver at the bottom of the lens mount. A semi silvered section of the mirror, beam split some of the light down to the PDAF mechanism. So it’s similar (but antique) tech to modern cameras.

Gordon

[BillCB]

Well, I've read all 29 (so far) pages of critique and find myself rather amused. I see the new camera as one of many choices in the Leica line up and applaud the fact we have choices. I love the M11-P but when it comes to using the APO 135  (and even the 90 mm) I find RF focussing problematic and I switch to the SL. To have an M that can avoid parallax error and shoot macro is another great tool.

Thanks for the choice, Leica!

 

[rramesh]

A useful article that explains how mirrorless camera offer manual focusing aids.

https://phillipreeve.net/blog/the-best-fullframe-mirrorless-camera-for-adapting-manual-focus-lenses/

[IkarusJohn]

5 hours ago, FlashGordonPhotography said:

Your F5 did have PDAF. Just not on sensor. It was a separate little receiver at the bottom of the lens mount. A semi silvered section of the mirror, beam split some of the light down to the PDAF mechanism. So it’s similar (but antique) tech to modern cameras.

Gordon

Interesting.  It’s hard to get a definitive explanation from google. A number of sites state that PDAF, in relatively basic form didn’t appear until the 2000s, whereas the F5 was released in 1996.

The description in technical documents refers to 5 CCD sensors, called Multi-Cam 1300 Autofocus Module, described in greater detail here.  I have no idea if that constitutes PDAF - I thought that was more the realm of CMOS based digital cameras, whereas the F5 was a film camera.  So the 5 sensors needed to be inside the lens mount.

Whatever the answer (excuse my ignorance), the point I was making was more a question - why can’t such confirmation be incorporated into an M camera (without becoming as huge as the F5)?  Is it a question of room?

[IkarusJohn]

1 hour ago, rramesh said:

A useful article that explains how mirrorless camera offer manual focusing aids.

https://phillipreeve.net/blog/the-best-fullframe-mirrorless-camera-for-adapting-manual-focus-lenses/

Thanks Ramchand.  So Nikon’s subject detection in the Zf seems to be a good solution, but problematic without an electronic connection to the lens.  The challenge with the Leica M lenses remains …

[markc2]

14 hours ago, DadDadDaddyo said:

Shutter speed, aperture, ISO, handheld, camera support, windows finder, through the lens finder, format size, print size....

Everything involved in making a photograph is about striking a balance. 

In a manual approach, each of these decisions is a conscious decision. 

The more of these factors that are decided without the photographer's conscious intention, the easier it is, over time for photographers to forget they've got those choices. 

Wrong for me to push it on others, but I've found real benefit from spending time with Large Format.....

The moment I bought a light meter was when I really learned a lot as well. LF is probably super slow compared to any modern camera. Just curious what was the biggest thing you learned? and am I right you look at the image inverted?

 

Thanks!

[Kiwimac]

15 hours ago, FrozenInTime said:

"Leica's product manager told me in one of our last conversations that indeed 24 million are more than enough, but that he didn't feel like having to keep blowing against the wind. Those 50 million pixels really aren't necessary for the photos most people take. It is only useful for enlargements. But who still does?"

🙂 

I recall reading that 8MP was sufficient for the cover of NatGeo. 

[scott kirkpatrick]

Well, I've read the first and the 29th page of these instant comments, and gotten my hands rather briefly on one of the new wonders at the LSI meeting in Montreal last week.  But because the US gov't has shut down for really stupid political reasons, I can't buy one for a while, which is probably all for the best...  (Hmmm, maybe a stop at the Leica shop in the Frankfurt airport when I next return to Israel would solve this problem.)  But Stefan Daniel in the little video Leica was showing said that they put this concept in the back drawer a year or more ago and then dug it out and finished the product just in time for introduction to the market in the fourth year of the M11 dynasty.  Jono Slack sez he's played with it for almost a year now, which is itself a pretty high recommendation, as Jono seems to have no shortage of toys to play with.

The viewfinder was indeed really nice, and this may explain why the latest M11 firmwares are constantly jumping to the 5X view.

Edited yesterday at 04:37 AM by scott kirkpatrick

[SrMi]

2 hours ago, IkarusJohn said:

Thanks Ramchand.  So Nikon’s subject detection in the Zf seems to be a good solution, but problematic without an electronic connection to the lens.  The challenge with the Leica M lenses remains …

The electronic connection is needed just to get the focal length, which is available with coded lenses.

[IkarusJohn]

Would there be room for such a system in the M body?

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[rramesh]

45 minutes ago, IkarusJohn said:

Would there be room for such a system in the M body?

The purpose of the electrical contacts on a manual F lens is to allow the lens to communicate basic information to the camera, such as the lens type, maximum aperture, and focal length. One of the adapters mentioned in the post allows this to be programmatically input via the adapter to set this for manual lenses without electrical contacts. Seems that only the Nikon Zf and Z6III support this capability. Maybe other Nikon bodies as they are updated.

I believe Leica should be able to do something like this via the 6-bit reader mechanism. Of course, the current sensor will not allow for this. But maybe the M-EVII with the M12. This will be a wonderful enhancement.

 

Edited yesterday at 06:36 AM by rramesh

[SrMi]

14 minutes ago, rramesh said:

The purpose of the electrical contacts on a manual F lens is to allow the lens to communicate basic information to the camera, such as the lens type, maximum aperture, and focal length. One of the adapters mentioned in the post allows this to be programmatically input via the adapter to set this for manual lenses without electrical contacts. Seems that only the Nikon Zf and Z6III support this capability. Maybe other Nikon bodies as they are updated.

I believe Leica should be able to do something like this via the 6-bit reader mechanism. Of course, the current sensor will not allow for this. But maybe the M-EVII with the M12. This will be a wonderful enhancement.

 

CDAF should work on M11's sensor. I.e., the camera could detect if the subject is in focus and, after a slight focus ring movement, in which direction the focus should be moved. The question is whether CDAF or PDAF can work reliably with the aperture stopped down. Sony's PDAF worked until f/8, but it may have been improved to f/11. Nikon's system works up to f/5.6.

Of course, that would require considerable changes in the firmware of M-EV1.