New to Q

[Surfheart]

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Had my Q for a couple of days now and have been enjoying the sharp lens and having fun with the 28mm focal length.

I love the character of the lens and it's great having the focus scale as I mostly zone focus.

It's a beautiful looking camera.

But...

A number of things have disappointed  particularly as this is a Leica and especially for the $$$

The EVF is the worst I've used. (X100T,X100f,X-T1,X-Pro2,X-T2,XT3)

It is cloudy,  has low colour depth(banding), low contrast and clarity is affected by the proximity of my eye to it(vignette) My copy has the bonus of  a number of stuck pixels.

Overall the EVF seems of poor quality.

The on/off button,  Im constantly bumping it either off or on or into S.

The files from my X100F seem to have a stop less noise.

Focus peaking will not render outlines on some surfaces (or I cant see them)

I miss being able to have autofocus available if needed when in manual focus mode.

 

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[Bart van Hofwegen]

EVF? Indeed. Not the best, mildly put.

On/Off? Takes getting used to, but indeed, I had that at first.

A stop less noise? Don't get me started, there is another thread in the forum where I make a statement. No, the Q is not the best performing FF out there, but mileage varies depending on discipline when it comes to setting exposure and what it is you want to achieve. Hint: Use daylight. Try to avoid having to push more than half a stop in post (better yet, keep it far below)... (ETTR or "overexpose" as far as the camera is concerned (assuming RAW). Experiment. )

The AF is so good and reliable that I stopped doing manual or zone. The lens deserves spot on focus and the AF just nails it.

I love this camera for what it is: small, silent, sharp, sturdy. It is not a pixel peepers wet dream, but it gets my job done just fine.

Good luck!

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[Surfheart]

9 minutes ago, Bart van Hofwegen said:

EVF? Indeed. Not the best, mildly put.

On/Off? Takes getting used to, but indeed, I had that at first.

A stop less noise? Don't get me started, there is another thread in the forum where I make a statement. No, the Q is not the best performing FF out there, but mileage varies depending on discipline when it comes to setting exposure and what it is you want to achieve. Hint: Use daylight. Try to avoid having to push more than half a stop in post (better yet, keep it far below)... (ETTR or "overexpose" as far as the camera is concerned (assuming RAW). Experiment. )

The AF is so good and reliable that I stopped doing manual or zone. The lens deserves spot on focus and the AF just nails it.

I love this camera for what it is: small, silent, sharp, sturdy. It is not a pixel peepers wet dream, but it gets my job done just fine.

Good luck!

Thanks for the tips Bart!  I'll stick with it.

[don daniel]

Look at your pictures. You cannot do that with a Fuji X100F. I own both, the X100F and for a couple of days I have been using my new Q. I think, I will give the X100F to my children.

[IamTheDistance]

Same here. I was a x100f user before jumping into Leica. I love the 28mm focal length so I used the x100f with the WCL adapter. Comparing the Q and x100f files is like night and day, being the Q both... night and day lol. Look at your pictures. They have life. They seem a caption of the reality trough our screens. I'm not hating the photos I shot with the x100f because I love some of them because it story and content, but not image quality. With the Q you can obtain both, pictures with a good story and also superb quality and tridimensionality.

[LexS]

14 hours ago, Surfheart said:

I miss being able to have autofocus available if needed when in manual focus mode.

Why not programming that in the FN button in the back?

(I am not sure how far the possibilities go there?)

Look here: 

 

 

Edited February 1, 2019 by LexS

[Leica Guy]

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While I love the AF in the Q, switching to manual focus is a joy. It causes me to slow down and be more deliberate with my photography. It makes me more aware of improving the composition; nailing the focus and depth of field. It’s no longer spray and pray hoping I’ll capture something worthwhile. The leica manual focus “lever” separates the Q and other Leica cameras from the rest of the pack. Switch to macro and manual focus and precisely pick the focus point. Love it. 

Yes, there are times the focus peaking is not as obvious, but push the 4 way controller on the back up and you'll get 6X magnification to zoom in on the focus point. Yes, I wish I could move that focus point around like on my Canon 5D3, but it is not possible. I hope that the Q2 will someday offer that. 

The Q is not perfect, but compared to any other camera I’ve owned in 60 years of photography, its the most fun and engaging. It rewards good technique and the lens, sensor combo work superbly. 

I say enjoy the camera for awhile and learn to work around the areas it’s not stellar. You’ll learn to grab it first when you want to have fun with photography. 

Edited February 19, 2019 by Infiniumguy

[IamTheDistance]

1 hour ago, LexS said:

Why not programming that in the FN button in the back?

(I am not sure how far the possibilities go there?)

 

You still need to be in autofocus mode if you want assign block focus to the fn button

[Bart van Hofwegen]

28 minutes ago, Infiniumguy said:

While I love the AF in the Q, switching to manual focus is a joy. It causes me to slow down and be more deliberate with my photography. It makes me more aware of improving the composition; nailing the focus and depth of field. It’s no longer spray and pray hoping I’ll capture something worthwhile

I understand what you say, it makes a lot of sense. Depending on the subject matter, MF can be a lot of fun. You are right about the awareness part. I was brought up using manual focus for nearly 20 years, simply because AF did not exist or, later, was too expensive, and that experience made things like visualizing DOF in your mind and selecting the focus point something that is engraved in the brain. So these days, for similar types of work, I still do the same, but I will let the AF do the work when I have chosen aperture and focus point. It saves a small amount of time, but I guess the gain is very limited.

But that does not mean that as soon as one engages AF, shooting becomes "spray and pray" of course. And for fast action street photography,which I do a lot, the AF is a wonder. I find that "zone focusing" for street photography with the Q is more like spray and pray, because the plane where things are tack-sharp is still rather shallow, especially close-up. DOF is way smaller than with film. Above that, I prefer shallow DOF from shooting fully open. I like my subject to benefit from the razor sharp lens, and often the only way to do that in fast paced action is to use the AF, better yet, the Q's autofocus is so fast that it is an excellent tool for that type of shot.

Edited February 1, 2019 by Bart van Hofwegen

[LexS]

Am 1.2.2019 um 15:23 schrieb Bart van Hofwegen:

I understand what you say, it makes a lot of sense. Depending on the subject matter, MF can be a lot of fun. You are right about the awareness part. I was brought up using manual focus for nearly 20 years, simply because AF did not exist or, later, was too expensive, and that experience made things like visualizing DOF in your mind and selecting the focus point something that is engraved in the brain. So these days, for similar types of work, I still do the same, but I will let the AF do the work when I have chosen aperture and focus point. It saves a small amount of time, but I guess the gain is very limited.

But that does not mean that as soon as one engages AF, shooting becomes "spray and pray" of course. And for fast action street photography,which I do a lot, the AF is a wonder. I find that "zone focusing" for street photography with the Q is more like spray and pray, because the plane where things are tack-sharp is still rather shallow, especially close-up. DOF is way smaller than with film. Above that, I prefer shallow DOF from shooting fully open. I like my subject to benefit from the razor sharp lens, and often the only way to do that in fast paced action is to use the AF, better yet, the Q's autofocus is so fast that it is an excellent tool for that type of shot.

I (lousy amateur) have the Q always on everything automatic. But sometimes it is not about te moment, and then the only thing I do is turning the thumb weel left or right and see the settings change in the EVF or the screen, then I choose and I take the picture..

 

 

[Surfheart]

On 2/1/2019 at 11:58 PM, Infiniumguy said:

While I love the AF in the Q, switching to manual focus is a joy. It causes me to slow down and be more deliberate with my photography. It makes me more aware of improving the composition; nailing the focus and depth of field. It’s no longer spray and pray hoping I’ll capture something worthwhile. The leica manual focus “lever” separates the Q and other Leica cameras from the rest of the pack. Switch to macro and manual focus and precisely pick the focus point. Love it. 

Yes, there are times the focus peaking is not as obvious, but push the 4 way controller on the back up and you'll get 6X magnification to zoom in on the focus point. Yes, I wish I could move that focus point around like on my Canon 5D3, but it is not possible. I hope that the Q2 will someday offer that. 

The Q is not perfect, but compared to any other camera I’ve owned in 60 years of photography, its the most fun and engaging. It rewards good technique and the lens, sensor combo work superbly. 

I say enjoy the camera for awhile and learn to work around the areas it’s not stellar. You’ll learn to grab it first when you want to have fun with photography. 

Well said, couldn't agree more. I'm yet to use AF on my Q.  The manual focus experience Is far superior to the X100 due to the focus scale on the lens.