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Leica Q - Another perspective


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I now have a Q as well as an M, and I think that the Q really does add something the mix. The M suits those situations where I want to take my time and concentrate on the details before tripping the shutter. The Q works well when I need to work quickly and unobtrusively. The Q is easy to operate in both full auto mode, in full manual mode or anything in between; and the EVF is a joy to use. With 1 second review it is easy to see whether exposure is satisfactory, and the thumb wheel makes exposure adjustment quick and easy.

 

With the M I have only 50mm and 35mm lenses, but I have owned an enjoyed a Ricoh GRD in the past, and so I have found the 28mm focal length easy to get used to again.

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Hmmm. I find it interesting that several people quote speed as an advantage over an M. I don't want to be contrary, but I've owned several compacts from both Canon and Sony, and all of them were (for me) slower than an M.

 

Maybe that says more about my relative familiarity with rangefinders and/or my dislike of complex tools, but it's interesting. Is the Q faster/easier than the Canon or Sony products?

 

Sandy

Edited by sandymc
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Hmmm. I find it interesting that several people quote speed as an advantage over an M. I don't want to be contrary, but I've owned several compacts from both Canon and Sony, and all of them were (for me) slower than an M.

 

Maybe that says more about my relative familiarity with rangefinders and/or my dislike of complex tools, but it's interesting. Is the Q faster/easier than the Canon or Sony products?

 

Sandy

 

 

The Q is significantly faster than M240 in all areas.

Startup is nearly instantaneous 

buffer is twice as large

focus is faster manually (subjective) and of course AF is blazingly fast

It also has a continuous mode that shoots 10fps- not possible with M

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Sandy and Jaap: The Q is significantly different than any Sony or Oly or Panny I have used.   More intuitive. Simple controls and much faster if you are used to an M.  The EVF is better too.  Sure it is not an M.  No optical rangefinder.  One focal length.  Autofocus.  (But also easily focused manually). Did I need it?   No. I have a M240 and a M246.   But I wanted to see what it was like and it turned out to be a serious but fun camera to use (unlike those Sonys etc). I bought it because I wanted it, not because I needed it and I am very happy I did.  I traded my T system. The Q is vastly different to use than the T.  They may both be experiments but the Q succeeds for this M user.   If you read Thorsten's review you can get a better sense than I can convey.  

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Ditto.

More Leicas than I can shake a stick at .... don't need it but extremely glad I have it. 

As the Amateur Photographer reviewer found ..... use is uncomplicated and intuitive ..... and you find yourself switching everything to manual like it's bigger brother..... and finding surprisingly that it excels at that too....

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Hmmm. I find it interesting that several people quote speed as an advantage over an M. I don't want to be contrary, but I've owned several compacts from both Canon and Sony, and all of them were (for me) slower than an M.

 

Maybe that says more about my relative familiarity with rangefinders and/or my dislike of complex tools, but it's interesting. Is the Q faster/easier than the Canon or Sony products?

 

Sandy

I have used Pentax DSLRs and the Sony RX1. I find the M9 and the M faster than either of those. I find the Q significantly faster than the M. 

 

While the RX1 and the Q may appear similar on paper, actual use feels quite different - with the Sony leaning toward frustration (missed autofocus, tedious manual focus, EVF lag) and the Q toward delight (surprisingly responsive, fantastic AF, great interface, superb EVF, much improved focus peaking and magnification views). 

 

Until now I'd never imagined that an EVF could really replace an optical viewfinder. But the manual focus with the Q is actually faster and more accurate for me than the M. Quite a surprise. 

Edited by gotium
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Jaap - 

 

To answer your question earlier. 

 

The Q does things that the M can't. Whether this matters to you depends on what kind of photos you take. 

 

The Q is nearly silent - you can photograph sleeping dogs and children at close range. 

 

The EVF can show you blown highlights before you push the shutter. 

 

You can point the camera sideways, focus and shoot by touching the screen, when nobody is ready for you to take a photo. 

 

For me, manual focusing with the Q is faster than with the M. 

 

You can add exposure compensation in a fraction of a second and see the results in real time.

 

It is much lighter. 

 

It has a macro-like mode. 

 

This thing is so quick that my family has taken to running away when they see it in my hand. 

 

The M has the obvious edge with the OVF and a plethora of lenses. But I'd now rank the OVF as a romantic advantage rather than a practical one (again, a big surprise). 

Edited by gotium
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Signed up just to say well done John, from checking out your work I think you've earned that Q, some fantastic photos in your collection. I'm not actually sure your winning photo is amongst the best you've taken but some of the others are stunning. Enjoy the Q, I'm still saving for mine but not sure I will even come close to doing it justice!

 

 

John: was going to tell you how lucky you are, but figured I will not.. winning a photo contest doesn't have anything to do with luck. Well done, congrats!

 

Thank you for the kind words, really appreciate it! 

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  • 2 weeks later...

For perspective: I've been shooting with a Q for three weeks. I also own an M6 (film) with a handful of M-mount lenses, as well as a Sony A7S -- sold the A7 and A7R -- and an entire suite of full-frame Nikon gear, which is gathering dust. I have used the M240 as well, but never owner one.

 

I love the Q. Maybe more than any camera I've ever owned, although it has only been three weeks, after all. Still in the honeymoon phase, perhaps. I'm 95% a street photographer, and since owning the Q I've adopted a new way of shooting. Walking around, I have it set to auto-everything including ISO. That way I'm prepared for almost anything. The camera seems to prefer a wide aperture when possible, with which I'm happy. But if I see something that requires something more intentional, I can just dial in that setting, then go back to full-auto. For example, if I want deep DoF, I just dial in an aperture. Manual focus, just push the little button, focus, shoot and reset. There is no other camera that is as easy to use and delivers as great results as the Q. Even easier to shoot with than the Fuji X100T, which although I don't own, I do like very much. 

 

Why use the Q over other digital Leicas? Of course, focal length options are the huge difference. 35mm crop mode on the Q does NOT give the same look as a 35mm prime. The next most-significant difference is the option for autofocus. I fully expected to miss having a true rangefinder for manual focusing. That's perhaps my biggest and most-pleasant surprise. Focus peaking in the Q is the best I've ever used, as is the EVF. The camera is great for manual focusing. 

 

I used to use a 35mm Summicron on the M6 and A7S, so I'm still getting used to the Q's 28mm. But so far, so good.

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Just could not be happier to be back to enjoying Leica "glass" again!!!  When I returned from a trip to Israel and Jordan with roughly 1200 images of 3000 out of focus with my M9, I sought autofocus satisfaction from Nikon, Canon, Sony and Fuji...in that order. The Fuji XT-1 was my savior. And, then, the Q arrived. Nothing comes close to images I am getting and I am thrilled. And, if Leica makes a 50mm version, I bet I fall for it as well. Great machine for the sight challenged!!!

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MY REVIEW OF THE LEICA Q

 

 

CONCLUSION

This is going to come as a shock to many of you but: I LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT! I thought I would get this out first so you can stop reading if you chose.

 

This is the first digital Leica that has actually met and in some ways exceeded my expectations.  First, it is quick, second AF is really-really fast, the fastest I have measured beating out the Olympus EM5-II and several Panasonics.  That is saying something considering the size and resolution of the sensor.  The AF is very accurate with one of the lowest miss rates I have encountered and I have gone through a slew of cameras from Fuji, Sony, Olympus and Panasonic.  It is up with the best of them or better.

 

FIRMWARE

This camera has exhibited the best software out of the box of any Leica I have tried.  Fewer bugs is a good thing.  The flaws it has can mostly be remedied in firmware and that is the one area Leica is slow to remedy so it is a good thing that most of these are minor irritations and not deal breakers.  Leica needs to learn to listen better to their customers.  We have been clamoring for years for a smaller fast AF camera similar to the CL.  While it would be nice to have interchangeable lenses and more profitable to Leica in the long run, a good single focal length can suffice for many of us not using the camera in a professional setting.

 

ERGONOMICS

The ergonomics are the best of any camera I have handled with everything intuitive and following good photographic principals that are tried and true (aperture setting on the lens, shutter speed dial on the top plate, etc.).  The simplicity of operation is excellent though not perfect.  There are a few operations requiring diving into a menu that should be more readily available to be useful.  For example AF mode is buried in a menu and not assigned or assignable to a dedicated button.  Further, one cannot toggle a feature like touch focus to be on or off while still being able to use one point.  Logically touch AF is one point with the point selected by the user rather than the camera.  Therefore, it would make sense to enable or disable the touch screen as desired but not disable the shutter button from activating AF.  The same can be said for face detection.  In many systems you can activate or deactivate face detection separately from the other AF selections and the camera will use face detection if it can and if not revert to the other selection if the feature is activated.  The result of making these deeper menu items is that they get used less frequently.

 

The EVF is superb and works well in bright sunlight like we have here in Southern California.  The LCD is also very good and viewable even in fairly bright sunlight but I find the EVF so good that I use it much more.

 

IMAGE QUALITY

The image quality is simply outstanding with a crispness that is a Leica signature that I really love.  As good as the XV and T were, when I compare shots taken of the same subject under similar light conditions there really is no comparison.  While I don’t own an M240, from what I have seen the images are just as good in good light and better in low light.  I haven’t seen a camera that produces any better image.  Additionally, the dynamic range is very good and the files are very malleable in LR with both highlight recover and shadow recovery matching or beating any other camera I have tried including the Sony A7II.

 

NIGGLES & QUIBBLES

The following are minor things that could and should be addressed by Leica in a firmware update.  In my opinion, none of these are deal breakers but they would improve and enhance the operation of the camera.

 

1.     Provide a higher resolution JPG for image review so that at maximum magnification one does not obtain a poorer image than at the step one below maximum.

2.     Provide a means to scroll through multiple images at magnification without having to first reduce to standard view size.

3.     Allow for DNG only and an optional lossless compression.

4.     Allow assignment of the focus mode to a button

5.     Allow use of the video record button as an assignable function button.

6.     Adjustable EVF for brightness, contrast and color and add contrast and color adjustment to LCD.

7.     Ability to use LCD only for menu and playback functions.

8.     Use of touch panel for a quick menu like the T’s

All of these are minor and not deal breakers for me though they might be for others.  There are some issues with the histogram which is basically unusable but you can turn on blinkies and that is probably just as useful.

 

BOTTOM LINE

This is a great camera worthy of the Leica name and one I actually plan to keep for a while.  I am really enjoying using it and I like the results I am obtaining.  I highly recommend this camera to anyone that can live with a single lens at 28mm focal length.

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Hi John,

I think it is great that you finally found a Camera which fits you and which you enjoy without much/any hesistation. I would share many of your findings expect one: The IQ of the Q is excellent for sure, but in my comparisons I found the T very close in IQ, of course it is just 16MP so has lees room for cropping (but therefore I can use different focal length) or less room for big prints. And at 28mm the Q allows shallower DOF than the T at 28-equivalent focal length.

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CONCLUSION


This is going to come as a shock to many of you but: I LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT! I thought I would get this out first so you can stop reading if you chose.


 


I think I will have to lie down in a dark room and take some Valium  :huh:


 


Possibly not a coincidence that last night was a Blue Moon .......


Edited by thighslapper
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One simple way to keep the simplicity of the camera and eliminate menu diving would be to assign the FN button as a quick menu button that would contain 4-6 items that could be changed via touch screen.  No need to remember anything.

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"I highly recommend this camera to anyone that can live with a single lens at 28mm focal length." Definitely true.

 

Urgh! I'm really glad Leica has a winner (the more, the better), but, indeed, I can't live with a 28mm fixed lens. If it were 50mm or 35mm, we'd be in business. But, again, very cool to see so many folks really pleased with a new Leica +++

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