ISSUE 125
48 / GEAR
TESTED: LEICA M EV1
60, 36 or 18 megapixels in either JPEG or DNG, so you can squeeze even more images onto a card. In tempo, the EV1 is still very much an M. Continuous shooting tops out at 4.5fps, with a 3GB buffer good enough for 15 DNGs or more than 100 JPEGs. That’s fine for street, travel, portrait and documentary moments but far less good for sport bursts or high-intensity action sequences. But that’s not why you go for a Leica M. Shutter options are a mechanical focal plane shutter for speeds up to
If you love the unique look of M lenses but have found the rangefinder limiting, the EV1 is aimed squarely at you. Or perhaps, like me, your eyes aren’t as good as they once were and the EV1 can transform your experience. I have to admit that, while I own a Leica M (Typ 240) and a couple of very lovely lenses, I rarely use them as modern mirrorless make it so much easier to get sharp shots, with lenses of any focal length. So, more often than not, my old rangefinder M stays at home. I still love it, though. The EV1 still offers the Leica experience but makes it easier and faster to get great shots. And as it costs £6840, which is cheaper than the £7900 M11, it’s the one I’d buy. As someone who has owned lots of Leica M models since the M6, right through to the M8 and M9 digital versions, I’m far from Leica’s target of newbies to the system. The heart of an M11 The EV1 uses a 60.3-megapixel, full- frame BSI CMOS sensor, paired with Leica’s Maestro III processor and no optical low-pass filter. Files are 14-bit, lossless compressed DNG files or JPEG. Or you can shoot both, maybe doing a mono JPEG for a traditional black & white reportage style but having a full- fat and full-colour DNG for hardcore post work. After all, it just feels right to shoot mono photos on a Leica. The EV1 has 64GB internal memory and single SD card support for UHS-II SDXC media up to 2TB. That built-in storage is a surprisingly practical safety net: you can keep shooting if you forget a card or use it as a quick overflow option. The camera also offers three different resolution settings in around
SIBLING STYLE The lack of a rangefinder window is one way to tell an EV1 from a conventional M
Just Leica rangefinder
SNAP HAPPY The EVF makes it faster and easier
to get candid shots in focus
£6840
leica-camera.com
Normal rules don’t apply to these legendary German cameras as the new M goes EVF
The M is not just a camera for Leica, it’s a philosophy: manual
focus peaking and magnification, takes its place. It still carries the official ‘M’ branding, of course, which stands for messsucher, the German word for rangefinder. Even though it now doesn’t have one. The EV1 is best understood as a rangefinderless M that keeps the system’s core strengths – high-end stills files, legendary lenses and a compact build – while also addressing the biggest barrier to entry, which is reliable focusing at wide apertures and with tricky focal lengths. Leica positions the EV1 as the easiest way to enter the M-System and specifically calls out how the EVF is perfect for achieving a shallow depth-of-field with fast Summilux or Noctilux lenses. Its also improves usability with ultra wides, telephotos and when shooting macro-style work.
focus, minimal automation and a more considered shooting experience. The new Leica M EV1, however, is a bold pivot away from that story because it’s the first M with an integrated electronic viewfinder instead of a rangefinder. It’s designed to help make M photography easier to access, more precise at focusing and more flexible with lenses that have traditionally been somewhat awkward to use. This isn’t Leica going mirrorless in the conventional sense, as M models have never had a mirror. The M EV1 remains an M-Mount, manual-focus stills camera, but abandons the iconic, optical rangefinder experience which involves focusing manually by viewing two superimposed images in the viewfinder. A more modern, through- the-lens EVF workflow, complete with
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