The One Leica M That Drops the Rangefinder Entirely

The Leica M lineup split into two camps you can hold side by side, and one of them ditches the optical rangefinder that has defined the M for seventy years. The Leica M EV1 trades the mechanical viewfinder for a built-in EVF, and it now sits as the entry point into the M11 generation after Leica discontinued the standard M11.

Take Kayo of bigheadtaco ran the M EV1 as his daily carry for close to two months, taking it on vacation and temporarily shelving the Leica M11-D he calls his favorite of the series. He frames the M EV1 and the M11-D as opposite ends of the digital M experience. One gives you speed and anticipation through the rangefinder, letting you see outside the frame lines and catch the moment. The other gives you precision, showing you exactly what a lens will render before you press the shutter. He shot the M EV1 mostly with his Leica 21mm Super Angulon, a lens he calls the king of vignette, and the EVF let him place flare, foliage, and blue sky exactly where he wanted at f/4 and f/8 without ever touching an LCD.

The EVF earns its place with wide angle and character glass. With a 21mm on an optical M, you either squint through an accessory finder or bolt on the external EVF, which he describes as chunky and ugly enough that he never mounted it during a nine-month loan of the M11P. The M EV1 solves that natively. He can frame a 21mm edge to edge, focus down to the 0.4 m close-focus distance of the newer M lenses, and even use third-party glass like Voigtlander optics that focus closer still. Review, playback, punch-in, and menu changes all happen through the finder, so at a dark concert you never lift your face and spill ambient light onto the people next to you. That's the payoff for the shooters who need to see vignette, bokeh, and vintage flare in real time.

His buying advice runs on a clear ladder. Start with a film M to find out whether you even like the rangefinder, whether that's an Leica M4, an M6, or his beloved M7. Move to a standard digital M with an optical finder and a screen, where he points toward the Leica M10-R with its 40-megapixel sensor. The M EV1, in his view, is a third M, a more playful and niche pick for someone who already owns film and digital bodies and wants an EVF without the ugly attachment. He's blunt that this should not be a first Leica. For that, he'd steer you toward the Leica Q as a gateway before you spend M money.

There's a broader shift worth connecting here, and it explains why Leica built this camera at all. Vintage and character lenses have become a genre of their own, from the reissued collapsible Elmar to boutique makers like Light Lens Lab reviving old formulas. An optical rangefinder can't show you what those lenses actually do, since you're looking through a separate window, not the glass. An EVF puts the lens's flaws front and center in the moment you compose, which is the entire point of shooting a swirly-bokeh 50 or a heavily vignetting 21 from the 1950s. If you collect glass for its fingerprint rather than its clinical sharpness, a native electronic finder changes how much of that fingerprint you can control at capture instead of discovering in Lightroom later. It also opens up focal lengths like 40mm that never got their own frame lines on an optical M, so a 40mm Rokkor finally frames accurately.

He's honest that the M11-D pulls him back for the pure joy of shooting, comparing it to a 911 convertible where you just shoot and stay in flow without chimping. The M EV1 is the precision tool, and he's clear it isn't for everyone. Watch the video above to see how each camera handled his 21mm Super Angulon and where he lands on which M belongs in your bag.