Re: Leica M11-V to be announced (Now called Leica M EV1)
I got my EV1 to do light carry and small lenses and it seems quite great for that. A good travel and outdoors kit. But one can not travel every day, so I am exploring what else. It is good with fast lenses like my noct 0.95. Since there is no rangefinder adaption opportunities abound. I posted the 180 mm Nikon lens on the V1 yesterday, this is a quite good 180 mm relatively small lens that can even take a 1.4X TC to give an even longer light carry lens/camera. For some uses, not intense animal photography having the option of 180 mm is good. Another option is to mate old SLR lenses and Nikon F mounts work just fine. There are some unique lenses out that there is no equivalent. For instance the Nikkor 35 mm 1.4 thorium lens was a go to in the 1970s for journalists. The advantage of thorium glass is rendition the warm vibrant colors and I like this lens in early morning and late day as well as fall light and colors. Being F it mounts to Z Nikons w/o issue but it can also mount to Leica M11 (EV1) shown... There are other Nikon or Nikkor lenses some collectors pieces like the 58 mm F1.2, others like the 28 F2 is still great glass. None of these are small, light so not in my original intent of a light carry kit, but it is another potential use being "freed" from the RF into a mirrorless there is no calibration. The M EV1 is just another option- I am not giving up my M4, my M4-2, or my MP and I am not giving up my M11P just as it with my Nikons, I use Z7s lighter and smaller, and Z8s much more capable as circumstances warrant. I intend to embrace the option and figure out all the different things I can do with M EV1 in addition to the light carry kit that was my starting point. I just got an adapter to try it on my Questar telescope (1400 mm)- not necessarily for astronomy but I may well spy on the woodpeckers I see on top of the Saguaro.
The pics that follow, Nikkor 35 mm 1.4 thorium lens, I have a great copy, CLA in Japan, and I cleared the lens to new glass status with UV. Seems fairly minty to me and I am using it in that spirit- to use the thorium render. This lens focuses to 0.3M so I can get in close. No one is ever going to make a thorium glass lens again, not even LLL went to replicating the Leica thorium 50 2 collapsible for example, they used Thorium's Lanthanum replacement and their Lak glass is indeed very nice.
Dec 21, 2025 at 02:33 PM
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