Leica Q Reliability

[viramati]

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i

 

I accept your opinions on the basis that you appear to be using the Q regularly and intensely. You haven't given up just because you had failures. Could you tell us what you think your shutter count is per annum.

Thanks.

 

That would be hard to say. I would say that it is rare that a day goes by when it doesn't get used and then it can range from a couple of shots up to around 30 or so. If working on a project or commission then it can get quite a bit higher. A camera I wouldn't want to be without and have missed dreadfully the times it has had to go back to Leica

Edited November 7, 2016 by viramati

[viramati]

Unfortunately just beginning to realise that my 3rd copy of the camera has problems with softness towards the left of the frame.   

Images sent to Leica for evaluation 

Edited November 13, 2016 by viramati

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[EdwardM]

will try Q in minus 15C in moscow and revert with results 

[albertknappmd]

Two years and NO issues!

Albert 

[Voxen]

My Q resisted to the huge vibrations of my Harley Davidson, so I guess this camera fears nothing

[OlliJarmo]

Bought the Q in August 2016 and in two months the camera had frozen/got  locked several times. Even twice during one day. When the camera is on it freezes, meaning that it does not react to any controls and cannot be switched off. Battery out and back in and the Q works again for some time.

 

I took it back to the retailer seven weeks ago. They sent it to the factory in Germany, where it probably still is. 

 

Although I would like to have a reliable Q in my hands, I'm not too confident that I ever will.

[likealot]

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I've only had mine for a month and I'm not and expert photographer so I wouldn't be able to tell if it was soft in any areas or not. However I can say that I did take the camera to my daughter's birthday party to take some pics and quite a few of them were blurry. These were not pics of fast paced action and everything was on auto. Perhaps I expected more than I should have from this camera.

 

The only two things I have learned so far are:

 

If you havent got a good knowledge of Lightroom or the time to learn to use it then this aint the camera for you.

The battery life is one of the worst I have ever seen. For a £3.5k camera this is absolutely appalling. Leica should give a second battery for free, nevermind selling you one for £70.

 

Compared to my previous Nikon I have to say that the tiny fraction of quality that one gets from an out of the camera image (when comparing Leica to Nikon) is nowhere near worth the price difference between the two.

 

Sorry for sounding negative but it is an honest one from an average Joe like me.

[SicKb0y]

Two years and NO issues!

Albert 

 

Two years?

 

Got one of the first ones one day after release in june last year and I am still very pleased with it. Had to send it in to get the sensor cleaned and from time to time I get a memory card error.

Tried different brands and always format them in camera but it is still happening.

 

Shot 50+ weddings with the Q and took it on several trips (sailing, desert...) and it never let me down.

[Leica Guy]

My experience has been by far a positive one. Never had a lockup. I've had the camera a year now and have used it continuously. It's now my main travel camera. The ergonomics are superb. The IQ is quite good and certainly comparable to my Canon 5D3 if not slightly better. I like the fast focus and love the manual focus. I'm not thrilled at times with higher ISO banding in shadows. I believe that Sony sensors are superior for dynamic range and shadow detail. The 2.0 SW release was a real upgrade, but as others have said there still remain areas for improvement. I had my first evidence of moire pattern in a shirt that had a strong weave pattern. Disappointing and not surprising since the Q does not have a low pass filter in front of the sensor. I love the camera. Not perfect, but totally fun to use. I hope when your Q is returned from Leica, it will be reliable for you.

[gvadf]

My Q is now one month old. I made about 3000 pictures in the last four weeks. No Problem so far. Except yesterday in the Morning, shooting Frozen plants outdoor. Temperature about Zero degrees Celsius. After a couple of shots the Q was "dead". No reaction on buttons or switch-off-knob. I had to remove the battery. After that the Q was working normal.

Does it have a Temperature Issue?

[beez]

I've only had mine for a month and I'm not and expert photographer so I wouldn't be able to tell if it was soft in any areas or not. However I can say that I did take the camera to my daughter's birthday party to take some pics and quite a few of them were blurry. These were not pics of fast paced action and everything was on auto. Perhaps I expected more than I should have from this camera.

 

The only two things I have learned so far are:

 

If you havent got a good knowledge of Lightroom or the time to learn to use it then this aint the camera for you.

The battery life is one of the worst I have ever seen. For a £3.5k camera this is absolutely appalling. Leica should give a second battery for free, nevermind selling you one for £70.

 

Compared to my previous Nikon I have to say that the tiny fraction of quality that one gets from an out of the camera image (when comparing Leica to Nikon) is nowhere near worth the price difference between the two.

 

Sorry for sounding negative but it is an honest one from an average Joe like me.

 

Sorry that your results are not what you expected. Although any camera can be used fairly successfully in an all Auto mode, with a camera this sophisticated (I'm not sure which Nikon camera you had previously) it behooves you to check the settings the camera is providing to you on all Auto mode. While the Q presents itself as a ultimate point & shoot camera, its range of technical options are very sophisticated, and just leaving it in all Auto mode with little or no supervision, can lead to disappointing results, in my opinion. 

 

It could be that it was a more complex lighting situation than it looked, and for the aperture the camera picked, the shutter speed might have been too slow for either the people being photographed (movement) or you holding the camera still. The Auto focus is also very sophisticated and good results would also depend a lot on what AF mode you're using, and is it right for the subject you're focusing on. A good place to start would be to determine if the softness was bad focus, or movement induced.

 

I agree that the battery life is nowhere as good as any of my Nikon DSLRs, but no less than most other mirrorless cameras with electronic viewfinders and 3" monitors on the back. You might take a look at your current settings for energy usage and turn off things like auto replay on the monitor after taking each picture, and setting the camera to go to sleep after a certain amount of time.

 

On your last comment, I think the image quality between my Leicas and my Nikons is much more than a fraction. The Leica lenses I have are far and away better (sharper, and more contrast and better color rendition) than almost all Nikon lenses, imo. Although there are a few exceptions - my Nikon 14mm/2.8, 80-200/2.8. and 300/2.8 are very comparable. And, there are some intangibles that make the Q much better than Nikon DSLRs - size and weight make the Q much easier to handle for added maneuverability. The Q is practically silent - for many of my professional assignments, this makes a huge difference. For my rangefinder Leicas and my Q with the EVF, you can see well in practically no light at all, where looking through the lens of a DSLR with a 28mm lens, you can see hardly anything in that situation.

 

I think if you take the time to really learn the settings on the Q , and how they impact your results in different situations, your results will be markedly better.

Edited December 6, 2016 by beez

[likealot]

Sorry that your results are not what you expected. Although any camera can be used fairly successfully in an all Auto mode, with a camera this sophisticated (I'm not sure which Nikon camera you had previously) it behooves you to check the settings the camera is providing to you on all Auto mode. While the Q presents itself as a ultimate point & shoot camera, its range of technical options are very sophisticated, and just leaving it in all Auto mode with little or no supervision, can lead to disappointing results, in my opinion. 

 

It could be that it was a more complex lighting situation than it looked, and for the aperture the camera picked, the shutter speed might have been too slow for either the people being photographed (movement) or you holding the camera still. The Auto focus is also very sophisticated and good results would also depend a lot on what AF mode you're using, and is it right for the subject you're focusing on. A good place to start would be to determine if the softness was bad focus, or movement induced.

 

I agree that the battery life is nowhere as good as any of my Nikon DSLRs, but no less than most other mirrorless cameras with electronic viewfinders and 3" monitors on the back. You might take a look at your current settings for energy usage and turn off things like auto replay on the monitor after taking each picture, and setting the camera to go to sleep after a certain amount of time.

 

On your last comment, I think the image quality between my Leicas and my Nikons is much more than a fraction. The Leica lenses I have are far and away better (sharper, and more contrast and better color rendition) than almost all Nikon lenses, imo. Although there are a few exceptions - my Nikon 14mm/2.8, 80-200/2.8. and 300/2.8 are very comparable. And, there are some intangibles that make the Q much better than Nikon DSLRs - size and weight make the Q much easier to handle for added maneuverability. The Q is practically silent - for many of my professional assignments, this makes a huge difference. For my rangefinder Leicas and my Q with the EVF, you can see well in practically no light at all, where looking through the lens of a DSLR with a 28mm lens, you can see hardly anything in that situation.

 

I think if you take the time to really learn the settings on the Q , and how they impact your results in different situations, your results will be markedly better.

 

I had the D5100 before and in terms of clarity it was really good. Whereas with the Q pretty much half of the pics I take are blurry. I have no doubt that the more I practice the better I will (hopefully) get at it and this is very likely a beginner's disappointment that will soon disappear. I agree with your last sentence and perhaps I was a bit unfair blaming some of my lack of knowledge on the Q.

 

All the settings in the camera are at minimum usage in order to save battery life. If anyone would ask me the weakest point of the Q I will say the battery life and I'm sure that my opinion won't change in time.

 

The other two niggles so far are the fact that the grip on this camera is very poor too. It just isn't made for large or chunky hands. After holding this camera for about half an hour and taking pictures my hand gets tired and fingers start to ache. The switch button is also a pain. I find it very diffcult to switch with ease and precision from Off to S position because it quite often goes to C straight away. It's a pain. I know, one can buy accessories for the camera grip issue but having to splash £120+ on top just doesnt feel right. I am not sure whether an accessory exists that can improve the grip on the switch button and allow it to be easily switched between the 3 settings.

[PaulJohn]

In 3 months I've had two freezes fixed by disconnecting the battery. I also had a focussing problem and very laggy evf which was fixed with a reset. I've also got some dust spots. I am very tempted to live with it other than send it in for repair. The dust spots are easily fixed in LR. It's still my favourite camera. I never thought I would come to like 28mm so much and regard 35mm as too narrow.

[SonomaBear]

My Q is definitely my favorite camera/lens/sensor, so much so that it is always with me.  So much so that the SL might replace a Canon DSLR -- I'm addicted to the Leica way.

Blurry pictures happen to me if I intend on auto focus by the lens manual focus ring is not all the way seated into Auto.  Or the lens has shifted into ½ macro mode by mistake.

So there's the problem:  you take it everywhere, it gets bumped around and controls get moved.  They all do, even the EVF diopter control!

 

BTW: This is the only camera whose viewfinder is good enough to use my damaged right eye... it's been 20 years!  Habitually I use my left eye, but I am trying to train myself to use my right and thus keep my nose out of the LCD and buttons!

Edited December 9, 2016 by SonomaBear

[Vidas911]

Recently system halted twice - both on autofocusing beep which ended up on endless beeping until I took out the battery. This one is almost new camera with the latest firmware. The similar halt happened to my first Q in June 2015, don't remember the circumstances.

[viramati]

Unfortunately and yet again my Q has just had to go back to Leica because the images are soft on one side of the frame

[OlliJarmo]

Bought the Q in August 2016 and in two months the camera had frozen/got  locked several times. Even twice during one day. When the camera is on it freezes, meaning that it does not react to any controls and cannot be switched off. Battery out and back in and the Q works again for some time.

 

I took it back to the retailer seven weeks ago. They sent it to the factory in Germany, where it probably still is. 

 

Although I would like to have a reliable Q in my hands, I'm not too confident that I ever will.

 

It took seven weeks to get the Q back from the factory. It seems (the report is not very clear) that they changed a major electronic component. I've been using the Q now for two months and camera has frozen twice. I think the stability of the software is the problem. The quality of the software is not at the same level as the mechanical quality. However, I decided to keep the Q because I like the focal length, the IQ, the simplicity of use and because I want to have a Leica.