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Complementary travel camera along with the Q


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I am in the process of looking for a complimentary camera with the Leica Q, when I travel. Right now my focus is on the Leica D-Lux (type 109). Opinions appreciated.  I am strongly thinking about  selling my Nikon SLR system because it no longer fits my needs. Technological innovation is producing viable options that are high quality, smaller, and lighter.  

 

Will you only take the Q with you while traveling, or have a complimentary camera with the Leica Q? Thank you. 

 

 

I guess day travel does not count. For that, I do not hesitate to bring just the Q. Beginning of the year I took (again) the plunge into the m43 pool with an E-M1 and some lenses. I found the combination of the Q alongside with the m43 system fantastic. The Q helps with better low ISO capabilities, the E-M1 brings lens options to the table. So - the Q and the E-M1 with a 25 and a 75 are really really good. All with blazingly fast auto focus, and small enough. If you take the E-M10 II with a 1.7/20 and a 1.8/45, it almost fits in one hand and the kit is affordable, too.

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i recently came back from vacation.  I took 2 cameras.  The Q and a little Leica C.  The C was taken for night (for putting in my sport coat to grab a shot or 2-- my wife dislikes me carrying the Q when we go out "nice" for dinner) and for those times when the weather might be too inclement (ie rainy) to take the Q.  I think I took 5 shots with the C (most of them were to "compare" with the Q.  I thought I would miss other focal lengths more than I did.  YMMV

 

For those rare occasions I wanted to "zoom"  I ended cropping the image- the quality of the file is amazing-- even cropped.

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I do not own a Q but when looking for a second camera, my venerable X1 more than satisfies my needs. Often it is my camera of choice when body size matters.

i had the x1 and now have the Q.  I do miss the pocketablity of the X1.  However, I would not go back.  The EVF and the images more than tip the scale in favor of the Q--for me--ymmv

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I am in the process of looking for a complimentary camera with the Leica Q, when I travel. Right now my focus is on the Leica D-Lux (type 109). Opinions appreciated.  I

 

I had the D Lux 109 and sold it right away. Image quality was actually pretty decent, jpegs ooc were excellent.

 

However, I could not deal with the MENU system!  

Edited by ropo54
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On most trips I'm on my motorcycle and along with the Q (or the Fuji X100 that preceded it) I carry a Canon 7D with a 70-200 zoom attached. I use the longer lens a bit less than 20% of the time.

 

About the only time I switch lenses on the 7D is when I mount a 24-70 for events where I need to take indoor shots with a flash.   I rarely take that lens (or the flash) with me when traveling.

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I've been quite torn between picking up something like a Sony A6000 with a Samyang 12/2 and Sigma 60/2.8 to have a ultra wide and portrait tele option again, since that would be a pretty high quality kit and cost less than a grand.  At the same time, I sold my Sony A7rII kit because when I was carrying lenses like the VC15mk3 and Contax 90G I only was taking maybe 5% of shots with them.

 

Part of the reason for wanting the Q, in addition to the great ergonomics and speed of handling, and its lovely rendering, was to make travel a bit simpler, just grab the camera and charger, and go to the airport.  Trying to carry the Q, plus another small mirrorless body and a lenses or two means I'd be walking around with a bigger shoulder bag again, not to mention the pain of trying to pack different types of spare batteries, chargers, filters of different sizes etc.  That stuff really fills up limited space in a bag quickly.

 

At the same time, I do worry I'll miss a nice ultra wide, or the Q won't be enough reach.....

 

I think in a lot of situations I could just stitch 2 or 3 images to make up for the ultra wide angle stuff, as typically those would be more landscape style shots, so maybe I could get by there okay, but then I'd still short on the tele end of things.  I have compacts like the Sony RX100 but the long end on a 1" sensor really doesn't give enough subject separation to be worth shooting in most cases.

 

Though of maybe something like a little Panny GM5 with the 45/1.8 for a quite small companion camera that doesn't break the bank, but still, that would be about $700 or so, take up space, and how much would I actually shoot it ?

 

I've still got my FF DSLR rig too, so if/when I really want to do portraits or the dogs running in the yard et al., I've got a nice 70-200/2.8 with great tracking AF.....not that I want to haul that around foreign airports ever again!

 

Though about the Sigma Q3 or DPM3, of which I had and rather enjoyed the DP2m for its image quality, but darn if that isn't a slow camera to shot, and its quite limited in terms of ISO.... would I really find much use for one ?

 

Something like a Fuji XT1 with 56/1.2 seems to produce great images, but now we are talking some serious investment of $2k, and while smaller than a DSLR, it would be a lot of extra gear to carry anywhere. Maybe better just getting a 85/1.8G lens for my Nikon DSLR for $400 and if anything have a better shooting experience....

 

Maybe the best solution would be for Leica to a make a 50mm or 75mm Q!  

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I will say that I am on the waitlist for the Light L16 ... it has a lot of potential to be an interesting always-with-you camera.  Going to be a while before we see whether it can actually deliver on the "DSLR quality" promise, but the samples look nice enough so far.

 

https://light.co

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I've been quite torn between picking up something like a Sony A6000 with a Samyang 12/2 and Sigma 60/2.8 to have a ultra wide and portrait tele option again, since that would be a pretty high quality kit and cost less than a grand.  At the same time, I sold my Sony A7rII kit because when I was carrying lenses like the VC15mk3 and Contax 90G I only was taking maybe 5% of shots with them.

 

Part of the reason for wanting the Q, in addition to the great ergonomics and speed of handling, and its lovely rendering, was to make travel a bit simpler, just grab the camera and charger, and go to the airport.  Trying to carry the Q, plus another small mirrorless body and a lenses or two means I'd be walking around with a bigger shoulder bag again, not to mention the pain of trying to pack different types of spare batteries, chargers, filters of different sizes etc.  That stuff really fills up limited space in a bag quickly.

 

At the same time, I do worry I'll miss a nice ultra wide, or the Q won't be enough reach.....

 

I think in a lot of situations I could just stitch 2 or 3 images to make up for the ultra wide angle stuff, as typically those would be more landscape style shots, so maybe I could get by there okay, but then I'd still short on the tele end of things.  I have compacts like the Sony RX100 but the long end on a 1" sensor really doesn't give enough subject separation to be worth shooting in most cases.

 

Though of maybe something like a little Panny GM5 with the 45/1.8 for a quite small companion camera that doesn't break the bank, but still, that would be about $700 or so, take up space, and how much would I actually shoot it ?

 

I've still got my FF DSLR rig too, so if/when I really want to do portraits or the dogs running in the yard et al., I've got a nice 70-200/2.8 with great tracking AF.....not that I want to haul that around foreign airports ever again!

 

Though about the Sigma Q3 or DPM3, of which I had and rather enjoyed the DP2m for its image quality, but darn if that isn't a slow camera to shot, and its quite limited in terms of ISO.... would I really find much use for one ?

 

Something like a Fuji XT1 with 56/1.2 seems to produce great images, but now we are talking some serious investment of $2k, and while smaller than a DSLR, it would be a lot of extra gear to carry anywhere. Maybe better just getting a 85/1.8G lens for my Nikon DSLR for $400 and if anything have a better shooting experience....

 

Maybe the best solution would be for Leica to a make a 50mm or 75mm Q!  

The a 6000 or maybe a GM5 is actually a pretty good idea with decent IQ. Smaller sensors than mft are too far away from the Q`s IQ to compliment it. They`d fill the spare tire role only imho. As said in another post, my pick is the 400 g light DP3 Quattro as it produces stellar IQ and uses the same batteries.

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The a 6000 or maybe a GM5 is actually a pretty good idea with decent IQ. Smaller sensors than mft are too far away from the Q`s IQ to compliment it. They`d fill the spare tire role only imho. As said in another post, my pick is the 400 g light DP3 Quattro as it produces stellar IQ and uses the same batteries.

Sharing batteries is useful for sure.  My DP2m and Ricoh GR used the same battery, so after 30 shots or so when the Merrill said the battery was dead, I could pop it in the GR and get a few hundred shots LOL

 

I tried a Quattro DP2 briefly when Sigma was sending out demo units and it did have some advantages over the Merrill for sure, but I don't know if I really saw better IQ, but not worse either.  Real downside with those cameras though is just the slow operation and limited high ISO ability.  I found on my DP2m about 800 was the max, and that was for a grainy b&w look...color was maybe iso 200.   Produced some great images when used in its comfort zone though...

 

Maybe if there is a blow out sale on the Q's I might pick one up.  I remember seeing the DP2Q for $499 at B&H once....

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I will say that I am on the waitlist for the Light L16 ... it has a lot of potential to be an interesting always-with-you camera.  Going to be a while before we see whether it can actually deliver on the "DSLR quality" promise, but the samples look nice enough so far.

 

https://light.co

I never heard of this camera, until your post. It is incredibly innovative.  If the picture quality and post-picture process lives up to their announcement, it has the potential to be mind boggling when compared to competitive landscape. Thank you. 

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I never heard of this camera, until your post. It is incredibly innovative.  If the picture quality and post-picture process lives up to their announcement, it has the potential to be mind boggling when compared to competitive landscape. Thank you. 

 

We'll see... Lytro was technically amazing as well.  But conceptually the L16 appears to be very well thought out.  Their samples are too small to really judge quality though.  Let's see if Silicon Valley can actually produce a camera that photographers want.

 

 

Edit: See also http://joshanon.com/blog/2015/10/07/the_light_l16

Edited by alee
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I'm currently running an X-T10 alongside my Q and have been very very impressed. The look from the 35mm and 56mm Fuji lenses is very 'Leica' and the 10-24mm is a stunningly good zoom, I intend to add the 55-200mm soon as we are heading to Alaska later in the year and the extra reach will be useful.

 

I stick the Q in my bag and then grab the X-T10 with 1-2 lenses depending on the type of shooting I anticipate.

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Sharing batteries is useful for sure.  My DP2m and Ricoh GR used the same battery, so after 30 shots or so when the Merrill said the battery was dead, I could pop it in the GR and get a few hundred shots LOL

 

I tried a Quattro DP2 briefly when Sigma was sending out demo units and it did have some advantages over the Merrill for sure, but I don't know if I really saw better IQ, but not worse either.  Real downside with those cameras though is just the slow operation and limited high ISO ability.  I found on my DP2m about 800 was the max, and that was for a grainy b&w look...color was maybe iso 200.   Produced some great images when used in its comfort zone though...

 

Maybe if there is a blow out sale on the Q's I might pick one up.  I remember seeing the DP2Q for $499 at B&H once....

 

I used the GR & DP3M for a number of years and the combination of the two works great. When minimizing size and weight without compromising on IQ is priority these two oldies still are the benchmark. However, in my bag the Q & DP3 Quattro took over their role when traveling with photography in mind and bringing IQ and fun (thanks to the Q) to the next level. 

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The A7Rii with the 55/1.8 & the Batis 85/1.8 make a very nice travel kit in partnership with the Q.

 

I've been thinking about swapping my FE55/90AA combo for the Batis 85. The only downside is that I will have a huge focal length gap with my Q.

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