After 12 weeks, I finally realized I am forgetting the Leica EV1. This doesn’t mean I’m getting rid of it or putting it away. What this means is that I am now forgetting I am shooting with the EV1. It is starting to become just another Leica M digital camera. Here’s a recent outing to explain what I mean.
A Summicron
Another favorite lens of mine is the first Leica lens I ever owned - the Leica Summicron-M 35mm ASPH, now referred to as ‘version 1.’ This lens is compact, easy to focus, and works incredibly well with film. In fact, I often use this lens with a Leica MP or M7 and Kodak Tri-X 400. But this part of my journey is about the EV1
I was breaking in a newly acquired Summicron 35mm ASPH. It is a specific lens I have wanted for a long time, and I had an opportunity to acquire the special edition black paint 35mm lens. So, I mounted it on the EV1 and walked Main Street and the surrounding areas. I wanted to see if it was broken in and focused smoothly. I’m a user and not really a collector, so if I own it, I’m going to shoot photographs with it.
Back Alleys
I’ve been taking pictures around the downtown area of Rock Hill, South Carolina, for over a decade, and things change. Buildings come down, new ones go up, and old ones are restored. I have film images I’ve taken with the M3 all the way up to digital images with the Monochrom and other bodies. This venture was really no different. I take photographs that interest me and show what life is like at that moment. Many are off the beaten path, even though they are in the blocks surrounding Main Street.
These shots are mostly white painted buildings that used to be natural brick. I think of them as black and white, with splashes of real color here and there. I set the lens to f/4, f/5.6, and occasionally f/8. The Summicrons have great microcontrast at these middle f/stops, and this particular lens really draws light nicely at those f/stops.
More back alley images at various places with repainted white brick walls, -Leica EV1 and Summicron 35 ASPH, V1
I set the ISO to 100, which is no problem in the mid-morning. I saw various building scenes I wanted to capture because of light or color (or even lack of color), and I would look through the viewfinder as I focused with my left hand and adjusted the exposure with my right hand. Click and hold. There was the image. I’d review it for a second, lift up my shutter finger, and look for the next image or see if I could re-shoot where I was, but with a different viewpoint.
After walking and shooting images for about 20 minutes, I realized I was shooting photographs and not thinking so much about the EV1. I wasn’t asking myself if there was a better way to shoot; I was simply shooting.
It Just Takes Awhile
My conclusion here is that the Leica EV1 isn’t something you try for a day or even two. It takes a little while to get so comfortable you forget it’s an EVF. Honestly, the Leica SL did the same thing to me. I purchased the first Leica SL body when it was released. It wasn’t easy at first. I was missing exposures even though the EVF looked good. I couldn’t turn on focus peaking, and the autofocus was difficult to use. I had to learn the settings to allow back-button focusing so I could lock the focus where I wanted. I also had to learn which JPEG preview settings to turn off to get focus peaking to show up. It took much more than a day or two.
The EV1 is no different. This week, I hit a major milestone. I know there is much more to learn. I still have some specific lenses to test and a whole host of Leica R lenses I want to mount on the EV1. I’ve also been taking notes on my setup, and soon I’ll write about exactly how I use the custom profiles. Until then, if you are considering the EV1, you’ll likely need some time to figure it out before you can say you have forgotten you were using it! However, it will happen, just like learning a new foreign language. One day, you just forget that it is new, and it feels like you’ve known it all along.
