The Leica M EV1 is a full-frame manual focus mirrorless camera with a 60MP BSI sensor. It’s shaped like the company’s other M-series models but has no optical viewfinder or rangefinder mechanism, relying instead on an electronic viewfinder.

Key specifications

• 60MP BSI CMOS full-frame sensor
• 60, 36 or 18MP output, Raw or JPEG
• 5.76M dot OLED EVF with 0.76x magnification
• Two-way Fn switch on front
• 2.33M dot LCD rear touchscreen
• 64GB of internal storage
• 2.4/5Ghz Wi-Fi

The Leica M EV1 is available everywhere except the USA, where gaining FCC approval has caused a delay. Once cleared for sale in the US, it will be available at a recommended price of $8995.

Index

• What’s new
• How it compares
• Body and handling
• Initial impressions
• Leica M EV1 specifications
• Press release

What’s new

The Leica M EV1 features a new, diamond-patterned leatherette coating.

There’s not much that’s new on the M EV1, other than the concept of removing the rangefinder and optical viewfinder that goes with it, and replacing it with an EVF. Leica points out this isn’t the first M-series camera to go without a rangefinder: the M1 made that move, while the MD, MD-a and MD-2 had no viewfinder, either.

Instead the M EV1 uses a variant of the 5.76M dot viewfinder found in the Q3 cameras, with 0.76x magnification. Unlike the conventional Ms, this viewfinder can accurately present the field of view of 21 and 24mm lenses, and show output from 90mm lenses at a decent size.

In addition to adapting better to a wider range of lenses, the magnified live view and focus peaking available in the viewfinder should allow greater precision than the traditional rangefinder mechanism, giving more reliable results with fast aperture lenses and not needing such careful handling or calibration.

How it compares

Leica cameras are luxury goods, as well as being cameras, so it’s somewhat hard to compare them. When the brand name and cost (and the exclusivity it implies) are part of the allure, conventional spec comparisons fall apart.

At the most basic level, you can get essentially the same sensor in the Sony a7CR for considerable less money, and get a similar shooting experience by adapting your M-mount lenses to fit. It won’t be as small, be as nicely built or say Leica on the front, but in purely pragmatic terms, it’ll be comparable.

We could also have compared the Leicas to the company’s own SL3 model or Sony’s higher-specced a7R V, but we thought choosing the smaller Sony was the closest in size and format.

Of course we don’t think anyone will actually be choosing between the Leicas and the Sony, but it gives some perspective on what you do and don’t get for your money. But, while it’s impossible to objectively say whether autofocus is inherently better than using a rangefinder (and hence haven’t assigned red or green highlighting), our experience has been that both the M11-P and a7CR offer a lot that the M EV1 doesn’t.

Body and handling

The M EV1 essentially has the same body as the M11-P but with no viewfinder window at the front. The ISO dial is also absent from the shoulder of the camera, presumably as the EVF extends further into the space it would usually occupy.

The rest of the layout is very similar. The body has a nice, solid-feeling weight to it, and it has the same minimalist design that fits in the hand nicely and gives off a sense of solidity when you hold it.

The move to an EVF allows you to adjust the diopter, using the little pop-out dial. It can be adjusted from -4 up to +2 correction.

The camera uses a menu system similar to the one we liked on the Q3 43, but unfortunately with the addition of a ‘Leica Content Credentials’ option that means it takes an extra step before you can get into the menu proper. It’s an odd decision, given Content Credentials doesn’t seem like a setting you’re likely to want to change regularly.

Battery

The M EV1 uses the same BP-SCL7 battery as the rest of the M11 family of cameras. It’s a fairly substantial 13.3Wh unit that Leica says will power the camera to a rating of 244 shots per charge if you use the rear screen and 237 if you use the viewfinder. These numbers use the CIPA testing standard, which tends to significantly under-represent the battery life, but sub 300 ratings usually mean having to carry a spare battery or external USB power pack if you’re a prolific photographer.

Initial impressions

by Richard Butler

I remember the first time I got to use a Leica rangefinder. Within a few hours I’d taken two photos that I can still picture in my head, nearly two decades later. They weren’t necessarily in perfect focus, but I found it so quick to match the overlayed images that I quickly came to see how a technology could be superseded several times over, yet not be rendered obsolete.

“Anyone really interested in photography should rent a rangefinder for a weekend,” has been a recurring phrase I’ve used in the years since.

Sadly, the M EV1 offers none of this experience.

Leica M-Summicron 35mm F2 | F4.8 | 1/250 sec | ISO 64 Processed with Adobe Camera Raw Photo: Richard Butler

Focus peaking makes it possible to match some of the speed of using a rangefinder, with perhaps somewhat similarly approximate focus. As with all these systems, it’s highly dependent on aperture and light level, meaning everything can end up highlighted, at times, or nothing, sometimes. For the sort of precision that 60MP probably deserves, you’ll need to use magnified live view.

Unlike some modern mirrorless cameras, the M EV1 doesn’t have anything like a subject recognition system, to let you punch-in on potential subjects, so you’ll have to tap on the screen or use the four-way controller to very slowly reposition the target point you want to zoom in on, though be careful not to tap the screen with your nose, if you’re left-eye dominant, because that’ll move your point, too.

Of course you could focus at the center and shift the camera, as you might with a rangefinder, but that would throw away any precision benefit that live view should have.

Leica M-Summicron 35mm F2 | F2.0 | 1/1250 sec | ISO 64 Processed with Adobe Camera Raw Photo: Richard Butler

I wrote, back when the M11 was launched, that the flexibility of live view and the added focusing precision it offered risked making the rangefinder and optical viewfinder seem redundant. My experience with the M EV1 so far suggests I was wrong.

I should make clear, I’m not a fan of shooting with manual focus lenses on modern cameras, full-stop. I find it slow and imprecise, and the focus tools are nothing like as simple and fast (albeit imprecise) as a split prism finder on an SLR or a rangefinder.

This job doesn’t allow me the leeway of being ‘there or thereabouts’ in terms of focus, and I just find the whole thing slow, frustrating and fiddly.

Leica M-Summicron 35mm F2 | F2.8 | 1/1160 sec | ISO 64 Photo: Richard Butler

Based on using the camera for a week, I can’t see the point in paying 91% of the cost of a Leica rangefinder, only to get something that isn’t a rangefinder and that’s no more elegant to shoot with than any other mirrorless camera trying to manual focus. Yes it’s beautifully made and it has a red dot, but I’m not sure you gain much over, say, a Sony a7CR, with which it shares a sensor.

After a few minutes of shooting with an M9, I understood why someone might buy a rangefinder. After a few days with the M-EV1, I’m at a loss to why anyone would buy this instead.

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