One camera has been the talk of the Leica world ever since its announcement in October 2025: the Leica M EV1.
This is the first Leica M-system camera to be equipped with an electronic viewfinder, rather than the traditional rangefinder. As such, it has caused a stir within the photographic community – both for and against!
• If you're sure you really want the Leica M EV1 then I highly recommend placing your order now and securing your spot in line. While I don't foresee this item being out of stock, I do expect extended shipping times to keep up with demand.
As Ecommerce Editor at Digital Camera World, it’s my job to track down the best deals and make sure our readers spend their hard-earned cash wisely.
To make things easier, I’ve rounded up the best retailers in the US and UK currently offering the Leica M EV1 on pre-order.
Where to buy the Leica M EV1
The Leica M EV1 is the first M camera to abandon the optical rangefinder and integrate an electronic viewfinder directly into the body, and that single decision defines the entire experience.
You’re still shooting a manual-focus M, with aperture rings and that signature rendering, but now you see exposure, white balance and depth of field exactly as the file will look.
The EVF is a high-resolution 5.76-million-dot OLED with focus peaking and punch-in magnification, which makes fast glass and tricky distances far more dependable than framelines ever could.
Under the skin, it’s essentially an M11-class camera. You get the 60MP full-frame BSI sensor with Triple Resolution (60 / 36 / 18MP DNG or JPEG), Leica’s Maestro III processing and support for Content Credentials – Leica’s image provenance system that writes a verifiable chain of authorship into your files.
There’s 64GB of internal storage alongside the SD card slot, so you’ve got a built-in safety net if you leave the card at home.
The body retains the familiar M11 silhouette and materials, but it trims a little weight; at around 484g, it’s lighter than a rangefinder M11 because the optical mechanism is no longer present.
Ergonomically, it feels like an M – minimal, metal and purposeful – just with a modern eye sensor that blanks the rear screen when you’re at the finder. If you already know your way around an M, nothing here will surprise you except how effortless wide-angles, close-focus adapters and telephotos become when you can compose without frameline guesswork.
What you don’t get is as telling as what you do: there’s no autofocus, no video mode and no tilt screen. Battery life is also very “M” in philosophy – rated in the low hundreds of frames – which encourages a more deliberate pace than spray-and-pray mirrorless bodies. The payoff is a camera that stays true to the M idea while removing the steepest learning curve for newcomers: trusting focus at fast apertures.
Price positions the EV1 as the most approachable current digital M you can buy new. In the US it launches at $8,995 and in the UK at £6,840, undercutting the Leica M11-P and M11-D while delivering a more familiar digital shooting flow for anyone arriving from modern mirrorless.
In short, it’s the M that keeps the discipline but swaps the window for a screen, making the M-mount’s charm easier to access without rewriting what makes it special.
You might also like...
See how the M EV1 stacks up against the best Leica cameras and the best rangefinder cameras – and don't forget to pair it with one of the best Leica M lenses.
