My Q review.

[XVarior]

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Hope you'll enjoy it.

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/57625902

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The XVarior

[Orguy]

You love it, so do we. It's a great fun little camera although I don't agree with all your quibbles.

 

Now if only someone would collect all the crowd wisdom and put out a book on the Q. To collect it all in one place with a good index would be so useful.  

[PCPhil]

Many good points on the review (battery life is not exceptional but fine for my needs) but can't agree on the evf viewfinder.  I think it's great and use exclusivley.

Nice pics. 

[XVarior]

You love it, so do we. It's a great fun little camera although I don't agree with all your quibbles.

 

Now if only someone would collect all the crowd wisdom and put out a book on the Q. To collect it all in one place with a good index would be so useful.

Thank you,

I'm aware that many of the quibbles may be fade away with time, when I got a better understanding of the camera. One of those is being the EVF. Got many comments and messages telling me that something may be wrong with my camera, also regarding battery life.

Could theoretically, a bad sad card affect the performance on both?

[XVarior]

Many good points on the review (battery life is not exceptional but fine for my needs) but can't agree on the evf viewfinder. I think it's great and use exclusivley.

Nice pics.

As I mentioned above, it seems that I'm the only one to have a stuttering EVF. I'll be looking into and through it more to find out more and get back with a conclusion soon. :-)

Thanks for looking Phil.

[kikouyou]

Nice pics, I would not agree on the bad.

I really like the AF/MF mechanism as opposed to you. I think the viewfinder is ok, not as bad as you picture it even if it could be better with less plastic. It indeed is not a match for an OVM like the one on the M (I have an MP with 10 Leica lenses and almost never use the electronic viewfinder on the M).

What I do on the Q is that I have a few OVF that can attach to the flash shoe. The most straight forward one is the Voigtlander 25mm which fits nicely the Q frame. But I like too the big Leica multi finder 16 to 28mm which has parallax correction and is so comfortable. At 24mm it is a good match for the Q and at 28 is it a bit wider than the 35mm framing on the Q. I have also a Leitz Wetzlar very old angle finder that works very well with center point AF. That is to say that with the Q you have the choice not to use the EVF for framing. 

As opposed to you I use a lot MF with the Q  (maybe that is coming from too much M usage :-)) It works very well with the EVF. One annoying thing here is that the focus magnification cannot be cycled to 1, it is only 1 xor 3 and 6. As I need not to focus on the center sometimes with full frame view this is kind of annoying and will be fixed I hope in future firmware (i.e. cycle focus assist magnification from 1, 3 and 6 from the SET button).

[XVarior]

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Nice pics, I would not agree on the bad.

I really like the AF/MF mechanism as opposed to you. I think the viewfinder is ok, not as bad as you picture it even if it could be better with less plastic. It indeed is not a match for an OVM like the one on the M (I have an MP with 10 Leica lenses and almost never use the electronic viewfinder on the M).

What I do on the Q is that I have a few OVF that can attach to the flash shoe. The most straight forward one is the Voigtlander 25mm which fits nicely the Q frame. But I like too the big Leica multi finder 16 to 28mm which has parallax correction and is so comfortable. At 24mm it is a good match for the Q and at 28 is it a bit wider than the 35mm framing on the Q. I have also a Leitz Wetzlar very old angle finder that works very well with center point AF. That is to say that with the Q you have the choice not to use the EVF for framing.

As opposed to you I use a lot MF with the Q (maybe that is coming from too much M usage :-)) It works very well with the EVF. One annoying thing here is that the focus magnification cannot be cycled to 1, it is only 1 xor 3 and 6. As I need not to focus on the center sometimes with full frame view this is kind of annoying and will be fixed I hope in future firmware (i.e. cycle focus assist magnification from 1, 3 and 6 from the SET button).

Me too like MF and that's why, to me, the RF system is the best MF system ever. On the Q. The AF is so accurate that it would be a potty not to take advantage of. This is what makes the Q the perfect M companion in my opinion, the perfect match when fast AF at super wide open apertures is required. Regarding the EVF, I now think something was not ok with mine, I'll look to find out what it is.

Thanks for your feedback and list of optical EVFs, I'll look for one for my Q.

[Sprintmedley]

Thanks for a fair and helpful review. The only real complaint I have so far after almost two thousand shots is The Accidental triggering of the continuous shooting mode switch.

[Voxen]

Thanks for a fair and helpful review. The only real complaint I have so far after almost two thousand shots is The Accidental triggering of the continuous shooting mode switch.

 

 

This one is driving me nuts. On the field I just never turn the camera off and use the sleep mode because of these stupid S and C positions. I hope Leica will allow switching positions via firmware update.

[Leica Guy]

if only the continous shooting menu oprions were:

 

High, Medium, Low, OFF

[Leica Guy]

Dang. Sorry folks. I need to proof more carefully before posting.

 

(Options)

[XVarior]

Thanks for a fair and helpful review. The only real complaint I have so far after almost two thousand shots is The Accidental triggering of the continuous shooting mode switch.

I don't have that issue since it's the same as the XV and now I'm used to it. Anyways, as long as it's not film roll that we are waisting it's not big deal having some extra shots from time to time:-)

[XVarior]

if only the continous shooting menu oprions were:

 

High, Medium, Low, OFF

Good idea:-)

[Iduna]

Rodrigue,

 

congrats on your nice review!        

 It is clear, balanced and emotional at the same time. The pictures are excellent and illustrative. The best thing is that it makes the reader feel that he himself might have shot with the camera. I also agree with the EVF, I myself only use it for some situations of composition. I could have agreed with the complaint about the battery performance. But I noticed that after using and charging the battery a lot this problem has gone. I did shoot 300  shots approx and I carry always a second battery. This saves my day. I switch the camera off every time even if it is only to switch it on again immediately and I do not use it for video.

The AF is amazing. When I forget to switch the camera off and it is dangling on my sunsniper strap sometimes it takes shots by itself and they are all sharp!! 

[jlindstrom]

Definitely recognize many of the things you mention in the review, though many things may be more on the personal opinion side.

 

Fpr example I've never got annoyed by the evf. But what I whole heartedly agree with is the manual focus infinity. The first time I used it, I didn't even think about it and the shots were totally wasted.

 

The MF lock is a more neutral thing for me, I rarely have to use MF. But I know and find the release button without looking. I understand what Leica was trying to do with that, but also agree that I never had any issues with Leica XV implementation, which I really liked.

 

I might have to give a go at the multimetering. Currently I have it set to center weighted, so it's close to my M metering.

 

Also agree on the hand carrying. With grip & Gordy's wrist strap my Q with grip is just perfect. Though on longer walks, if not having a shoulderbag, I might switch it to a neck strap and wear it across my shoulder.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[XVarior]

Rodrigue,

 

congrats on your nice review!

It is clear, balanced and emotional at the same time. The pictures are excellent and illustrative. The best thing is that it makes the reader feel that he himself might have shot with the camera. I also agree with the EVF, I myself only use it for some situations of composition. I could have agreed with the complaint about the battery performance. But I noticed that after using and charging the battery a lot this problem has gone. I did shoot 300 shots approx and I carry always a second battery. This saves my day. I switch the camera off every time even if it is only to switch it on again immediately and I do not use it for video.

The AF is amazing. When I forget to switch the camera off and it is dangling on my sunsniper strap sometimes it takes shots by itself and they are all sharp!!

So glad you enjoyed the read Iduna. That's a statement when it comes from someone who have mastered the Q and is giving us splendid Q shots specially in low light.

As I say the review, that was an early review, the camera is getting more usage and the battery is seeing better lifetime. I'm also seeing better performance in the LV area after a change of an SD card.

So far so good, the ultimate review is gonna wait until I get back from my trip to the Caribbean. Will let you know.

[XVarior]

Definitely recognize many of the things you mention in the review, though many things may be more on the personal opinion side.

 

Fpr example I've never got annoyed by the evf. But what I whole heartedly agree with is the manual focus infinity. The first time I used it, I didn't even think about it and the shots were totally wasted.

 

The MF lock is a more neutral thing for me, I rarely have to use MF. But I know and find the release button without looking. I understand what Leica was trying to do with that, but also agree that I never had any issues with Leica XV implementation, which I really liked.

 

I might have to give a go at the multimetering. Currently I have it set to center weighted, so it's close to my M metering.

 

Also agree on the hand carrying. With grip & Gordy's wrist strap my Q with grip is just perfect. Though on longer walks, if not having a shoulderbag, I might switch it to a neck strap and wear it across my shoulder.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks for your thoughts. The EVF thing has no remedy in my opinion even if I'm not seeing any glitches I saw the first day of using the camera. Still, an M shooter will never feel good with anything than rangefinder with optical viewfinder, this is the king of kings and this is probably what is making me feel not at ease with the EVF. Not because it's not good, but because I'm used and in total love with the RF:-)

I was using the same center weighted metering as you do but the multipoint on the Q is something else as you should give it a try.

[jlindstrom]

Yeah, there is no contest between any evf and the M's RF. When after a while using only evf's I ended up getting the M262 and looked through the RF, it was like someone had turned on the lights :-)

 

One thing that summarizes the evf and optical vf difference is that I find it incredibly difficult to use polarizer with the Q. I just can't really tell the difference when rotating it. I've tried 2-3 times.. need to try a few more, maybe it was just poor circumstances.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk