A major change and investment, as I've made the switch to the new M - EV1.   I love the M cameras and the process of using a rangefinder but with my ageing eyes I was missing the focussing a little too often. Leica launched the M - EV1 late last year. The camera body is based on the M system enabling all of the M lenses to be used but replaced the rangefinder system with the EVF from the Q3. Whilst this move has proved controversial with die-hard M users, for people like me it works. Also the major benefit is that whereas the rangefinder only provided frame lines for lenses with 28 - 75mm focal lengths, the EVF now shows exactly what you see whatever lens is fitted, from extreme wide angle to telephoto and macro.  Focussing aids such as a magnifier and focus peaking replace the focussing patch of the rangefinder.  I've already been been able to use an old Olympus zoom lens with an adaptor so the system is now not only easier for me but also more flexible allowing for even more exciting photographic challenges. 

So back in December I added a 'nifty fifty' to my lens line-up as it has some advantages for street photography.  However in the last couple of months I have been using just my 35mm and 75 mm which again I only use occasionally.  I also acquired a Q2 which has a fixed 28mm lens, so if I take that as well I have a good combination of auto-focus and manual focus shooting and a range from 28-75mm. So the question is, should I sell my 50mm and 25mm?   Food for thought!  

So three months into my rangefinder system and I'm generally loving the fact that I'm now more considered with subjects albeit taking a little longer to capture the image.  Having no auto-focus, it certainly is more of a challenge using zone focussing particularly for street photography, so I am missing some shots, but that is of course part of the fun.  Candid and street portraits are the trickiest as generally you only have a moment to take the shot and nailing the focus point (usually the eyes) is difficult when using a wide aperture and a 75mm lens; still, practice hopefully will make perfect!

I wasn't sure if I would buy a 50mm lens as I initially only wanted a three lens set up and  the combination of a wide lens for landscapes - 25mm, a semi- wide for street photography - 35mm and a short telephoto for portrait and candid - 75mm seemed a useful combination.  However, I decided to 'bite the bullet' and add a 50mm to my set up.  The fact that most Leica M-fitting lenses are tiny compared to their DSLR or Mirrorless counterparts means that all of my gear can be carried in a relatively compact bag.   Like the 25mm lens, the 50mm is a Zeiss lens, a Planar F2 providing excellent sharpness and contrast at a more affordable price than the Leica Summicron equivalent.  I'm finding it an extremely good companion to my 35mm for street photography, in fact, a very 'nifty fifty'.

I've enjoyed capturing motorsport images in recent years and it certainly helped when my camera had fast image capture, focus tracking and subject recognition, as rarely would I not get the subject in focus.  Using a rangefinder has certainly proved to be a much greater challenge, particularly when panning, as trying to manually focus at the same time is almost impossible, so zone and pre-focussing is necessary.    At my recent photoshoot of the Wyedean rally, for some shots I decided to introduce elements such as foliage and signage to compliment the rally cars.

The third lens in my Triumvirate is a 75 mm f2.5 Summarit telephoto.   Whilst at the shorter end of the telephoto focal length spectrum, the reason for choosing this was as follows.   Firstly, focusing with a rangefinder becomes more difficult the longer the focal length, particularly once you get beyond 90mm.  Secondly, I wanted as compact a lens as possible to minimise both bulk and weight, and thirdly, because in my view, 75mm is just about usable for street photography in terms of not being too conspicuous.  Finally it is an ideal focal length for portraits, and I'm hoping to try some portrait images in due course.  Below are some of the first pictures captured with this lens.

My previous 'go-to' camera setup consisted of a mirrorless Sony body plus 24-70mm zoom lens. I found for most of my work this focal range covered pretty much everything.  As Leica don't produce zoom lenses for the 'M', in order to replicate that range I have opted for three prime lenses, a 25mm Zeiss and 35mm and 75mm Leica lenses; this becomes my lens Triumvirate!

Apart from the physical size (the Sony front-to back was over twice the length of my Leica when fitted with the 75mm), the weight saving is also significant, as with the Sony I was shooting with a weight of over 1400 grams, whilst the maximum weight with the Leica is between 920 and 985 grams, up to 35% less!

​Obviously with a zoom, the active focal length is throughout the whole of that range, however the inconvenience of now having to change lenses is for me compensated by having less bulk to carry around, plus one of my other key reasons for switching back to a rangefinder is the fact that I now  have to be more considered when choosing which lens to use.   This of course won't suit everyone, particularly if you're photographing wildlife, weddings or motorsport for example, although 'back in the day', most of these genre's were successfully photographed with rangefinder cameras! 

When using a rangefinder camera, focussing is usually achieved by aligning a 'ghost image' overlaid on the subject image when composing through the viewfinder; this is my preferred method of shooting. However, focussing can be tricky in low light and when using a wide aperture (f5.6 or wider).  There is also the option to use the EVF LCD screen with 'Live View' which utilises an effect called 'focus peaking'. FP creates an illuminated fringe around an object in focus.  

The two images above which are a large crop of the original, were taken using both methods.  On the left, the image was focussed using the rangefinder, and the image on the right using Live View and focus peaking.   The aperture being used was f2.5 and f3.4 respectively and FP certainly made focussing on this berry much easier.   So you may ask,"why not using Live View and FP all the time?'  I prefer composing using the viewfinder in the traditional way as I find it more comfortable and better for keeping the camera steady.  Using the LCD can be useful at times but can also suffer from glare in certain situations making it difficult to view.  So both methods have their pro's and con's, and are there to be used accordingly.  

My camera can identify the lens in use and provide useful EXIF data such as settings for the exposure and the version of the lens used; to enable this the lens needs to be coded (called 6-bit), only one of my lenses is coded.  If the lens isn't coded you can use a manual setting to detect the lens and match it to an equivalent coded lens.  The detection is via a sensor window on the camera lens mount which picks up the code from the lens mount and sets the camera accordingly.  I couldn't set my non-coded lens to a manual setting because the menu option was 'greyed out', and couldn't fathom it out!  After conversations with friends who have similar cameras, it was simply because the sensor and lens mount needed cleaning. Two minutes of cleaning later and the camera sensor now recognises my non-coded lens and sets equivalent EXIF information; code cracked!