Leica M EV1
These are my thoughts on the new Leica M EV1. The new gateway drug.
Just so we’re on the same page, the Leica M EV1 was released during the second-to-last week of October 2025. It was a long-awaited new camera release, with many people speculating that it would be an M11 variant, or even the M12. For the record, the M11 was announced in January of 2022, so the current generation is already three years “old.”
But what Leica introduced with the EV1 feels like a paradigm shift — not just another iteration. The traditional rangefinder is no longer. I think we all hoped for some kind of digital or hybrid rangefinder, but instead, the camera has a built-in EVF that doesn’t feel like an afterthought.
Mind you, I have not picked one up, but like all the other reviewers say, I’m sure it will feel familiar yet strange — like meeting an old friend who always wore glasses after they get LASIK, The weight and tactile clicks are all there, but the way one looks through it has changed. Seeing exposure, focus, and framing all in one window takes away the guesswork that used to be part of the charm. And yet… the experience still feels grounded. Maybe because the EV1 doesn’t try to be clever. It’s just honest.
I don’t think the EV1 is for people who have already adopted the digital M system. While the EV1’s EVF might have better resolution and be more compact than throwing the new Visoflex 2 on the hot shoe of an M10 or M11, I think it’s a little bit of a backtrack in the overall scheme of things. Throwing absolutely no shade on people that prefer it over an optical viewfinder and the traditional rangefinder focusing process, but it’s definitely something that’s missing.
It’s a marketing strategy as well. It’s been widely known that the Q series was the gateway drug into the M system. But the Q was almost too good to a fault, that for many people, there was no reason to jump to an M. Admittedly, I was one of these people who tried to convince myself that my Q2 Monochrom was more than enough… before buying an M-240 and now the M11. But now the gap has decreased even more, as I think the EV1 yet another gateway drug.
