> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://journey.davidknoble.life/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # EV1 Focusing - Finding the Secret Sauce - URL: https://journey.davidknoble.life/ev1-focusing-finding-the-secret-sauce/ - Published: 2026-08-08T12:06:10.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-08T16:39:10.000Z - Description: Now it is easy again! Settings that made taking a photograph with the EV1 so simple and efficient, I turn the lens, adjust the exposure, and press the shutter. - Author: David Knoble - Tags: 4. In Practice, Leica M EV(1) I went on a quest. I went looking for the secret sauce that would make using the EVF so simple and intuitive that I could forget it was there and just take images. I scoured the internet for reviews and other’s take on focusing with the new electronic viewfinder on the EV1\. I heard many with poor eyesight talk about the glories of the EVF, and many others talk about how hard it is to focus compared to the rangefinder. So I experimented like I would with cooking dinner. I tried different methods until I landed on the secret sauce. This is a longer entry, but I cover all the focus methods, so it’s worth the read; I promise! ## First the Focusing The same as the Visoflex and the Leica SL EVF, there appears to be three ways to focus looking through the camera. This ignores zone focusing with only the lens, but anyone that can do that on a rangefinder, can do it with and Leica M. These three methods are: 1. No assistance, just viewing the image until it looks sharp and in focus. 2. Focus peaking using color to outline the areas in focus. 3. Zooming in to see things up close. ### No Assistance I want to be complete and look at everything. Truth be told, just looking through the viewfinder and focusing until the image looks sharp just doesn’t work. The hit rate is terrible and that makes sense. The EVF is 5.76 million pixels. That seems like a lot, and it is for a viewfinder. However, compare that to 64 million pixels on the sensor, which is 11 times greater than the EVF! That means for every pixel seen in the EVF that looks like it is in focus, there are 11 pixels in the image. That kind of resolution to focus by sight is physically impossible to get right even most of the time. Unless, that is, producing 5.76 mp images is the goal! Some kind of in-camera assistance is needed to show true focus. This is also true with the Leica SL (remember I don’t have the Leica Q, but I assume this is true for that EVF as well). ### Focus Peaking Focus peaking has been used by Leica in EVF’s since the Visoflex Typ 020 was released in 2014 with a 2.4 million pixel display. The concept is really pretty simple. Pick a color and highlight the high contrast edges in the EVF’s display read directly from the data in the sensor. By turning the focus on a lens, the contrast changes and blurry images don’t have high contrast edges. In reality, the feed back is very fast and one can easily see the color start to outline the main subject or other areas that are likely in focus. I have used the color red when I turn on focus peaking in all my cameras because I take a lot of landscape images that have greens and blues. Red just shows up well. When stopping down, the increased depth of field causes more high contrast edges. This shows up as more color outlines on those edges in the EVF. So, slim depth of field or deep depth of field and the EVF makes visualizing the focus plane pretty simple, right? Not so fast. Remember the conversion of 1 EVF pixel to 11 image pixels from the sensor? That has not changed. Focus peaking might show up, but represent different pixels in the final image. Two things happen with focus peaking. First, bright lights on textures improve high contrast edges even when they are out of focus and soft light doesn’t always show the texture even if it is in focus. Second, if the main subject is all covered in colored lines of various thickness, how can one figure out what the subject is doing? David Farkas of the Leica Store Miami said it well on their you-tube channel, Red Dot Forum - Camera Talk, when [reviewing the EV1.](https://journey.davidknoble.life/leica-m-ev1-resources/) > If I am taking a portrait and I want the eyes in focus, then the focus peaking covers up the face and the eyes. How can I tell if they are open or closed? What is their expression? Focus peaking gets in the way of the main part of my image. I agree and while I used focus peaking longer than trying with no assistance, I quickly stopped. The hit rate with focus peaking is not terrible, but not great either. Furthermore, if I am taking a group of images in the same light of the same subject, if the focus peaking fails me, it will fail me for all of the images. That kind of blind luck is not what I want in my photography. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/28/88/28888718-3151-40e0-92e4-bf1a38db79a2/content/images/2026/08/EV1-Journey-L10000093-1.jpg) Using the Leica MATE 28-50-35 at the 28mm focal length and f/5.6, distortion not corrected - **using automatic focus zooming, this is the view in the EVF* ### Focus Zooming Leica calls this the “enlargement function.” In principle, the focus zooming provides a zoomed in view of the subject as a focus aid. Using the full resolution of the sensor data, the zoom is available in two zoom factors. The advantage of this concept is that the 1 EVF pixel covering 11 sensor pixels can be reduced. Because Leica does not publish the actual zoom amounts, we don’t know how much it is reduced. However, I can attest that the highest zoom factor is pretty close to 1:1 pixel and certainly removes the conversion risk of missing focus. Of course, like many technologies, it isn’t quite that simple. It is true, that of all the focus methods with the EVF, focus zooming gets me the highest hit rate for focusing all manner of lenses I’ve tried to date. However, it also seems like the slowest of the three. The challenge, then, is to make using this process so efficient that using it becomes second nature and stays out of the way when making images. Here is a way to do exactly that. ### Standard Focus Zooming - Too Slow The standard setup method is to use a function button on the camera to enter the focus zooming. Then, another function button will change The zoom factor between full screen, zoom level 1 and zoom level 2 - in an infinite loop. While in that zoom factor, first one has use the four-way button to move the view around in the zoomed image to find the subject. Then, one then focuses the lens and sees, real time, the crispness of focused images or the blur of bokeh. Finally, the shutter is pressed either half-way to get back to the full view while waiting for the right composition, or pressed all the way to just take the image. That whole process comes out to either 5 or 6 steps before taking the photograph depending on a half-pressed or fully-pressed shutter at the end. Worse, if the subject moves, the entire process must be completed again. I guess if you are taking landscape or macro images, that all might be ok. But, for all other photography types that seems way too slow. In my mind, the biggest problem to solve was all the button pushing. Ultimately, I was able to reduce this down to 2 or 3 steps, depending on your shutter push. ### Zoom Focusing the Fast Way It turns out Leica provided a method of focus zooming similar to the SL system. The SL lenses all have electronic contacts and the camer knows when you turn the manual focus ring. Unlike the Leica S medium format lenses, the SL lenses are focus-by-wire which is a fancy term for the focus wheel is not mechanical. Instead, it turns in either direction with no stop, sending an electronic signal to the camera. The SL will automatically zoom into the image when the manual focus is turned, allowing for critical manual focus. So, how did Leica accomplish this in the EV1? There is a little cam at the top of the lens mount opening - just like the one found on the rangefinder Leica M’s! It turns out this cam, or wheel, is an electronic switch. Because the Leica M lenses have no electronics, the EV1 needs a way to know that the lens focus is underway. The rangefinder coupling on the back of all Leica M lenses moves the cam inside the camera. Now the EV1 knows when one is focusing a Leica M lens! There is a menu item that turns on this notification. 💡 Select the menu item: Capture Assistants > then Focus Aid and set it to Automatic. Then turning a Leica M lens to focus automatically shows the zoomed view. When set to ”automatic” grand things happen. When the focus ring on a Leica M lens begins to turn, the EVF automatically zooms in and focus is shown real-time. This is exactly what happened in the “slow method,” except no function button had to be pressed! The last zoom factor is also saved, so whether using the partially zoomed factor or fully zoomed factor, it automatically starts there. Turning the thumb wheel changes the zoom factor. I have been using the automatic focus zooming for the better part of 3 weeks. In practical terms it just works. As I lift the camera to my eye, I turn the focus wheel so that when I look through the EVF, I’m already in the focus process. ### The Focus Point The other issue to solve was the panning of the focus point to find the subject. For all but the thinnest depths of field, I pan the camera to center the subject I want to focus on. After focusing in the fully zoomed factor, I tap the shutter to go back to the full image taking the photograph when I’m ready. If the subject is static, I just press the shutter all the way to take the image. If the subject moves, I simply turn the focus wheel and tap the shutter again. This automatic zoom process effectively takes the entire focusing process down to 2 or 3 steps for a final image. If the depth of field is really shallow, like when using a summilux, noctilux, or a long lens, I will use the four-way button to move the focus view around. Since the focus view is saved, the next time I focus, it goes to the same spot off-center. This is a double edged sword. If I am taking multiple images of the same subject and framing, I can check and re-check focus without doing anything extra - very efficient! However, if I change framing or the entire subject, I might not even know what part of the image I am looking at zoomed in! The fix is using a custom button. I set the top custom button beside the shutter button to re-center the focus view. Then, I can simply press that button as I start to focus and the view is centered again. To do this, press and hold the top function button until a menu appears (or any other button you choose). Scroll down and select the menu item “center view.” That’s it! 💡 Press the top function button next to the shutter release, and hold it until a menu appears. Then scroll down and select “center view.” Pressing that button now recenters the zoomed view no matter where it is currently positioned. I have found this is the absolutely least invasive way to focus using the EVF. In reality, most of the time I don’t even press a button to focus and shoot an image, and my hit rate is close to 100%. In fact, my hit rate so far is about the same as with my digital rangefinder M bodies. ### Improvements to the Firmware > I do wish Leica would implement another custom menu item for the frame-selector lever on the front of the camera. Currently, selections are one of three items: focus peaking, focus enlarging (which we set to automatic) and crop factor (taking a photograph with less than the full frame). A fourth item might be helpful to some, and that is “focus zoom level.” Then, the lever could be used to change the zoom level from full-frame to both of the other zoom levels and back again.