New Leica M EV1 with electronic viewfinder makes focusing and composing SO MUCH easier

Home / Latest / Latest news / New Leica M EV1 with electronic viewfinder makes focusing and composing SO MUCH easier

Leica is launching the Leica M EV1, the first of its M series cameras to include an electronic viewfinder (EVF).

The new camera is based on the Leica M11, but instead of an optical viewfinder and rangefinder, it has an electronic viewfinder that’s the same as the one in the Leica Q3. This 5.76m-dot EVF provides exceptional clarity and natural colour rendering, Leica claims. The EVF can also show relevant exposure data, such as shutter speed, ISO and exposure values.

The release of the Leica M EV1 makes sense, as it means you can use any kind of lens with the camera, as with a conventional mirrorless model – ultra-wide, macro, telephoto and so on.

With the current Leica M11’s optical viewfinder, you can’t frame a lens wider than 28mm, so you need an add-on viewfinder for wide-angle lenses. Also you can’t frame telephoto lenses accurately, as you end up with tiny framelines in the middle of the viewfinder. Getting perfect focus with large-aperture lenses can be a challenge, too. But with the M EV1, you see exactly what the lens is seeing.

‘Not only does (the Leica M EV1) make joining the world of M photography easier, but it also enables reliable and comfortable focusing irrespective of visual acuity,’ said Leica. ‘Particularly when using the fast Leica Summilux and Noctilux lenses at very shallow depths of field, and when composing images with ultra wide-angle, telephoto and macro lenses.’

With integrated dioptre compensation, the viewfinder can be adapted to suit your eyes. A setting wheel enables adjustment between -4 and +2 dioptres.

Easier focusing all round

The automatic switch between viewfinder and touch panel is carried out by an eye sensor, and there is an integrated focus assist, which is already found on other Leica cameras.

Focus peaking highlights the active plane of focus, and the focus zoom also makes manual focusing easier by means of two magnification factors – either automatically by turning the focus ring or manually via one of the function buttons.

This enables precise focusing, in particular when using fast lenses at a shallow depth of field and in the macro range, Leica claims.

In addition, the lever at the front of the camera, which is used in rangefinder M series cameras to preview bright-line frames, has been given a useful function on the Leica M EV1: this control can be assigned to one of the focus assists or the 1.3× or 1.8× digital zoom. With a touch to the right or left, the focus assist can be activated or deactivated quickly, depending your needs.