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Cropping - "Feature" or a Marketing Gimmick?


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All this excitement around Q2's "improved" cropping ability and the myth of one 28MM lens covering several primes worth of focal length got me thinking. While I have cropped a few of my Q images, I don't see it as a replacement for a "true" 35MM or 50MM or XMM focal length. If that was really the case, then a 100MP  sensor (not unreasonable to expect in 4 years) and a 21MM  lens is all you need to cover focal lengths for most use cases. 

What do other Q users think?

 

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I think the frame lines make this a nice functional addition to the camera. You could always crop digital photos to "emulate" a different FL, but you rarely had the ability in camera to frame the composition with that in mind. These massive megapixel sensors offer a lot more flexibility when it comes to cropping in the sense that you can still print fairly large - and of course, for the web / social media, even 7mp is going to be enough. Will it be exactly as if you shot with a 35 or a 50 or a 75? No, but then you aren't also carrying extra lenses around that you may use for a small % of shots (always the case for me, even when I was carrying a 3 prime kit - usually one stayed on the camera 95% of the time). If anything, I think this feature will make it MORE likely to "shoot at different perspectives" than when I had extra lenses with me.

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with the original leica Q, I totally ignored the 35mm and 50mm crop since 15mp(@35mm) was a little bit lower than what I want if I wanted to future proof the image. Ideally 24mp as lowest resolution that is.  With the new Leica Q at 47mp, I kind of see it as a 28mm(47mp) and 35mm(~30mp) camera since both mp are high enough. The only tradeoff is if it is harder to prevent blurry pictures with the 28mm (47mp) since usually higher resolution might be harder to capture. Like the rx1rii without stabilization would probably need over 1/60 shutter speed to be more confident that there is no blurriness (maybe 1/100 or 1/125 at minimum).

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Over the years I’ve only made a few really good photos. Going over them, none of them are cropped.  I think a significant crop diminishes the overall look of the photo by taking away the Leica lens characteristics leading to the corners.  In addition, a cropped photo results in a DoF not true to the cropped focal length. My subconscious picks that up and downgrades the photo.

I skipped the first Q because I prefer 35mm and didn’t want to crop.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the 28mm focal length (the 28 Summilux-M f/1.4 is one of my favorite lenses!), I just feel that the Q would be more fun at 35mm, and cropping a wide open Summilux 28 down to 35 just doesn’t do it for me.

I was really hoping for a 35mm Q2

Edited by ELAN
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9 minutes ago, airscrew said:

It would be nice to have that cropped part fill up whole EVF display when "zooming", not just showing the frames.

The whole point of the way Leica have set this up is to give you the experience of using a classic rangefinder OVF where you can see what is about to come into frame and has always been one of the reasons why people have stuck with that type of camera. Maybe you could  have the option but personally it was one of the really useful features of the q and why made it so different from other cameras

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1 hour ago, viramati said:

The whole point of the way Leica have set this up is to give you the experience of using a classic rangefinder OVF where you can see what is about to come into frame and has always been one of the reasons why people have stuck with that type of camera. Maybe you could  have the option but personally it was one of the really useful features of the q and why made it so different from other cameras

Yes, sure, I understand that point. But adding it as an option doesn’t cost anything to Leica. I can enjoy the traditional way of framing enough with my M10 and MATE :)

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Took some quick portraits on a dog walk to test out ISO 50 and in-camera cropping

50mm crop

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Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

75mm crop

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17 hours ago, airscrew said:

It would be nice to have that cropped part fill up whole EVF display when "zooming", not just showing the frames.

I commented to Jono Slack about this on another forum. He said he would convey my thoughts to Leica. They simply must implement it as an option., that is if they want to sell me a Q2

I prefer to shoot at 50mm when outdoors (you know, just like HCB :)). The Q2 has plenty of resolution at that crop should I want to print. But I'm not buying a 5K Leica with a 3.68 mp viewfinder that is intentionally crippled (no zoom) so I can pretend it is a film camera from 1932.

Frame lines were necessary when you changed lenses on film M's and digital M's. They have true rangefinder focusing, which was an ingenious invention that served many well for decades.

The Q2, with its EVF, is of course in no way a rangefinder. Yeah, the EVF is in the corner, and the lens has (fly by wire) manual aperture and focus controls. Not giving me the OPTION to see full EVF view of what I am "focusing" on for a 50mm composition, or 35mm (and especially 75), and forcing me to use about half (or less) of the 3.68 mp OLED viewfinder, with my aging eyes, is simply ridiculous. I promise this will affect sales negatively; at least by one, but probably by many more.

Two guys in a bar. One is showing the other his new Leica Q2. With the monitor on:

“These are frame lines corresponding to the digital crop, just like in 1932."

"Cool, zoom in to that 75mm view".

"I can't, Leica doesn't allow it"

"What? Lemme look through the viewfinder with it zoomed" so I can compose that hot waitress over there. 

"You can't zoom in the viewfinder either"

"I want to see her body zoomed to 75mm! I want it to fill the viewfinder!

"You can't. Leica wants you to pretend you have a film rangefinder camera that couldn't do the things every other EVF in the world can do now."

"You paid 5 grand for this, and it can't zoom in to 75 or even 50 or 35mm? Didn't you say it had a state of the art OLED, 3.68 mp viewfinder?"

"Yeah, but Leica intentionally crippled it so I can act old school.

"Later Biff".

 

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I picked up my new Leica Q2 yesterday and It's really great.

I agree that it would be nice to have the option to fill the EVF screen when the focal length is selected rather than once the images has been taken viewing it in the EVF (I notice this only happens when JPG and DNG is selected.)

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8 hours ago, galavanter said:

I commented to Jono Slack about this on another forum. He said he would convey my thoughts to Leica. They simply must implement it as an option., that is if they want to sell me a Q2. 

 

"Later Biff".

 

Very nice story. You can sort of zoom in by switching to MF and using magnification.

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vor 7 Stunden schrieb rfunnell:

...I agree that it would be nice to have the option to fill the EVF screen when the focal length is selected rather than once the images has been taken viewing it in the EVF (I notice this only happens when JPG and DNG is selected.)

The JPG plus DNG selection might be a solution, as I can delete the JPGs later ...

Thanks for the information!

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The ugly truth about Q2 crop mode lies here :

Q2 : 0.76x equivalent magnification. 21mm eyepoint 

EVF pixel count : 

28mm = 3.68MP

35mm = 2.36MP

50mm = 1.15MP

75mm = 0.51MP not that much left for evaluation  

 

CL : 0.74x. 20mm eyepoint 

Leica CL = 2.36MP at any focal length 

 

Rear screen relative size : 

28mm = 100%

35mm = 64%

50mm = 31%

75mm = 14% goddamn small ! 

 

CL = 100% at any focal length 

 

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Am 9.3.2019 um 10:23 schrieb ELAN:

...I just feel that the Q would be more fun at 35mm, and cropping a wide open Summilux 28 down to 35 just doesn’t do it for me.

I was really hoping for a 35mm Q2. 

I'm a 35mm shooter too! So I thought about a Sony RX1RII first.
But sometimes I need a bit more WA and/or 50mm.

So for me the Q2 would be perfekt (nearly), as I get a 35mm crop with 30MP resolution, which would be enough ...

 

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