At a conservative estimate, our editor Mike Evans has written over seven million words for Macfilos in 5,000 articles over the past 18 years. In quantity, if not quality (Mike would say), this is a staggering example of dedication. It’s ten times more words than the Bible, eight times more than Shakespeare, 1.6 times more than Charles Dickens. The only individual I can find who has been more prolific is the British author Charles Hamilton, with his reputed 100 million, including the Billy Bunter series under the pseudonym of Frank Richards. Good luck to him, says Mike.
Regular readers will know that Mike started the blog in 2008 following his new-found enthusiasm for all things Apple. After retirement, he eventually waved goodbye to Windows and became an Apple evangelist. In early 2005 a friend pointed out that the new Apple Mini was available for £250 and could be returned within 14 days for a full refund for any reason. It was worth a punt, he thought, and the mini was soon rigged up to an established keyboard, mouse, and monitor.
Order of the Boot
Two weeks later, far from returning the Mac mini, Mike was back in London’s Regent Street Apple Store to add a 15in PowerBook laptop to his Apple orchard. Instead, it was the Dell Windows computer that got the Order of the Boot. Life after Windows began and continues still.
At the time, in the mid-Naughties, Apple was still a nerdy company, with a prolific following of compulsive commentators who radiated enthusiasm. It was perfect fodder for Mike’s blog as the Apple world expanded, first to the iPhone, then to the iPad. But while remaining true to Apple, Mike’s enthusiasm began to be tempered by the increasing popularity of the brand. It was no longer such fun to write exclusively about Apple, iPhones, and Macs.
Apple had ceased to be the preserve of the small-time enthusiast commentator. It had gone mainstream, and Mike’s attention drifted back towards photography, a subject that had been a lifelong passion.
Enter Leica
After dallying with Nikon and Fujifilm in the early years of digital photography, Mike had rediscovered Leica with the M8 and M9, not to mention the little X1. Here was a brand that had the same enthusiast following as Apple in its early days. He had owned Leica film cameras from the 1970s and 1980s, but the advent of the digital cameras brought renewed focus on the brand.
Macfilos started to cover Leica in detail, and Apple gradually fell from the tree. The name, Macfilos, was a problem, according to Mike: “I would have liked to choose a new domain, but I got cold feet, mainly because I wasn’t sure at the time how to change without losing all the previous content”.
We were then using the now-defunct Typepad as a blogging system, and later moved to Squarespace. But the blogging game was new to Mike, and he decided to take the easy route of continuing to use macfilos.com, despite the drastic change of direction. Now, as he says, it doesn’t really matter because it’s just a name that is now indelibly linked to photography in general and Leica in particular.
Respected voice
Since those early years, Macfilos has become a respected voice in the Leica and general photography world, and readership has grown steadily. We successfully transitioned from Squarespace to WordPress in 2019 and this has created more flexibility and freedom in design. About six years ago, though, it became obvious to Mike that he couldn’t keep up the one-man-band operation. The drums, cymbals, and mouth organ were almost on their last notes. Fortunately, help was at hand.
First, Jörg-Peter Rau, a professional journalist and Leica enthusiast from southern Germany, joined the team of volunteers. He brought technical knowledge that was lacking, and his big achievement has been the incredibly detailed series of M Files articles — 29 in all so far, and all reviewing lenses and products made for the Leica M system by third-party companies.
The US contingent
Then came Keith James in San Diego, who has contributed many fascinating articles, superb photographs, and an ability to explore new pastures in photography, including his latest passion, anamorphic lenses. Still, despite the three-strong team, the workload continued to increase.
Jon Cheffings in Chicago joined in 2024 and has since developed a style of his own. Jon had been a longtime follower and commenter on Macfilos under the pseudonym “Le Chef”. Mike liked the cut of his jib and one day wrote to see if he would be interested in becoming part of the team.
Jon is always the first to offer assistance with handling a news story or product release when others are lukewarm. And he has created many thoughtful articles and superb photographs over the past couple of years. He was instrumental in devising and coordinating the successful Leica 100 campaign, which continued through much of 2025.
Incidentally, coincidentally and certainly not by design, both Jon and Keith are ex-pat Brits living permanently in the USA. They can therefore well cope with our quirky insistence on British spelling and phraseology.
Bicycle for the mind
All team members work for the love of the blog. Mike admits that he spends far too much time on the computer, writing, editing and managing the business. He even finds some time for travel and photography. But all work with no reward, apart from the satisfaction of a job well done and the interest that keeps all our minds busy. Jörg-Peter is the only one who is gainfully employed; the rest of us use Macfilos as a bicycle for the retired mind, to paraphrase Steve Jobs. Which brings us full circle, back to Apple.
I am the latest addition to the team. I came on board in 2024 after hearing Mike had some issues with the hosting company. You don’t see many articles from me, but I am working constantly behind the scenes as webmaster to keep the system up and running. As the site continues to grow, we have had more than our fair share of hiccups and storage problems over the past year to keep me busy. In my retirement, I also look after several other websites, including that of the UK-based Leica Society. That’s why you will sometimes see a degree of cross-pollination.
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