• Blog
  • Calculators
    • Camera Bitrate Converter | Record Time Calculator
    • Diffraction Calculator
    • DoF Calculator | Lens Equivalent
    • Shutter Speed to Shutter Angle Calculator
  • Memory Cards
    • SD Memory Card Benchmarks
    • CFx Type-B Memory Card Benchmarks
    • CFx Type-A Memory Card Benchmarks
    • Memory Cards For Canon Cameras
    • Memory Cards For Fujifilm Cameras
    • Memory Cards For Nikon Cameras
    • Memory Cards For Panasonic Cameras
    • Memory Cards For Sony
    • SD Cards For GoPro
  • Accessories
    • Canon
      • Canon R5 Accessories
      • Canon R6 Accessories
      • Canon EOS R
      • Canon RP
      • Canon M50 Accessories
      • Canon T7i / T6 / T6i / T6s
      • Canon SL3 / 250D
      • Canon M6 II
      • Canon M5
      • Canon G1X III
      • Canon G7X III
    • Nikon
      • Nikon Z9
      • Nikon Z6 II / Z7 II
      • Nikon Z6 / Z7
      • Nikon Z50
    • Fujifilm
      • Fujifilm X-H2s
      • Fujifilm X-H2
      • Fujifilm X-T5
      • Fujifilm X-T4
      • Fujifilm X-S10
      • Fujifilm X-Pro3
      • Fujifilm X-T3
      • Fujifilm X-H1
      • Fujifilm X-T200
      • Fujifilm X100V Accessories
      • Fujifilm X100F Accessories
      • Fujifilm X-E4
      • Fujifilm XT30 & XT20
    • Leica
      • Leica M11 Accessories
      • Leica Q2 Accessories
    • Panasonic
      • Panasonic GH5 / GH5s
      • Panasonic LX100 II
    • Ricoh
      • Ricoh GR III
    • Sigma
      • Sigma fp
    • Sony
      • Sony A1 Accessories
      • Sony A7IV Accessories
      • Sony A7c Accessories
      • Sony A7sIII
      • Sony A7rIV / A9II
      • Sony A9
      • Sony A7 III, A7r III Accessories
      • Sony A6600 Accessories
      • Sony A6100 Accessories
      • Sony A6000 Accessories
      • Sony RX1R II
      • Sony RX10 IV / RX10 III
      • Sony RX100 IV / RX100 V
    • Drones
      • Mavic 2 Pro
    • Camera Cleaning Gear
  • Lenses
    • Canon RF Lens List
    • Fujifilm G Lens List
    • Fujifilm XF Lens List
    • Leica / Panasonic / Sigma L Lens List
    • Leica M Lens List
    • Micro Four Thirds Lens List
    • Nikon Z Lens List
    • PL Mount Cine Lens List
    • Sony FF E Lens List
    • Sony APS-C E Lens List
  • Store
Alik Griffin
Alik Griffin
  • Blog
  • Calculators
    • Camera Bitrate Converter | Record Time Calculator
    • Diffraction Calculator
    • DoF Calculator | Lens Equivalent
    • Shutter Speed to Shutter Angle Calculator
  • Memory Cards
    • SD Memory Card Benchmarks
    • CFx Type-B Memory Card Benchmarks
    • CFx Type-A Memory Card Benchmarks
    • Memory Cards For Canon Cameras
    • Memory Cards For Fujifilm Cameras
    • Memory Cards For Nikon Cameras
    • Memory Cards For Panasonic Cameras
    • Memory Cards For Sony
    • SD Cards For GoPro
  • Accessories
    • Canon
      • Canon R5 Accessories
      • Canon R6 Accessories
      • Canon EOS R
      • Canon RP
      • Canon M50 Accessories
      • Canon T7i / T6 / T6i / T6s
      • Canon SL3 / 250D
      • Canon M6 II
      • Canon M5
      • Canon G1X III
      • Canon G7X III
    • Nikon
      • Nikon Z9
      • Nikon Z6 II / Z7 II
      • Nikon Z6 / Z7
      • Nikon Z50
    • Fujifilm
      • Fujifilm X-H2s
      • Fujifilm X-H2
      • Fujifilm X-T5
      • Fujifilm X-T4
      • Fujifilm X-S10
      • Fujifilm X-Pro3
      • Fujifilm X-T3
      • Fujifilm X-H1
      • Fujifilm X-T200
      • Fujifilm X100V Accessories
      • Fujifilm X100F Accessories
      • Fujifilm X-E4
      • Fujifilm XT30 & XT20
    • Leica
      • Leica M11 Accessories
      • Leica Q2 Accessories
    • Panasonic
      • Panasonic GH5 / GH5s
      • Panasonic LX100 II
    • Ricoh
      • Ricoh GR III
    • Sigma
      • Sigma fp
    • Sony
      • Sony A1 Accessories
      • Sony A7IV Accessories
      • Sony A7c Accessories
      • Sony A7sIII
      • Sony A7rIV / A9II
      • Sony A9
      • Sony A7 III, A7r III Accessories
      • Sony A6600 Accessories
      • Sony A6100 Accessories
      • Sony A6000 Accessories
      • Sony RX1R II
      • Sony RX10 IV / RX10 III
      • Sony RX100 IV / RX100 V
    • Drones
      • Mavic 2 Pro
    • Camera Cleaning Gear
  • Lenses
    • Canon RF Lens List
    • Fujifilm G Lens List
    • Fujifilm XF Lens List
    • Leica / Panasonic / Sigma L Lens List
    • Leica M Lens List
    • Micro Four Thirds Lens List
    • Nikon Z Lens List
    • PL Mount Cine Lens List
    • Sony FF E Lens List
    • Sony APS-C E Lens List
  • Store
  • Accessory Reviews
  • Blog
  • Reviews

Leica Visoflex 2 Review – Great Idea, But Fatally Flawed

  • AGriffin
  • May 7, 2023
  • No comments

The Leica Visoflex 2 is an electronic viewfinder that can serve as an alternative to the optical viewfinder on certain Leica cameras that was originally released with the Leica M11. This EVF is particularly useful for working with lenses that are challenging to use with the rangefinder design, such as ultra-wide-angle, fast telephoto lenses, and macro lenses, or adapted lenses that have no range finder coupling.

It offers a 3.7MP OLED panel (3,700,000-dot) and provides 100% frame coverage, with an adjustable diopter. The Visoflex 2 is constructed from durable aluminum and has an upward tilting design that can be positioned at 0°, 45°, and 90° angles to accommodate low-angle shooting.

I’ll start off by saying I really love the M11, even with all its shortcomings, and I really like this Visoflex 2 even though it’s not exactly what I want, so I say with love . . . Leica should recall this and issue an update and you shouldn’t buy it until they do.

Why?

They didn’t seal the diopter dial from the inner elements of the EVF, so it gets totally loaded with dust. Here is my EVF after only about 2-3 weeks of use, traveling around Tokyo and Japan with it almost permanently mounted to my camera – Yes, that dust is on the inside.

 

Visoflex 2 Dust

 

If you decided to buy this, You need to set the diopter dial and immediately cover it with tape.

 

Leica Visoflex 2 You Need Tape

 

Product Links

Leica Visoflex 2 – B&H

Camera Tap – B&H 1″ or 2cm is about what you need. I use cloth gaffers tape, not paper camera tape, but either will work fine for this job. Just don’t use electrical tape because it gets sticky. You’ll also want this to cover your rear control dial on your M11 since the black anodization will wear down very quickly.

Onto the review.

Leica Visoflex 2 Review

 

What I Like

First off, you need this little EVF if you like shooting with a digital view.

Shooting off the LCD is not practical since Leica has designed the LCD to overlap where your thumb grip is, but they don’t allow you to turn off the touch screen. So every time you punch in to focus off the LCD screen, the focus point starts at the top right of the screen.

By using the Visoflext 2, the LCD touch screen is disabled when the EVF is engaged so you don’t have this problem of your thumb accidentally adjusting the focus point.

You can set the EVF switching to be on Auto (which will switch from LCD to EVF depending on if it detects your eye near the EVF), EVF extended (which turns on and off as your eye approaches, leaving the LCD always off), or EVF mode which leaves the EVF on full time. To get the ability to switch between your different settings here, I’ve customized the back wheel button, so I can always easily toggle through the different settings. There should have been a button on the EVF but, oh well.

Also, the Visoflex 2 doesn’t seem to speed up or slow down the camera in any way. The camera still takes about 4-5 seconds, sometimes randomly longer to boot up or come out of auto power-off mode (which is pretty pathetic), and there is still that half-second delay (randomly sometimes longer) when pressing the shutter button (which is also pretty pathetic, just being honest).

I also absolutely love that this EVF tilts up 90 degrees, so you can shoot it like a medium-format film camera looking down into the camera from above. I am tall and this makes it much easier to shoot at lower angles when photographing kids or just people not as tall as me and this has been game-changing when trying to find better compositions. I no longer have to crouch down to try to use the OVF or force the camera to a low angle while desperately trying to nail focus off an LCD screen that I can’t even see straight on.

 

 

The Visoflex also functions with different angles. It will click and hold into three angles at 45 degrees, 90 degrees, or closed and it’s magnetically locked closed. Also, it fits on the Leica M11 very securely and will not slip or slide off without a lot of force, so you don’t have to worry about it popping off by accident.

Because of this one little accessory, the Leica M11 has become my favorite camera to shoot on, and it’s really cool.

But that doesn’t mean this accessory is good. The concept was great, but the execution was – well . . . obviously done by a third-party without a lot of supervision, and it is made in China, not Germany.

 

Leica Visoflex 2

 

What I Don’t Like

Like with all of Leica’s other accessories that came out for the M11, the concept, and draft of the Visoflex 2 was great, and there were some cool features in the designs, however, the execution was poor.

Here is where Leica went wrong.

For fast aperture telephoto lenses, 3,500,000-dot is not enough. It’s fine for general viewing on a traditional mirrorless camera that has autofocus, but it’s not for trying to nail f2 on a 75mm lens or f1.5 on a 50mm. At the minimum, it should have been a 5m-dot. By comparison, the Sony A7rV which uses a similar sensor is 9,437,184 Dot. Even the Leica SL2s is 5,760,000 Dot. So I’m not really sure what Leica was thinking here.

Here is the worst and most embarrassing part. The Diopter adjuster is not sealed from the internal lensing of the EVF. After only two weeks of traveling around Japan, there is an insane amount of dust inside my EVF. Maybe I just got some bad one, but I see others complaining about the same issue – Seriously, the thing pulls in more dust than a Voigtlander lens.

The Visoflex 2 dust issue is so bad. I’m shocked more people aren’t screaming about it on online reviews.

So here is what you need to do if you decide to get a Visoflex 2.

Once you set your diopter dial, cover the little dial with some tape to seal it off. Unfortunately, I switch between contacts and glasses a lot so I always have to re-adjust the diopter, but if you don’t switch around as I do, then just set it and seal it off.

 

What It Comes With

With the Visofelx two, you get a little carrying pouch and a small little rubber cover to protect the bottom.

 

 

Leica also sells a Leather Case for this little EVF as well which can be found here – B&H

 

Leica Visoflex 2 Review Bottom Line

 

 

The VisoDust 2 is a pretty cool little accessory and quite a significant upgrade from the original. The construction feels good, and it really expands the usability of the camera in ways just using the LCD wouldn’t and I really recommend every Leica shooter that uses ultra-wide lenses or fast telephoto lenses try one out.

However, it’s unfortunate Leica couldn’t have packed more resolution into this and didn’t think to seal it off from dust while charging $740 for it. Some tape fixes the problem, but then you have this really nice camera with tape on it.

 

Samples Taken With The Visolflex 2 on the Leica M11

 

Here are some samples with a few different lenses. The Zeiss 28mm, the Voigtlander 75mm and the Helios 44-2. It’s nice being able to get different angles that would other wise be very difficult, and it’s also great being able to shoot on old classics like the Helios 44-2.

 

ISo 125, f-, 1/350 – Voit75
ISO 64, f2, 1/400 – Voit75
ISO 64, f2, 1/440 – Voit75
ISO 800, f2.8, 1/160 – Zeiss28mm
ISO 500, f4, 1/160 – Zeiss 28mm
ISO 800, f2 1/160 – Helios 44-2
ISO 1250, f2, 1/160 – Helios 44-2
AGriffin

Professional editor, blogger and photographer from Los Angeles California.

Related Topics
  • Camera Accessories
  • Leica M11
You May Also Like
View Post
  • Blog
  • Lens Reviews
  • Reviews

Voigtlander Nokton 75mm f1.5 Review & Sample Photos

  • AGriffin
  • May 12, 2023
Zeiss Planar 50mm f2 on the Leica M11
View Post
  • Blog
  • Lens Reviews
  • Reviews

Zeiss Planar 50mm f2 Review & Sample Photos

  • AGriffin
  • April 19, 2023
New Lexar CFexpress Type B Cards
View Post
  • Accessory Reviews
  • Blog
  • Memory Cards
  • Reviews

Lexar 512GB Diamond & 2TB Gold CFxB Cards – Review

  • AGriffin
  • March 23, 2023

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Featured
  • Voigtlander Nokton 75mm f1.5 Review & Sample Photos
    • No comments
  • Zeiss Planar 50mm f2 on the Leica M11
    Zeiss Planar 50mm f2 Review & Sample Photos
    • No comments
  • New Lexar CFexpress Type B Cards
    Lexar 512GB Diamond & 2TB Gold CFxB Cards – Review
    • No comments
Memory Card Benchmarks
  • Best Memory Cards Nikon Z8
    Best Memory Cards Nikon Z8
    • No comments
  • New Lexar CFexpress Type B Cards
    Lexar 512GB Diamond & 2TB Gold CFxB Cards – Review
    • No comments
  • Best Memory Cards Canon R8
    Best Memory Cards Canon R8
    • No comments

Privacy Policy | Ethics Statement | Licensing

Copyright © Alik Griffin Inc. 2023

Input your search keywords and press Enter.

Manage Cookie Consent
We use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}