Leica M EV1 First Review - It's Bad

[StanM]

A Q in M clothes … sounds like a James Bond movie without all the hi tech goodies.
As much as I like Leica, this one will not make me abandon my beloved M Monochrom.
If I want a high mp camera with evf using Leica lenses then I use my Z7 with the TTartisan 6 bit adapter which at least gives me the green square focus confirmation although it’s also fooled by depth of field.

 

[shawn]

I think I'd prefer "inverted focus-peaking", if that makes sense. Leave the in-focus/edge-detected parts of the image as-is, but overlay subtle pixel shading or zebra lines on the unsharp parts of the image. That'd convey the same information without cluttering up the part of the frame where I'm most likely to be looking. Does any camera maker offer something like that?

Not this but another way around having info in the center is a magnified focus box (with or without peaking) in the corner of the screen. And show that for whatever focus point is selected in the viewfinder. XPro2 can do this with its OVF as well as a number of x100 models. Think some of Fuji XT models do this in a dual display mode too.

 

[Rogier]

Would be cool is Leica would create a rangefinder patch to confirm focus in de EV.

 

[bcostin]

Not this but another way around having info in the center is a magnified focus box (with or without peaking) in the corner of the screen. And show that for whatever focus point is selected in the viewfinder. XPro2 can do this with its OVF as well as a number of x100 models. Think some of Fuji XT models do this in a dual display mode too.

Cool. The Magic Lantern firmware add-on for some Canon cameras has a "Magic Zoom" feature that sounds similar to that. It does work really well, even just implemented in Live View on aging rear LCDs.

One of the cool things about EVFs should be their infinite customizability, especially now that most modern cameras have ridiculous image-processing horsepower just sitting there when you're shooting stills. IMHO, it should be just as easy to share and install EVF treatments, pseudo-rangefinder, magnification, peaking, etc. implementations and tweaks as it is to do film simulations or video LUTs. Instead manual focus aids often seem almost like an afterthought or a grudging concession. Free the EVF!

 

[Godfrey]

Cool. The Magic Lantern firmware add-on for some Canon cameras has a "Magic Zoom" feature that sounds similar to that. It does work really well, even just implemented in Live View on aging rear LCDs.

One of the cool things about EVFs should be their infinite customizability, especially now that most modern cameras have ridiculous image-processing horsepower just sitting there when you're shooting stills. IMHO, it should be just as easy to share and install EVF treatments, pseudo-rangefinder, magnification, peaking, etc. implementations and tweaks as it is to do film simulations or video LUTs. Instead manual focus aids often seem almost like an afterthought or a grudging concession. Free the EVF!

I think you overestimate the degrees of freedom that EVFs offer by a bit. And the power of in-camera image processing HP. 😉

I guess I'm the exception ... I like the fact that the new Leica EV1 has just the basics needed to function. I could do without the peaking as well, and just have a clean focus magnification implementation.

G

 

[Rob-F]

If Rangefinder Forum and the internet had been around when the M5 was launched I wonder what they would have said...

RFF wasn't around then, but I'm pretty sure it was Bill Pierce who gave us a talk in one of the St. Louis University lecture halls, in the late 1970's. He had his M5 with him. He apparently didn't like it; he offered to trade it for an M3, with anyone in the audience. There were no takers!

 

[Coldkennels]

RFF wasn't around then, but I'm pretty sure it was Bill Pierce who gave us a talk in one of the St. Louis University lecture halls, in the late 1970's. He had his M5 with him. He apparently didn't like it; he offered to trade it for an M3, with anyone in the audience. There were no takers!

That'd be a tough trade... but only because there's nothing else like the M3 viewfinder out there! Put an M3 viewfinder into an M5 (while keeping the meter readout somehow) and we can talk....

 

[pvdhaar]

Let's understand these focus aids properly:

• Focus peaking was invented for video work as it gives a telltale of the focus zone at working aperture, not the best plane of focus.

I didn't know.. Is there some more info on that? Would be interesting to look further into.

 

[Godfrey]

I didn't know.. Is there some more info on that? Would be interesting to look further into.

I don't know where to look it up. It's a detail i remember from discussions in the days when digital still cameras first started incorporating motion capture; it was a feature already available in digital video cameras of that time.

It's very handy in video work as it shows the zone of effective sharpness for capturing subjects in motion, and was only later deemed to be useful to a lesser degree in still photography.

G

 

[Archiver]

Aesthetically, I'm starting to come around to the no-viewfinder-look of the front, but it would be better if it had a black dot or no dot. The red dot in the middle seems a little jarring.

 

[tonybill]

Some preliminary thoughts on the M EV1 having had a couple of outings with it.

I am used to using a rangefinder on the M11, with previous experience with the M9 and M10R, and mostly have no great problem focusing with it, but as an ageing spectacles wearer I seem to struggle with viewing the framelines for composition. For that reason I normally use the Visoflex 2 on the M11 – typically I focus with the RF and compose with the VF.

However, I don’t like having a big ugly lump on top of such a beautiful camera, it doesn’t fit so easily in my bag, and sometimes it doesn’t reliably switch over from the screen to the VF.

Using the EVF on the M EV1 works quite well for me. I do understand those who say it’s not as quick as the RF. With the RF you just turn the lens until the two images align, and there is no ambiguity. With focus peaking you can’t be sure if you have reached “peak peaking” until you are past it, so there is a degree of iteration, making it slower. Most of my photography is static subjects, landscapes, architecture etc, so I can take my time and it’s not a problem. Nevertheless, some form of focus confirmation would be welcome in future. Sometimes I find it easier to turn the FP off. I’ve yet to try changing the FP sensitivity.

I always use the automatic magnification so it zooms in when I start focusing the lens.

Focusing on “messy” subjects like foliage at medium range is also easier than with the RF.

I also like to use some older or “character” lenses and it’s good to see through the lens when focusing, particularly when there is focus shift as with my favourite Zeiss C-Sonnar 50/1.5.

I’m not sure I see any massive improvement over the VF2 viewfinder image, but both work fine for me.

Ideally it would be great to have some sort of hybrid viewfinder in future models, but I’m not sure how feasible that would be in the available space envelope of the M bodies.

To those who say why not just use an SL with an adapter for M lenses, it’s a lot heavier and generally not as desirable as an M (for me at least).

Anyway I have now sold the VF2 and the M11 is on the market.

If I want the RF experience I still have my M9!

 

[agentlossing]

As much as I like Leica, this one will not make me abandon my beloved M Monochrom.

Indirectly related, but I'm having the same issue with the recently-announced Ricoh GRIV Monochrome, versus the Pentax K-3 III Monochrome which I love to shoot with. Despite the features which I love from the GR series, I feel pulled to the analogue-ness of composing and shooting through a legacy-tech pentaprism. There's a piece of magic which would just go away with being stuck to an LCD screen, especially for monochrome shooting.

 

[splitimageview]

Not anymore!

 

[chuckroast]

Not anymore!


View attachment 4880065

More specifically, the "M" in the name represents the German word for "rangefinder", Messsucher. Since this new digital abomination has no Messsucher, it's not allowed to call itself an M camera at all.

These cameras should be called kM Leicas as in kein Messsucher which means "no rangefinder".

You're welcome ;P

 

[Archiver]

On the other hand, Leica produced the rangefinderless MD in the 60s. They still classified it as a M, even without the rangefinder.

 

[Godfrey]

The 1960s MD model (which was sans rangefinder AND viewfinder) was not intended for general purpose use. It was intended as a camera to be used for scientific work: photomicrography (with microscopes and other close-up or medical imaging equipment) and astronomical photography (with telescopes), situations where the coupled rangefinder/viewfinder of the Leica M3/M2 of the time is irrelevant. The MD was essentially an M body minus any form of focusing tools or framing tools because the equipment it was intended to be used with would provide those capabilities. It was followed by two subsequent MD models, again intended for scientific and medical imaging use.

See Leica MD - doctors only please - Photoethnography.com's Classic Camera DB for some details.

G

 

[splitimageview]

Then there is the M1 which had a viewfinder but no RF. 😝

 

[sojournerphoto]

The 1960s MD model (which was sans rangefinder AND viewfinder) was not intended for general purpose use. It was intended as a camera to be used for scientific work: photomicrography (with microscopes and other close-up or medical imaging equipment) and astronomical photography (with telescopes), situations where the coupled rangefinder/viewfinder of the Leica M3/M2 of the time is irrelevant. The MD was essentially an M body minus any form of focusing tools or framing tools because the equipment it was intended to be used with would provide those capabilities. It was followed by two subsequent MD models, again intended for scientific and medical imaging use.

See Leica MD - doctors only please - Photoethnography.com's Classic Camera DB for some details.

G

Messucher Delete