Just got my Q2... video mode?

[AndrewDD]

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I sold my old Q a few weeks ago, and after a brief detour I got my Q2 today. Mostly is seems superb. I'm happy I didn't get it before Firmware 2.0 as not having Touch+Release would have been a complete show stopper - but the new implementation where it is separate from the normal focus options is brilliant

The biggest issue I have is the lack of a video button. Having looked around the forum it seems that this is popular, but I really can't believe it. I often shoot at events where I am switching rapidly between video and photos and the last thing I need is to have to put on my glasses and start fumbling around in menus every time I switch. 

According to page 100 of the manual you can (1) do a left swipe to go into video mode (and a right swipe to go into photo mode) or (2) repeatedly press the centre button.

(1) is a pain as I have to use the other hand (yes - in a crowd, holding a camera at a funny angle, this would be a pain), and it is proving unreliable - I often have to swipe 3 or 4 times before it changes

(2) doesn't work. When I'm in photo mode pressing the centre button just cycles through the display options, when I'm in video mode pressing the centre button doesn't do anything.

 

So... am I missing something with the centre button? Is there another way of changing, without digging into the menu? Have I missed an option to program one of the other buttons?

If only it was possible to, say, have a small button on the top of the camera to make it shoot video - then you would have no need to mess about with different modes!

[Stephen_C]

The manual was (sadly) not updated following release of firmware 2.0. Go to the first menu (when you press the Menu button) and select video from there. You don't really have to "dig around in the menus": it should be the first menu that appears when you press the relevant button.

Stephen

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[AndrewDD]

 

19 hours ago, Stephen_C said:

The manual was (sadly) not updated following release of firmware 2.0. Go to the first menu (when you press the Menu button) and select video from there. You don't really have to "dig around in the menus": it should be the first menu that appears when you press the relevant button.

Stephen

Can't be done with one hand, requires putting on my glasses. Not good in a crowd when I want to go from shooting video to photo quickly!

[AndrewDD]

I just found a youtube video where the guy was showing it switching between video & photo modes by pressing the centre button - with firmware 1.0  Why on earth would they change that?

[nicci78]

Original Q was so much better with dedicated video button ! It is a mess now. 

[AndrewDD]

It's a shame because the video functionality is so much better. Firmware v2 has given manual control of exposure, and the focus modes are hugely improved.

[4peterse]

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Calm down, boys 🙂

@AndrewDD - you can also swipe left/right on the screen to toggle video mode. That should work with one hand (depending on the size of your hands) and without glasses.

[AndrewDD]

I had my first serious shoot yesterday with the Q2. The results were good, but changing from photo to video mode was a right pain!

I like to shoot photos using touch/release focus. This is a disastrous option in video mode as touching the screen doesn't just move the focus (a good thing) it also starts or stops the video recording (a very bad thing)

So, to change from photo to video shooting, which on the Q was simply a matter of pressing a different button, I have to go into the menus to change the photo/video mode, and the touch AF mode - which is about 14 button clicks. Not ergonomically friendly!

@4peterseSwiping left/right doesn't work - if touch/release is enabled it usually takes a picture!

[sebas_]

Does firmware 2.0 enable the capability of L-Log in the Q2?

Would  be an interesting B cam for my SL2

 

[leicameech]

On 7/8/2020 at 11:35 PM, AndrewDD said:

I had my first serious shoot yesterday with the Q2. The results were good, but changing from photo to video mode was a right pain!

I like to shoot photos using touch/release focus. This is a disastrous option in video mode as touching the screen doesn't just move the focus (a good thing) it also starts or stops the video recording (a very bad thing)

So, to change from photo to video shooting, which on the Q was simply a matter of pressing a different button, I have to go into the menus to change the photo/video mode, and the touch AF mode - which is about 14 button clicks. Not ergonomically friendly!

@4peterseSwiping left/right doesn't work - if touch/release is enabled it usually takes a picture!

Hello,

I propose setting up your default video settings (e.g. touch af+release, auto ISO or your preferred overall default ISO when quickly switching into video, preferred focus mode i.e. tracking, face detect, field etc.) and saving the video settings as a user profile. Then, you could program either the FN button or the button on top of the thumb wheel to allow switching between user profiles and save yourself some clicks/navigation/time and switch to your "video" profile which will have all your desired settings by default. Or you could keep those buttons for whatever you might be using them for (if something else) and just press menu and select the user profile from the quick menu (row 2, #5 -- the picture of the person). You can simply change ISO from there (that's how I'd do it, anyway) but the focus mode and whether touch AF+release is set up or not is up to you. Think about what your "good enough regardless of the situation" video settings would be, set the camera up that way, save it as a profile, and make small changes once those settings are loaded. 

Regarding pressing center button, it's true that that was done away with on firmware V2, but I found it to be an awesome change. Cycling through the info display via the center button took four presses, not two. Basically -- you'd be in 1. photo mode with all info visible (top/bottom bars on screen showing battery life, meter, etc.) -or- 2. photo mode with only bottom bar visible (meter, shots remaining) -or- 3. photo mode with nothing visible (full screen mode, if you will) -or- 4. video mode. The amount of clicks it takes to scroll through to video could be the same amount of clicks it takes to switch to a user profile, which can change virtually all camera settings in one go. Having a default user profile (or profiles) for photo and video can be very useful for what you're doing, I think, especially if you prefer different focus settings for video vs photo work. 

Edited July 10, 2020 by leicameech
and another thing!

[AndrewDD]

Thanks @leicameech for the detailed reply

I had wondered about trying user profiles. I've never used them on any of my cameras as I always shoot with manual aperture, exposure, iso and white balance. I set these up at the start of a photo set, and then get consistent results for the whole set of photos. The Q2 with v2 firmware, having manual control over these settings for videos, is a great improvement as it means the video shot at the same time is consistent too. If a user profile sets everything (ie, it doesn't give you "manual iso", it gives you "manual iso set to 400" etc) then it is no use to me at all. When shooting I often do 20 - 30 photos, then 2 minutes of video, and then back to photos. With the Q this was simply a matter of pressing a different button on the top, with the Q2 it is pretty much impossible to do quickly. I really don't want to be changing any settings when switching, with a lot of people around it isn't a good look.

I agree that the functionality of the Q2 is much improved, at least with v2 firmware. Having manual control in video is great, and being able to pull focus by touching the screen when recording video is a big step up. I had to learn several different little tricks to persuade the Q to move focus during a video which were never that reliable. My issue is with the interface. Removing the video button was an act of crass stupidity - Leica has an unfortunate habit of pandering to those who think that if they don't use a feature on the camera then it should be removed (as an aside, this is why I stuck with my M240 and would never "upgrade" to an M10).

Anyway, rant over.

The behaviour of touch-release AF in video mode, so it refocuses and then stops recording,  is obviously a firmware bug.  I guess no-one thought to test it in video mode.

They must have implemented using existing functions. In "pseudo code", something like:

{ call touchAF;

   call shutterRelease;

}

It should be:

{ call touchAF;

  if (inPhotoMode) { call shutterRelease; }

}

If they would send me the code, I could fix it in minutes, whatever language it is in  

We are stuck with the video button being removed as it would be a hardware/design change. However,  it should also be pretty easy add a new menu option make the top wheel button a video shutter release. Something like:

if (not recordingVideo)

{ call switchToVideoMode; call shutterRelease; }              // start video

else

{ call shutterRelease; call switchToPhotoMode; }              // stop video

 

These changes mean I would be able to shoot photos by pressing the shutter release or by touching the screen, and shoot video by pressing the top wheel button & focus it by touching the screen. Quick, easy, great functionality, and no digging around in menus with people tutting at me.

[leicameech]

12 hours ago, AndrewDD said:

Thanks @leicameech for the detailed reply

I had wondered about trying user profiles. I've never used them on any of my cameras as I always shoot with manual aperture, exposure, iso and white balance. I set these up at the start of a photo set, and then get consistent results for the whole set of photos. The Q2 with v2 firmware, having manual control over these settings for videos, is a great improvement as it means the video shot at the same time is consistent too. If a user profile sets everything (ie, it doesn't give you "manual iso", it gives you "manual iso set to 400" etc) then it is no use to me at all. When shooting I often do 20 - 30 photos, then 2 minutes of video, and then back to photos. With the Q this was simply a matter of pressing a different button on the top, with the Q2 it is pretty much impossible to do quickly. I really don't want to be changing any settings when switching, with a lot of people around it isn't a good look.

I agree that the functionality of the Q2 is much improved, at least with v2 firmware. Having manual control in video is great, and being able to pull focus by touching the screen when recording video is a big step up. I had to learn several different little tricks to persuade the Q to move focus during a video which were never that reliable. My issue is with the interface. Removing the video button was an act of crass stupidity - Leica has an unfortunate habit of pandering to those who think that if they don't use a feature on the camera then it should be removed (as an aside, this is why I stuck with my M240 and would never "upgrade" to an M10).

Anyway, rant over.

The behaviour of touch-release AF in video mode, so it refocuses and then stops recording,  is obviously a firmware bug.  I guess no-one thought to test it in video mode.

They must have implemented using existing functions. In "pseudo code", something like:

{ call touchAF;

   call shutterRelease;

}

It should be:

{ call touchAF;

  if (inPhotoMode) { call shutterRelease; }

}

If they would send me the code, I could fix it in minutes, whatever language it is in  

We are stuck with the video button being removed as it would be a hardware/design change. However,  it should also be pretty easy add a new menu option make the top wheel button a video shutter release. Something like:

if (not recordingVideo)

{ call switchToVideoMode; call shutterRelease; }              // start video

else

{ call shutterRelease; call switchToPhotoMode; }              // stop video

 

These changes mean I would be able to shoot photos by pressing the shutter release or by touching the screen, and shoot video by pressing the top wheel button & focus it by touching the screen. Quick, easy, great functionality, and no digging around in menus with people tutting at me.

I see. Yeah, you'd have to click menu and switch to video using the touch screen, and then proceed to use touch AF+release to begin recording. You could stop recording by pressing the shutter release, which would prevent you from having to try and touch the exact spot the focus point is already located when you want to stop recording so as not to have the camera focus on something else right as the video clip ends. Regarding the user profiles -- yes, if you have the ISO set to 400, for example, and then save your current settings as a profile, then your ISO would automatically be set to 400 if you were to select that profile later. That's why I recommended setting ISO to auto if saving settings as a profile, because although I don't use auto ISO that often, if I were to switch to one of my profiles, auto ISO should get me by in most instances if I were to want to shoot immediately after switching profiles. Still, it leaves me nothing to change except the ISO, and I know my settings otherwise will either be the way I like them, or easily observable at a glance if aperture/shutter speed are not where I want them to be. 

[AndrewDD]

Just in case anyone reads this and is confused, the issue is this. With Touch/Release autofocus, in video mode, the first time you touch the screen it focuses on that point, and starts recording. If you touch another point on the screen it pulls focus onto that point (correct) but then stops recording! 

I have spoken to customer care, they agree it is a bug, and they have passed the message onto the gnomes in Wetzlar to get a fix.

In the mean time I will have to dig through the menu to change from Touch/Release to Touch every time I go from photo to video.