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Leica Q2 silver?

kelseyh
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wda

wda

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My guess, based on past launches, would be 12 to 15 months from Q2 launch date.There is no way of knowing Leica's road-map. There is no way of knowing whether there will be chromium version. Titanium and Safari livery are also possible.

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  • 8 months later...
danielmfrank

danielmfrank

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I would like to see Leica treat the Q series as a serious camera, not a fashion accessory. There wasn't a special edition SL, because everyone understands that it's a serious camera, not a +1 marketing opportunity. That's no criticism of the M, which I do think is still a beautiful and important creative tool. It's just that upwards of 90% of M announcements are for things like the latest albino-rhinoceros-skin limited edition. I totally understand and support Leica using the M as a cash cow to support development of modern cameras and lenses. But when it comes to those modern cameras, I think they should wherever possible follow the SL strategy, not the M strategy.

I think Leica still has a lot of work to do just to make the Q2 fully functional. The narrow core functionality of the camera is extraordinary. However, most of the remaining features such as autofocus modes are mediocre at best, certain aspects of the user interface could stand improvement, and key advertised features such as low power Bluetooth GPS support are missing completely, a year after release. (The latter verges on bait-and-switch, at this point.) If Leica releases a Q2-P or Q2 silver or Q2 Unobtanium Edition without resolving the numerous flaws in the camera with a substantial firmware release, I will be even more disappointed than when they decided to price Leica Fotos at $50 a year for ... Lightroom integration. It would be a symptom of the same sort of confused thinking over why people actually pay so much money for non-M Leica cameras.

Leica is a company with limited development resources. It needs to carefully weigh where to put those resources, and make sure that they are not being unnecessarily diverted from enhancing the value of their cameras and software as tools for serious photographers. Where a camera has reached a reasonable level of maturity given its hardware limitations -- such as the M, the original Q, or the CL -- then +1 makes sense as a way of wringing more cash out of the existing product. But the Q2 isn't there yet, and I think Leica should first concentrate on maturing its firmware before they start wrapping it in rhinoceros skin. 

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Herr Barnack

Herr Barnack

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3 hours ago, eugenepresley said:

What are they waiting for to release a silver version??

So that everyone who wants a Q2 will buy a black one and think they are safe. 

Then afterword when the chrome version is released, around 20% of black Q2 owners will say "oh, crap that's beautiful!  I want a chrome one!!"  Some will trade in their black Q2 and take a bath in the process and others will just give up and buy a second Q2 in chrome.

In other words, Leica does this because they are evil geniuses who take great pleasure in the financial devastation that their vile machinations visit upon we wretches who are afflicted with Red Dot GAS. 😎

 

Edited by Herr Barnack
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Chippy_boy

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12 hours ago, danielmfrank said:

I would like to see Leica treat the Q series as a serious camera, not a fashion accessory. There wasn't a special edition SL, because everyone understands that it's a serious camera, not a +1 marketing opportunity. That's no criticism of the M, which I do think is still a beautiful and important creative tool. It's just that upwards of 90% of M announcements are for things like the latest albino-rhinoceros-skin limited edition. I totally understand and support Leica using the M as a cash cow to support development of modern cameras and lenses. But when it comes to those modern cameras, I think they should wherever possible follow the SL strategy, not the M strategy.

I think Leica still has a lot of work to do just to make the Q2 fully functional. The narrow core functionality of the camera is extraordinary. However, most of the remaining features such as autofocus modes are mediocre at best, certain aspects of the user interface could stand improvement, and key advertised features such as low power Bluetooth GPS support are missing completely, a year after release. (The latter verges on bait-and-switch, at this point.) If Leica releases a Q2-P or Q2 silver or Q2 Unobtanium Edition without resolving the numerous flaws in the camera with a substantial firmware release, I will be even more disappointed than when they decided to price Leica Fotos at $50 a year for ... Lightroom integration. It would be a symptom of the same sort of confused thinking over why people actually pay so much money for non-M Leica cameras.

Leica is a company with limited development resources. It needs to carefully weigh where to put those resources, and make sure that they are not being unnecessarily diverted from enhancing the value of their cameras and software as tools for serious photographers. Where a camera has reached a reasonable level of maturity given its hardware limitations -- such as the M, the original Q, or the CL -- then +1 makes sense as a way of wringing more cash out of the existing product. But the Q2 isn't there yet, and I think Leica should first concentrate on maturing its firmware before they start wrapping it in rhinoceros skin. 

Absolutely spot on. What an excellent post and I agree with every word.

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Chippy_boy

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Advertisement (gone after registration)

10 hours ago, Herr Barnack said:

So that everyone who wants a Q2 will buy a black one and think they are safe. 

Then afterword when the chrome version is released, around 20% of black Q2 owners will say "oh, crap that's beautiful!  I want a chrome one!!"  Some will trade in their black Q2 and take a bath in the process and others will just give up and buy a second Q2 in chrome.

In other words, Leica does this because they are evil geniuses who take great pleasure in the financial devastation that their vile machinations visit upon we wretches who are afflicted with Red Dot GAS. 😎

 

Tongue in cheek perhaps, but also rather close to the truth I suspect.

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dugby

dugby

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I think Leica's marketing strategy is correct by offering variety, it reaches many more consumers.

Recently whilst I was in Banff, a young lady with a White "Snow Leica Q"  asked me to take a photo of herself & boyfriend.

I asked if she enjoyed using her Leica Q and her response was -

"I don't know much about cameras but a friend advised her to buy a Leica, when I saw the white one, I fell in love with it"

 

It's these additional consumers that will keep the company alive, and I am thankful for their purchase and support of the Leica company.

 

 

Edited by dugby
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danielmfrank

danielmfrank

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6 hours ago, dugby said:

I think Leica's marketing strategy is correct by offering variety, it reaches many more consumers.

Recently whilst I was in Banff, a young lady with a White "Snow Leica Q"  asked me to take a photo of herself & boyfriend.

I asked if she enjoyed using her Leica Q and her response was -

"I don't know much about cameras but a friend advised her to buy a Leica, when I saw the white one, I fell in love with it"

 

It's these additional consumers that will keep the company alive, and I am thankful for their purchase and support of the Leica company.

 

 

I don't disagree. I am glad Leica can extract incremental profit from its camera lines by appealing to fashion-oriented buyers. I just think that they should put those profits into maturing the firmware of their existing cameras before they put it into special editions. It's really frustrating for serious photographers to wait years for them to do that, while watching them release a succession of +1 gimmicks for the fashion set.

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  • 3 months later...
nicci78

nicci78

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Silver Q was announced in October 2017. More than 2 years after Q initial launch. And it was a kind of limited edition. 
So I guess that you have to wait until October 2021...

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nicci78

nicci78

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M Monochrom, Q and CL silver versions were available later and for limited period only. 
I guess that it will be the same for Q2. 
 

Fun fact : D-Lux 7 is kinda reverse : only in silver. Although D-Lux typ 109 was only in black. Except beautiful grey (not silver) special edition.

 

Edited by nicci78
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vedivv

vedivv

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On 1/29/2020 at 11:25 AM, danielmfrank said:

I would like to see Leica treat the Q series as a serious camera, not a fashion accessory. There wasn't a special edition SL, because everyone understands that it's a serious camera, not a +1 marketing opportunity. That's no criticism of the M, which I do think is still a beautiful and important creative tool. It's just that upwards of 90% of M announcements are for things like the latest albino-rhinoceros-skin limited edition. I totally understand and support Leica using the M as a cash cow to support development of modern cameras and lenses. But when it comes to those modern cameras, I think they should wherever possible follow the SL strategy, not the M strategy.

I think Leica still has a lot of work to do just to make the Q2 fully functional. The narrow core functionality of the camera is extraordinary. However, most of the remaining features such as autofocus modes are mediocre at best, certain aspects of the user interface could stand improvement, and key advertised features such as low power Bluetooth GPS support are missing completely, a year after release. (The latter verges on bait-and-switch, at this point.) If Leica releases a Q2-P or Q2 silver or Q2 Unobtanium Edition without resolving the numerous flaws in the camera with a substantial firmware release, I will be even more disappointed than when they decided to price Leica Fotos at $50 a year for ... Lightroom integration. It would be a symptom of the same sort of confused thinking over why people actually pay so much money for non-M Leica cameras.

Leica is a company with limited development resources. It needs to carefully weigh where to put those resources, and make sure that they are not being unnecessarily diverted from enhancing the value of their cameras and software as tools for serious photographers. Where a camera has reached a reasonable level of maturity given its hardware limitations -- such as the M, the original Q, or the CL -- then +1 makes sense as a way of wringing more cash out of the existing product. But the Q2 isn't there yet, and I think Leica should first concentrate on maturing its firmware before they start wrapping it in rhinoceros skin. 

Great post.  I am more than happy to pay for a firmware upgrade that support these features. 

My biggest frustration is also AF.  The 5 year old Sony RX1M2 supports eye AF, why not Q2 release last year?  The low power BT GPS would be another huge plus. The other feature would be compressed DNG and smaller JPG options.

The Leica Fotos' Lightroom integration seems a miss.  It's much faster to copy files with a lightning SD reader to ipad/iphone than downloading from FOTOS app (also saving battery life).  Consider that Lightroom only costs $120 a year, $50 for the arguable convenience of FOTOS apps seems a bad deal.  The inability to do video from FOTOS app seems a bad faith crippling, not that I like to use Q2 to shoot video (no external mic connection is a deal breaker for me).

So yeah, plenty of firmware improvements before limited edition Qs.  

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Herr Barnack

Herr Barnack

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On 5/3/2020 at 11:09 AM, johntobias said:

I guess I’ll succumb and end up with a black one 🙄

When you start shooting with this little masterpiece and see the results it produces - particularly at maximum aperture - color will no longer matter.

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  • 3 weeks later...
brickftl

brickftl

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On 1/29/2020 at 2:25 PM, danielmfrank said:

agree with you. With technology that's out there, it's unacceptable that face and eye focus on the Q2 is so poor.

 However, most of the remaining features such as autofocus modes are mediocre at best

 

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