Leica Q2 with 47 MP – Improved in all aspects

[Hji]

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12 hours ago, brickftl said:

I have the Sony 24/1.4GM that I use on my A7iii, and I also have the Q2 (having sold the Q that I loved). For me the Sony is perfect for studio portraits and live stage work, and I especially appreciate the wider faster lens than the Q2. And of course the A7iii face/eye detect and AF in general (as you well know from your A9) is far superior to that of the Q/Q2/ See these images I recently shot using the Sony combo which, given the atrocious light wouldn't have been possible with the Q. https://brick.smugmug.com/Photography/2019-6-19-Terpsicorps-dress-rehearsal-samples/

 

That said, the Q2 is my go to camera for all else, reportage, street work, casual environmental portraits, travel, etc. In other words, these 2 cameras perfectly cover all my photographic needs.

Beautiful picture. The pictures are a little “unreal” sharp to me. It maybe due to I use my phone to view the photos. 

[Hji]

I studied the pictures and realize the outline of peoples are extremely sharp and make me feel the objects standing out from background. 

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[Miltz]

I definitely wouldn't say it's improved in all respects. I had the camera and returned it. Face Detection doesn't work well at all. I was getting blurry shots at 1/250 and 1/160 which should never be on a 28mm lens with static subjects. The Dynamic range is worse at 200-400 ISO, and you are limited in long exposures. 

[Jared]

8 hours ago, Miltz said:

I definitely wouldn't say it's improved in all respects. I had the camera and returned it. Face Detection doesn't work well at all. I was getting blurry shots at 1/250 and 1/160 which should never be on a 28mm lens with static subjects. The Dynamic range is worse at 200-400 ISO, and you are limited in long exposures. 

Sorry to hear it didn’t work out for you.  You are right that face detection is poor.  I haven’t seen any camera motion blur at 1/250s or 1/160s, though.  Not even sure how that could happen as OIS would typically be turned off at those speeds since it isn’t necessary.  Thy dynamic range I haven’t checked at those particular ISO’s yet, so can’t say whether your experience is typical.  The long exposure limits implemented by Leica are very annoying, but hardly unique to the Q2. No excuse for those, though. I don’t need Leica protecting me from poor image quality due to thermal noise—either by limiting exposure or by forcing me to use LENR.

In any event, sorry you were disappointed by the camera.  I have not found any areas where it is worse than the original Q except per-pixel noise at higher ISO’s, extra weight from the bigger battery, and the placement of the exposure adjustment wheel under your right thumb being more awkward.

[lx1713]

On 7/20/2019 at 11:37 AM, Miltz said:

I definitely wouldn't say it's improved in all respects. I had the camera and returned it. Face Detection doesn't work well at all. I was getting blurry shots at 1/250 and 1/160 which should never be on a 28mm lens with static subjects. The Dynamic range is worse at 200-400 ISO, and you are limited in long exposures. 

I've experienced the same but I decided to steady myself just before the shots. It helped enormously. At 47 mp, any movement on my part or the subject will register. Secondly, the image stabilisation needs a bit of time to work.

[pico]

5 minutes ago, lx1713 said:

At 47 mp, any movement on my part or the subject will register.

Sure it can register but you won't see it when viewed at normal viewing distance. You might see it on a monitor when viewed at actual pixels, but when will you ever print so large and view at much closer than normal viewing distance? Never.

[lx1713]

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9 hours ago, pico said:

Sure it can register but you won't see it when viewed at normal viewing distance. You might see it on a monitor when viewed at actual pixels, but when will you ever print so large and view at much closer than normal viewing distance? Never.

I understand. It's not a complaint on my part but shot discipline means getting the most out of my equipment on a consistent basis so I need to up my game to get it right. Else I might as well pick a 24 mp camera. It's just two little steps to the workflow : ) A fraction of a second to add to the moment.

47 mp files demand more time commitment in my process stage so being sloppy at capture time is just sad for me.

[pico]

34 minutes ago, lx1713 said:

47 mp files demand more time commitment in my process stage

It might be interesting to compare over time the increase in file size to increased computer performance.

[lx1713]

13 minutes ago, pico said:

It might be interesting to compare over time the increase in file size to increased computer performance.

Not for me 😂   For myself, 47 mp is really when I need the details. The Q2 is a great stealth camera but I'm really deploying it in a commercial setting with tripod and lights. Usage wise, I really enjoy working with it for journalistic style of shooting but I just clocked 16 gb DNG + JPGs thereabouts for about 160 shots. That's a bit much 😉

I just ordered an iMac Pro so maybe that answers my problem 😅 I don't yet know until I run with it.

[pico]

2 hours ago, lx1713 said:

I just ordered an iMac Pro so maybe that answers my problem 😅 I don't yet know until I run with it.

Awesome! If you can, please share your experience with it, and its configuration. My impression is that since our application is largely 2D, and if we use Photoshop we can expect performance to be 2X that of an iMac. As Photoshop uses the GPU more for compute intensive routines it can only get better as Adobe codes new versions. One concern is download speeds from our SD* cards, but that's still not discouraging.

Thank you for replying.

[lx1713]

config:

iMac Pro

Hardware:

• 3.0GHz 10-core Intel Xeon W processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.5GHz
• 64GB 2666MHz DDR4 ECC memory
• 2TB SSD storage
• Radeon Pro Vega 64 with 16GB of HBM2 memory
• Magic Mouse 2 + Magic Trackpad 2 - Space Grey
• Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad - US English - Space Grey

It's a bit more than I really need as far as speed is concerned. I want it for the bandwidth for processing lots of files. I shoot excessively, I'm afraid, so I need to be much more disciplined in using the Q2. I usually don't upgrade my machines much so the replacement is about 7-8 years for a pro desktop and 5 years for a laptop.

I've gotten into doing video editing on FCP so it's for that too. As you mentioned about 2D usage, that's true.

I'm using the Sandisk cards rated at 170 mb/s or the 300mb/s ones so the download speeds are comfortable for a couple of thousand shots. Enough time for me to catch dinner or a shower.

[MEB]

moved

 

 

 

Edited August 3, 2019 by MEB
posted in wrong section

[Alain88]

Do you need to tape the mic holes to avoid bust inside or is it safe enough?

[kyriacos]

4 hours ago, Alain88 said:

Do you need to tape the mic holes to avoid bust inside or is it safe enough?

Was thinking about that too to be honest. So far it’s not taped haven’t seen anything on the sensor (fingers crossed)

[Arek Malarz]

Hi all, 

I just got my Leica Q2, actually it's the first Leica camera I own and have to say that switching from Fuji X-T3 I'm simply blown away by the results I get. 

I have one question though, the live exposure preview seems to be only working when in full manual mode (menu is set up to P-A-S-M for the exposure preview). As soon as I I set my ISO to Auto mode, I immediately lose ability to change it. Is there anything I can do about it? I guess that's the only thing I really miss when switching over from Fuji...

Thank you

Edited October 8, 2019 by Arek Malarz

[Leica Guy]

10 hours ago, Arek Malarz said:

Hi all, 

I just got my Leica Q2, actually it's the first Leica camera I own and have to say that switching from Fuji X-T3 I'm simply blown away by the results I get. 

I have one question though, the live exposure preview seems to be only working when in full manual mode (menu is set up to P-A-S-M for the exposure preview). As soon as I I set my ISO to Auto mode, I immediately lose ability to change it. Is there anything I can do about it? I guess that's the only thing I really miss when switching over from Fuji...

Thank you

Not sure I understand your issue. Live view works in all modes on my camera. Auto ISO makes no difference. What can you not change? I can change to any ISO, aperture, shutter speed with no change to Live View. 

[Arek Malarz]

10 hours ago, Leica Guy said:

Not sure I understand your issue. Live view works in all modes on my camera. Auto ISO makes no difference. What can you not change? I can change to any ISO, aperture, shutter speed with no change to Live View. 

I mean live exposure preview. When I'm in full manual mode and change shutter speed for example I can see how that's going to affect exposure in real time as expected. 
But when I set ISO to auto to get similar effect I need to half-press the shutter release. When I change aperture/shutter in auto ISO mode I can't see any difference in the LCD or EVF.

I hope I explained the issue better (sorry, english is not my native language).

Thank you

Edited October 9, 2019 by Arek Malarz

[mepaca]

6 hours ago, Arek Malarz said:

I mean live exposure preview. When I'm in full manual mode and change shutter speed for example I can see how that's going to affect exposure in real time as expected. 
But when I set ISO to auto to get similar effect I need to half-press the shutter release. When I change aperture/shutter in auto ISO mode I can't see any difference in the LCD or EVF.

I hope I explained the issue better (sorry, english is not my native language).

Thank you

That is because the camera is automatically setting what it considers the correct exposure for you and the exposure preview will remain the same. The only way to change that is to adjust the ev compensation.

[Leica Guy]

6 hours ago, mepaca said:

That is because the camera is automatically setting what it considers the correct exposure for you and the exposure preview will remain the same. The only way to change that is to adjust the ev compensation.

Exactly. With Auto ISO the camera will always show you a correct exposure regardless of the shutter speed or aperture assuming your subject is within the range that ISO can make it correct. Said another way if you point the camera at a very bright subject the ISO would drop to 100, but it cannot go below that and your live view image in that case would be overexposed. Your camera is working perfectly. Your English is fine and much better than my German or French. 

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica Q

[Arek Malarz]

Thank you @mepaca & @LeicaGuy - of course it all makes sense. I'll probably stick to manual most of the time as I really enjoy having that level of control over the exposure.