i snapped up at DPreview about the latest (rangefinderless) Leica M EV1 camera.

I tried

one (Leica M EV1) yesterday in the local Leica store. I confess it left me oddly cold even though I really wanted to like it. Its rationale, as the staff keenly tried to convince me, was that most M11 users would apparently prefer focusing using the rear display than using the rangefinder. Hence the EV. Their words, not mine, but 'excreta tauri', if you'll excuse the pigeon Latin.

There's no doubt it's beautifully built, just like any M series. It's also light, especially versus a silver M11, though much less so the black. But the honest truth is that the focus is clunky and flat compared to the preciseness and immediacy of a rangefinder. It's only marginally better than a Visoflex 2 on an M11P (due its resolution) - which I sometimes use for framing, but then almost always sideline in favour of the rangefinder for focus, even with my late fifties eyes.

Honestly, I wanted to like it. Maybe it will grow on me. But right now, GAS [Gear Acquisition syndrome] is not the pressing problem I expected.

* * *

Ditching the rangefinder

for an EVF is not a bad idea per se because rangefinders have their issues like limited FOV [Field of View], center only focus, and easy misalignment. This feels lazy because it's almost the same price as the rangefinder models and doesn't really give a better experience than the SL cameras, maybe except for the thinner filter stack.

If they're going full manual focus, they really should've added smarter focus tools. Focus peaking isn't that great since it just lights up edges with contrast, so it fails with soft vintage lenses or ultra-wides. Focus magnify is more accurate but too slow for anything unstaged.

Nikon's Zf absolutely nailed this with subject and eye detection for manual lenses. It shows grey boxes over eyes and turns them green when in focus. You can even zoom straight to the highlighted eye, which makes it super fast and accurate.

For a $9K camera in 2025 that's manual focus only, features like that shouldn't be optional. They should be mandatory.

* * *

When I bought my first Leica

the M4, I had 30 years experience in darkroom and commercial/personal photography. I had a grasp on previsualization, the storytelling of black and white and so on. The use of selective focusing and the use of DOF was a given.

Thirty years later, the luxury of M11 was the camera to wish for and I bought and used it for a few years. My aging need for glasses, missed focusing, and shortcomings, relative to current fully auto cameras, left me wanting. I bought a Q and was somewhat happy.

This new Leica I find appealing.

I'd set up the diopter correction, put the viewfinder in B&W, visualize and frame the shot in live mode, zoom in to confirm focus and done. It may not be the rangefinder experience but nailing focus was never the Leica trademark to begin with.

I think there is room in the lineup for this evolution to the Leica line.

All valid opinions vs concerns, i think.

Chris Niccolls with a balanced review of the Leica M EV1