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Leica Q2 Wedding


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Was staying with some friends recently who were getting married while I was there.  They had a paid wedding photographer for the day but they asked if I'd cover the day too, so as an extra wedding gift I also shot the wedding and will be putting an album together for them.  It's the second marriage for each and they both have kids so I thought to make sure I took plenty of photographs of the kids.

The proper photographer wasn't there for the wedding preparation, except for the very last 30 mins, and was really just focusing on the happy couple during most of the day (not a criticism - probably exactly what he was asked to do), but there was a huge amount of kids entertainment outside like bubbles, building, limbo, story telling and face painting that he didn't seem interested in, so there was plenty for me to photograph which won't be in the main album and I wasn't at all in his way. 

The Q2 was fantastic for the type of wedding photography I was doing.  28mm is great for a cinematic looking photo-journalistic style, and even the 75mm crop has more than enough resolution for an album, so was very much like having a bag of lenses without the hassle, which was great as I was there as a guest with my wife and two young kids.

Being fairly small and light and unobtrusive also made it quite nice to take out onto the dancefloor etc.  No-one really seemed to notice I was taking pictures as where the other guy with his D800, 24-70 f2.8, grip and flash didn't seem to be getting a lot of candids.

The camera was fast and responsive enough to get every shot I wanted, focus was always good, even late at night and under disco lighting and I never felt like the camera got in the way at all.  Was a fuss-free experience.  I also got much more juice out of my battery than I expected; I seemed to be getting about 1200 shots per battery (I topped it back up to full charge just before the ceremony  and from that point I short 600 photos and was at exactly 50% battery left at the end of the day).  I'm very used to being battery conscious having shot fuji mirrorless for years and tend to turn the camera on, take a shot and immediately turn it off again unless I know I need a quick followup.

Would I use a Q2 professionally?  Maybe.  It's certainly capable.  You could even take two of them, or a Q2 + Q1 (you always need a backup on a wedding) and call it a day if you have a photo journalistic shooting style, but it would be hard to argue that it's the most bang for your buck for a £10,000 (once you throw in a few spare batteries) wedding photography setup.  It might be better paired with a CL and couple of lenses. 

My main worry would be with Leicas service more than with the Q2 specifically - if you broke it at the start of the summer wedding season theres a good chance you'd not have it back until the end of the season as where a Canon or Nikon would be fixed before the next wedding, and given current Q2 availability, you couldn't even just buy another one while you wait for the fix. The Q2 then for me is the perfect camera for the wealthy (or very enthusiastic) amateur or a professional to use as a personal camera, but if you can afford to own 2 or 3 of them, or were using it in conjunction to a DSLR or mirrorless system it would also be a fantastic professional camera.  It's certainly much, MUCH more enjoyable to shoot with than a DSLR  + 2 or 3 lenses. 

The Q2 continues to be the best camera I have ever owned for photographing my person life.  It is more flexible and capable than the specs might lead one to believe and it's a pleasure to carry and shoot.

Here's a video of the better ones for those who have 10 mins to burn: 

I have no idea why it has a pink cast except that my 10 year old version of Premiere Elements sucks.

 

Edited by ralphh
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