Took the plunge - Q2 as ‘only’ camera

[davidginNYC]

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(This is my first post, thought I’ve been following these forums for a while now.)

On Sunday I was organizing all of my cameras and realized yet again I had a ridiculous amount of equipment. So I boxed up most of it and took it to my Leica dealer to sell it. The plan was to place an order for aQ2, and hang onto just 1 or 2 cameras for a few months until it arrives. 

So I parted with my M10 and my Leica CL systems.  I also got rid of some Fuji bodies and lenses lying around. And in a lucky turn of events, my dealer said he was expecting a Q2 in 2 days that he could sell to me. So I added my beloved Q to the trade-in pile, and went home to wait for the call. And yesterday I was able to pick up my Q2. 

It feels liberating and freeing to have one* camera choice. I think in many ways I was happiest when I had just gotten a new M9 and I could only afford one lens. There was no anxiety about what camera or lens to take. No worrying about what if I wished I had a different lens. I made the best use of the one option I had. And I’m really looking forward to that simplicity again. 

How many of you have done something similar, and are trying to live with just one primary camera/lens?

 

*Ok, I cheated and for now I’m keeping my Sony A7Riii for landscape usage, especially because I have a set of drop in filters for it.  

[lykaman]

Unforunately, I tried that (1 Camera 1 Lens) sadly although liberating, it soon got boring & to many opportunities missed.. L

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[Jonathan Hodder]

Your last line made me smile. 

I do remember the days of 'one camera, one lens' fondly. But I do enjoy the flexibility that multiple lenses provide. 

I suppose it depends on what you are shooting. The way I got over the multiple choice anxiety was to have a rough idea in my head as to what I was going to shoot and how I wanted to shoot it before I step out the door, and take no more than 2 lenses out with me. This becomes your world, allowing you to concentrate on making the image in front of you rather than worrying about what you left behind. 

Having said that, there's nothing stopping you from making a beautiful body of work with just one lens - and a stellar 28 lux at that. 

Edited August 28, 2019 by Jonathan Hodder

[Jonathan Hodder]

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Edited August 28, 2019 by Jonathan Hodder

[MikeTaylor]

I didn't have much to trade in gear wise. But I've totally bought into the one camera, one lens philosophy and I'm loving it. And (at least in my opinion) I'm producing my best work in years. Obviously  YMMV...

[albertknappmd]

My wife has been using the Q since 2015 and recently traded up to the Q2.

She is an amazing photographer and is most versatile..

I envy her...

Albert

[Archiver]

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Similar to @Jonathan Hodder I fondly remember the days of one camera, one lens. I try to replicate that by using a simple pocket camera like the Ricoh GR or Panasonic LX10, with its zoom lens, or even the M9 with 28 or 35. But I've got a wide range of gear and it has spoiled me with the ability to match gear to circumstances and desires. But in theory, I could use a Q as a main camera as I like the M form factor as well as a fast 28.

[mbphotox]

I sadly don't have tens of thousands worth in gear to trade in, but I expect you to be buying new bodies and lenses soon again. 

Why? Because you owned a multitude of systems that don't differ all too much, showing that you suffer from serious gas. (like many of us in this hobby ) 

 

I'm happy with my DSLR for "serious" work, and wanted the Q for city trips and carry-on travels, where a DSLR and 3-4 primes kinda gets in the way.

Did have a compact Fuji system for that, but got seriously disappointing results at times, resulting in the milc gear residing in the cupboard for over a year now.

Edited August 29, 2019 by mbphotox

[davidginNYC]

1 hour ago, mbphotox said:

you suffer from serious gas

You’re correct about that!  But I also realized that I was suffering from a side-effect of GAS: feeling like I was neglecting* some of my cameras.  Plus when you have so much equipment you have no “excuse” for not being prepared to get the perfect shot when you’re out and about.  As others have suggested, I did tend to visualize ahead of time what kind of shooting I’d do, and take one or two lenses selected for that purpose.  But I still felt some stress when making those choices, especially when I was going somewhere new and didn’t know what to expect.

By contrast, I remember fondly when I got my M9, I could only just afford the body plus a 50 Cron lens.  So for 2 years, that’s what I shot.  Objectively I’m sure I missed some potentially great shots because of equipment limitations.  But I didn’t feel like I was missing out.  I just made the best use of the tools available to me.

So in some way my decision to focus on the Q2 (with the Sony for very specific situations) is an attempt to go back to focusing on what matters.  And for me it has always been two things: 

1. ) The shooting experience

2. ) The image as a whole, including mood and composition.    (I absolutely do not care about pixel peeping, extreme sharpness, barrel distortion, and sometimes not even so much about focus)

The Q2 ticks those boxes for me.   So @mbphotox, I hope that a year from now I can check in on this thread and report back that I didn’t restock the cupboard!

 

*about “neglect” and feelings of guilt:  Am I the only one that feels guilty when I don’t use the things I own?  A few years ago I finally bought the German sports coupe that I’d wanted all my life.  And I loved it.  But after about a year and a half of owning it, I realized: I live in NYC, rarely drive to begin with, have a young daughter and a wife and therefore frequently have to drive our SUV instead.  All of which meant that while I was still very smitten with the car, I felt stressed and guilty every time I saw it sitting in the parking garage unused.  So I sold it.  I miss it, but I’m glad I don’t still have it.  That’s how I’m feeling about my M10 right now too!

[lykaman]

4 minutes ago, davidginNYC said:

You’re correct about that!  But I also realized that I was suffering from a side-effect of GAS: feeling like I was neglecting* some of my cameras.  Plus when you have so much equipment you have no “excuse” for not being prepared to get the perfect shot when you’re out and about.  As others have suggested, I did tend to visualize ahead of time what kind of shooting I’d do, and take one or two lenses selected for that purpose.  But I still felt some stress when making those choices, especially when I was going somewhere new and didn’t know what to expect.

By contrast, I remember fondly when I got my M9, I could only just afford the body plus a 50 Cron lens.  So for 2 years, that’s what I shot.  Objectively I’m sure I missed some potentially great shots because of equipment limitations.  But I didn’t feel like I was missing out.  I just made the best use of the tools available to me.

So in some way my decision to focus on the Q2 (with the Sony for very specific situations) is an attempt to go back to focusing on what matters.  And for me it has always been two things: 

1. ) The shooting experience

2. ) The image as a whole, including mood and composition.    (I absolutely do not care about pixel peeping, extreme sharpness, barrel distortion, and sometimes not even so much about focus)

The Q2 ticks those boxes for me.   So @mbphotox, I hope that a year from now I can check in on this thread and report back that I didn’t restock the cupboard!

 

*about “neglect” and feelings of guilt:  Am I the only one that feels guilty when I don’t use the things I own?  A few years ago I finally bought the German sports coupe that I’d wanted all my life.  And I loved it.  But after about a year and a half of owning it, I realized: I live in NYC, rarely drive to begin with, have a young daughter and a wife and therefore frequently have to drive our SUV instead.  All of which meant that while I was still very smitten with the car, I felt stressed and guilty every time I saw it sitting in the parking garage unused.  So I sold it.  I miss it, but I’m glad I don’t still have it.  That’s how I’m feeling about my M10 right now too!

This too will pass 

[sturkel]

So I tried to limit myself to the Q2 only and had taken it on a couple of trips as my only camera.  While I love the image quality I did miss the reach for someof my work.  Hence I just picked up a Nikon Z7 with the 24-70 lens and will be geeting the 85 most likely.  What I did learn from the Q2 is I love these large files to work with.  So now the Q2 is my first go to camera and the Z7 when I have a project in mind. 

[ralphh]

Completely agree - I have Q2 only and rather than being bored I find it challenges me more.  I start seeing opportunities rather than thinking about gear. I know what you mean about gear guilt too.  One camera + one lens (even an expensive Leica one) means you're getting the most you can out of your investment, but I still have neglect guilt if I haven't taken a photo in a week!

Sidenote:  Doesn't sound like you got a very good deal if you had to swap M10 + lenses, CL + Lenses, Fuji + Lenses and a Q for a Q2!!  You could have sold your M10 body only on eBay for the price of a Q2.

Or did I mis-read/understand what you did?

Edited August 30, 2019 by ralphh

[mbphotox]

Well, the only thing you miss out on, are specialist scenarios, like shallow dof portraits,  birds and wild animals, deep space astro stuff, basically all the tele applications.

 

You can still do a lot with 28mm, though. 

I almost never used my 50 or longer lenses when trekking.. Always the wide angle.

 

For me, the Q is perfect as a single piece teavel cam, but not for work.

[ralphh]

24 minutes ago, mbphotox said:

Well, the only thing you miss out on, are specialist scenarios, like shallow dof portraits,  birds and wild animals, deep space astro stuff, basically all the tele applications.

 

You can still do a lot with 28mm, though. 

I almost never used my 50 or longer lenses when trekking.. Always the wide angle.

 

For me, the Q is perfect as a single piece teavel cam, but not for work.

Shallow DoF portrait on Q2 [a 50mm equiv crop] -- but agreed, it is much better at environmental portraits.

 

I don't think any Leica is suitable for work.  Their customer service is just not good enough.

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Edited August 30, 2019 by ralphh

[davidginNYC]

2 hours ago, ralphh said:

Doesn't sound like you got a very good deal if you had to swap M10 + lenses, CL + Lenses, Fuji + Lenses and a Q for a Q2!!

Actually, I wasn’t very clear.  I came out of the trade with the Q2 plus a very substantial check.  I absolutely could have gotten 10-20% more if I’d sold them individually directly to interested buyers.  But would I have?  Probably not!  I’m too busy, so for me I was willing to take a fair trade-in price in order to be done with the whole lot in a few minutes.  

[ralphh]

fair enough, so long as it wasn't the whole pile for just the Q2!!  Fully understand about not wanting the eBay hassle.  I tend to look at how much I'll make vs exchange (or just binning something) and take a view.  10-20% of the kind of cash you're talking about would have motivated me, but we're all in different places financially; I'd rather bin something worth less than £50 than eBay it as it's just not worth my time to list and post it as where some people find it worthwhile to sell stuff worth just a couple of £

Edited August 30, 2019 by ralphh

[LondonL]

I wonder if @davidginNYC is still going strong with 1 camera 1 lens?

[fotografr]

On 8/28/2019 at 10:44 AM, davidginNYC said:

(This is my first post, thought I’ve been following these forums for a while now.)

On Sunday I was organizing all of my cameras and realized yet again I had a ridiculous amount of equipment. So I boxed up most of it and took it to my Leica dealer to sell it. The plan was to place an order for aQ2, and hang onto just 1 or 2 cameras for a few months until it arrives. 

So I parted with my M10 and my Leica CL systems.  I also got rid of some Fuji bodies and lenses lying around. And in a lucky turn of events, my dealer said he was expecting a Q2 in 2 days that he could sell to me. So I added my beloved Q to the trade-in pile, and went home to wait for the call. And yesterday I was able to pick up my Q2. 

It feels liberating and freeing to have one* camera choice. I think in many ways I was happiest when I had just gotten a new M9 and I could only afford one lens. There was no anxiety about what camera or lens to take. No worrying about what if I wished I had a different lens. I made the best use of the one option I had. And I’m really looking forward to that simplicity again. 

How many of you have done something similar, and are trying to live with just one primary camera/lens?

I thought about it but never got beyond that point.

[huwm]

I’ve just ditched a TL2 and ‘full house’ of lenses for my Q2 and love the freedom.

Kept my CL with a Sigma 30mm and Lumix 24-105 for ‘sports’ trips and to use some antique lenses with but it’s not really getting out  much tbh

I used a dealer for the same ‘lack of hassle’ reasoning.

 

Edited December 8, 2020 by huwm
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[Marac]

The key is happiness, if you are happy then it's all worth the effort.

I regularly sell bits on eBay, even lenses and caps and filters for a couple of pounds simply because a lot of people (including me) do not have a large budget but would like to play the game.

I tried 1 cam 1 lens once with the Q and realised it's not really an option for me, besides, I love to play with different lenses and bits, I tend to jump in the sand pit and end up covered in sand.