The Q...a question or two

[Nevik]

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Hi,

I'm new to the forum, joined because I'm seriously considering the Q, between that and the Sony II.

I'm in the market for a fixed lends quality take anywhere camera. I've not had one since my Makina 67.

I honestly think the Q is as good as I have ever seen, including MFDB, colour looks stunning as does sharpness............ but.. isn't there always a but.... banding.. I see a lot of banding even in Leica's released Circus shots, there is one I'm really surprised they ever published.

 

Because it has a fast lens and stabilisation I was hoping it would be a useful low light camera, but the banding worries me.

I believe there is a lot of software lens correction going on, can that be turned off and if it can, does the banding issue decrease?

When my Canons are shot at night, it's much better if no lens correction for vignetting  is applied because you are boosting the dark areas a stop or two to begin with.

I also see Leica recommending you shoot with stabilisation off unless necessary, is that to save battery or is there a quality penalty in shooting with it on?

One other thing has there been any sign Leica might do a range of Q's with different focal lengths?

 

Thanks 

Kevin.

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[SamuelF]

Hi Kevin,

 

I'm also new here and just got the Q last week. Updated it to the last firmware and took it out this evening for a couple of night street photo just to test the sensor. I was also worried about potential issues with banding. I put the pictures shot at 6400iso below with no noise correction for you to judge. Slight banding is visible but not more than on my Nikon cameras.

Also I just tried Dfine 2 that removes very easily every banding with no quality loss. It is a lightroom plugin so pretty easy to use. I just don't understand why Leica didn't do an in-camera algorithm to solve this issue...

In my knowledge there is no way to turn off the in-camera lens correction but I don't think it affects the resulting files too much. I use Lightroom but I think other softwares allow you to use the pure raw file without correction.

I have tried the stabilisation and did some test with an without it and cannot see any difference in quality. I guess it needs a deeper test with a wide range of iso and apertures.

And I really hope Leica will somedays release a Q with a 50mm :-) I think there is high demand for longer focal range so they might be working on it!

 

Sam

 

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[SamuelF]

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[katsanes]

Regarding in-camera lens correction - I saw or heard it said somewhere to the effect "You wouldn't want to receive an unedited RAW file out of the Q".  Between distortion, etc. it sounds like Leica do a LOT to a RAW file to make it come out the way it does.

 

Also - in Lightroom you'll notice that there are no lens profiles for the Q, this is because if you look at the Camera Profile for the Q Lightroom will say "This image has already been corrected" or similar such statement.

[earleygallery]

Indeed, the Q relies heavily on in camera correction for lens distortion - uncorrected images show much distortion and the image circle doesn't cover the full frame. Examples here;

 

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/246760-28mm-focal-length-but-what-is-the-actual-field-of-view-after-lens-correction/

[mgrayson3]

Capture One lets you see the RAW without cropping or corrections. There is strong vignetting in the uncropped corners, but there are times you might want to use the parts of the image along the edges. No camera is perfect. I'm very happy with the files from the Q, and love its handling and speed. 

 

--Matt

[Mr.Q]

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1. The latest firmware fixes most of the reported banding.

 

2. There is practically no IQ penalty from the distortion correction. Perhaps the image suffers a bit in the extreme corners. If you plan to shoot alot of landscapes or architecture, just crop that little area out. The Q lens is a bit wider than 28mm so it really isn't an issue.

 

3. OIS does degrade IQ slightly towards the edges of the frame, but this is a common trait of all OIS systems and not limited to the Q. However, I feel the IQ loss is far less than the noise generated from raising the ISO past 3200. So I find it very effective and useful when shooting indoors or shooting at night.

[Iduna]

Kevin,

welcome to the forum.

I got my Q in october and from then on used it due to the winter light in many low light situations. At first I was also a bit worried because I recognized the banding  and found it disturbing, so I adjusted my exposure technique and exposed most to the right. but after installing the new firmware all these problems are fixed and no banding is there neither in low ISO nor high ISO values. Even in low light the AF will be found still working, the lens and sensor are so good that you can face many situations handheld, which is ideal for street photography. Tripod and longtim exposures are delightful because you can select the f-stop you like and although speed is limited to 30 seconds this will cause no problems in most of the cases. Even startrails can be realised.

The Q gives you great freedom, with topnotch IQ and a super easy menue and comfortable handling.

[Herve5]

I just got my Q and tend to agree with Erfahrener Benutzer.

There is quite a strong vignetting in the raw files (which one can easily see with open-source programs like Darktable or RawTherapee), but even those come with almost perfect correction presets that will correct the situation in one click...

All in all I'm very satisfied indeed for now.

H.

[Nevik]

Thanks everyone