Re: Leica M11-V to be announced (Now called Leica M EV1)
Steve Spencer wrote: old-gregg wrote: tzhang4284 wrote:
Not sure why anyone expected this to be more than a M11 without a rangefinder window - the rumors on this has been consistent for a while.
Because when looking at Canon's and Nikon's manual focus assist implementations, we probably have assumed that Leica, being the stallward guardian of the manual focusing experience, will release something even more advanced. If you follow Leicarumors site, you probably have seen various mockups of what that could have been.
Instead, they released the laziest MF assist implementation imaginable: a magnifier+edge highlighting. This turns the EV1 into, literally, the worst focusing camera in the world. It doesn't autofocus, and its manual focus is of the most basic type.
The problem with adding Nikon/Canon type focus assist is that you need a sensor with phase detect sites on the sensor and the M11 sensor doesn't have phase detect, so they would have had to use a different sensor for this camera. They obviously decided not to do that and I suspect they won't in the future either.
I further think that if you really like that type of focus assist, that you will also really like auto focus (AF). This camera is for a different type of shooter. One who is willing to manual focus and shoot more slowly. Despite the lack of focus assist the camera will still work very well with still or slow moving subjects. Focus assist might help with things moving a little faster, but once you are shooting such things, AF is a huge help and there is great AF for such subjects these days.
The camera will still be pretty unique in being this small and having such a large and likely very nice looking EVF, and of course you can use it with all those M lenses out there without any concerns whatsoever. I think it will find an audience. Not a huge audience, but I think it will sell reasonably well.
And yet Benj, a VERY experienced M shooter, says straight up that he can focus faster with range patch than the AF of the EV1.
His complaints about the old processor and start up time/lag is crazy to me for a luxury product when my $1000 Nikon turns on instantly.
Oct 23, 2025 at 11:44 AM
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