Leica M EV2 -- your next camera?

[maxpower]

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1 hour ago, algrove said:

Unbelievable. He stated that trying the Fuji-like approach was less than an optimal approach. So how was just stuffing an EVF in a camera with 2022  processor a better approach?

It's better than the hybrid approach that didn't work nicely when combined with a rangefinder, some people with the Fuji system say they never really use hybrid mode either just EVF, so yeah I can believe that putting this EVF is better than a shitty experience for people who have been asking for this. That it's a camera from 2022 is actually great if you ask me, I love that Leica doesn't feel the need to completely revamp their platform every year and instead just releases other versions of the same camera for even smaller niches than they already are slowly over time.  I also can't really envision a world where the M-EV1 would be technically a better camera than the M11, it shouldn't compete with it on specs, it should compete on a different experience. 

[didier]

On 10/25/2025 at 10:11 AM, M8X2 said:

I'll wait for the M EV1-D.

 as a Black Paint version  

[algrove]

37 minutes ago, maxpower said:

It's better than the hybrid approach that didn't work nicely when combined with a rangefinder, some people with the Fuji system say they never really use hybrid mode either just EVF, so yeah I can believe that putting this EVF is better than a shitty experience for people who have been asking for this. That it's a camera from 2022 is actually great if you ask me, I love that Leica doesn't feel the need to completely revamp their platform every year and instead just releases other versions of the same camera for even smaller niches than they already are slowly over time.  I also can't really envision a world where the M-EV1 would be technically a better camera than the M11, it shouldn't compete with it on specs, it should compete on a different experience. 

If they wanted 2022 experience then why not start with a 24mp sensor which might do everything better. Oh, I forgot they have plenty of M11 parts laying about including 64BG internal memory.

[jaapv]

1 hour ago, algrove said:

Unbelievable. He stated that trying the Fuji-like approach was less than an optimal approach. So how was just stuffing an EVF in a camera with 2022  processor a better approach?

Quite simple. The customers who wanted a Fuji have bought a Fuji and whltch left Leica with customers who did not want a Fuji. 

[maxpower]

18 minutes ago, algrove said:

If they wanted 2022 experience then why not start with a 24mp sensor which might do everything better. Oh, I forgot they have plenty of M11 parts laying about including 64BG internal memory.

I sincerely apologise that a company did not make a product you agree with, I hope you can get through these troubled times. Thoughts and prayers. 

Edited 21 hours ago by maxpower

[SrMi]

2 hours ago, algrove said:

Unbelievable. He stated that trying the Fuji-like approach was less than an optimal approach. So how was just stuffing an EVF in a camera with 2022  processor a better approach?

He was talking about using a hybrid system for the rangefinder line. Fuji never implemented a rangefinder hybrid system, and Leica found out that it does not work well enough.

[algrove]

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1 hour ago, maxpower said:

I sincerely apologise that a company did not make a product you agree with, I hope you can get through these troubled times. Thoughts and prayers. 

This will be first new Leica product that I did not buy since the M9.

[lct]

I don't understand the problem, if any. As long as i remember, Leica always said that they could not or did not want to make an hybrid viewfinder or am i missing something?

[setuporg]

8 hours ago, didier said:

 as a Black Paint version  

M EV1-MD

[JoshuaR]

I think the M EV2 will be exactly the same as the M EV1, just with a better viewfinder, as good what’s in the SL cameras now. My theory is that this is it—this is what an M EV is—and there will be no new features except for marginal things that don't really matter.

The way I look at it is that Leica is good at making simple cameras without lots of features. They keep it focussed on the basics, especially within the M line. So I'm not surprised that the M EV1 is a very simple camera—an M with an EVF, and that's it, with no surprising or innovative or even interesting features. 

I totally get that many other EVF cameras offer a lot of cool features, such as the zoom-to-the-eye functionality from Nikon. But that is not the Leica Way™. For better and worse, the Leica Way™ is an absurd and sometimes infuriating level of simplicity, which some photographers enjoy, because it helps them concentrate on taking pictures, and makes them feel that they are in control. The SL cameras offer a bit more in terms of professional-level complexity. But the SL is not an M camera, and the M EV1 is not an SL camera in an M body. It's an M camera . . . with an EVF.

M cameras have basically no features. They just have "the essentials." In theory, this means that an M camera won't become obsolete. It's because of the total lack of features that my M4-2, which is almost exactly the same age as me, is functionally almost indistinguishable from my M10-R. And it's for this reason that many people feel justified in spending lots of money on an M10-R (or M10, or M-whatever)—they know that they'll be fine without upgrading to the next M. Ms don't fundamentally improve, because there aren't really any new features that get added, only marginal changes.

That's why the one actual weakness of the M EV1 is its EVF, which will definitely be improved upon with the M EV2. If the EVF in the new camera were as good as what's in the SL-series cameras—an EVF that basically can't be improved upon—then the M EV1 would be as future-proofed as any of the other digital Ms. (Note that the digital M rangefinder-viewfinder hasn't really been improved upon since the M10, in 2017, and those were minor improvements; this is part of why even older digital Ms have held their value.)

By contrast, the M EV1 will be fundamentally improved by the inevitable, better EVF. Whenever the EVF in the M EV series reaches the point of non-improvability, we'll have arrived at the first "classic" M EV model, which you can buy and use until it dies, without ever upgrading. I suspect that will be the M EV2. Of course, if you feel that the current EVF is good enough, then perhaps the M EV1 is a "classic" for you, and you can just buy it and use it forever, once you accept that cool features such as zoom-to-the-eye are just too 'feature-y' for an M camera.

So where does that leave us (by which I mean, me)? My current plan is to use my M10-R and M4-2 for as long as they are physically operational. I hope to possibly add an M EV1 to that kit a few years from now, mainly for my very wide and very long lenses and in very low light and some other special circumstances. I'll do that if used prices fall far enough, when the M EV2 comes out with its better EVF. (Or maybe I'll have added back an SL2-S by then—I recently sold mine—and will learn to be content with it the second time around, despite its size and weight.) Meanwhile, when the M EV2 comes out, I suspect that many people will be disappointed. My prediction is that it will continue to be an M . . . with an EVF, and without any "groundbreaking" features to speak of, in keeping with the tradition of M cameras, which have had essentially the same simple feature set since 1957. The only real difference will be that the EVF will be better.

Edited 3 hours ago by JoshuaR
made the post even longer