Leica Q2 Vario?

[mrgigi]

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OK I'm starting this discussion chain to see if anyone else thinks a Q2 Vario would be a wonderful addition to the Leica camera line up.  I have been a Canon and Sony shooter over many years, but have had one fixed prime lens Leica camera in my arsenal for the past 15 years that has rounded out my equipment for pure enjoyment.  Over the years I have had many, including a few D-Luxes, the X1, the X2, the original Q, and now both the Q2 and Q2 monochrom.  I don't intend to ever go to an M, since I'm not a fan of the rangefinder, won't invest in all of that Leica glass, and prefer the Sony bodies with Zeiss Loxia/Batis lenses.  I don't intend to move to the SL2, even though my experience with the Q/Q2 gets me curious, as it is just too big and bulky. The SL2 is awkwardly too large for me once you put the SL lenses on it (even though I am certain it is fantastic).  What I've been dreaming about is a revival of a concept that Leica had years ago with the X Vario.  They made some mistakes with the marketing of that model in terms of lens speed, but the concept was good and we are in a different place now with sensor dynamic range technology today.  

Can we please, please, please have a Leica Q2 Vario?!  

The Leica Q2 has already proven to be a great travel camera and although I understand Leica pushing the cropping options, a Vario lens on the Q2 would be just a dream.  I don't understand why this has not been considered / released.  If the concern is that it would detract from sales of interchangeable lens cameras, I think that is short sighted since some of us never plan to buy those interchangeable lens Leica cameras.  If I want an interchangeable lens camera, I'm probably going to go for the best technology and Leica is always catching up to the others (sorry!).  But if I want a fixed (not prime but fixed to the camera) lens, total joy to shoot with, no changing of the lenses camera with a general range zoom that hits all of my checkboxes and gives me the Leica shooting experience (you all know what I mean), then I would buy a Leica Q2 Vario right away.  It would be the ultimate travel and general purpose camera.  Sony sells a lot of RX100s that try to accomplish this, but the sensor is too small.  And I'm never going to buy a D-Lux or even a Leica CL with the vario lens for the same reason.  

Give us a Leica Q2 with a full frame sensor and a crisp Leica zoom!  

Anyone else feel this way?

Edited January 31, 2021 by mrgigi

[Leica28]

I used a Fuji 6X4.5  camera in the 90's.  The zoom was short and I almost never used it.  It had a very slow lens: 4.5 to 6.9 55-90mm.   If Leica was to introduce a zoom it would only interest me if it had an extremely fast and wide aperture lens - which would make it a large one.  Even then, probably not.  I am just a fan of zoom lenses having used them in the past.    The Fuji was sold in short order and I replaced it with a Mamiya 7 II.   Perhaps a Leica zoom would interest others.  

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[frame-it]

9 minutes ago, Leica28 said:

 If Leica was to introduce a zoom it would only interest me if it had an extremely fast and wide aperture lens

which they would never do

[axio]

Wouldn’t it make more sense to introduce another Q with longer focal length fast prime instead?

[w44neg]

For me it wouldn't really work. Firstly, a zoom lens would probably be too large as a unit. They'd end up making it an f3.5-5.6 to reduce the size, but the f1.7 is part of the attraction of the Q series for me.

Secondly, it wouldn't be weather sealed, and worse still, it would probably suck in dust like the LX100 and Ricoh GRiii that I've had. The vario is great for the smaller D-Lux 7 scenario (although they don't call it that now)  other than the dust issue. The Q is a fixed lens system through and through.

I would consider a 50mm Q2 though for sure. Maybe my 28mm Q2 alongside a 50mm Q2 Monochrom 😍

[axio]

I will pick 50mm over 28mm any day 

[nicci78]

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Q2 is already a zoom camera. 
Just compare it to 28-70mm f/2.8 zoom lens. Such lens has a constant light flux equivalent to f/2.8
Whereas Q2 will provide equivalent light flux of : 28mm f/1.7 + 35mm f/2 + 50mm f/2.8 + 75mm f/4.5

Otherwise if you want a zoom in a small package. Look no further than CL + 18-56mm f/3.5-5.6 It is the true successor of X Vario 18-46 f/3.5-6.3  

Yes it is APS-C. Yes it is slow. But IQ is excellent too. And  you got your zoom  

 

 

[PhotoCruiser]

 

Am 31.1.2021 um 02:28 schrieb mrgigi:

Give us a Leica Q2 with a full frame sensor and a crisp Leica zoom!  

AFAIK the Q2 has already a excellent full frame sensor, so no need to wish that

 

vor 2 Stunden schrieb nicci78:

Q2 is already a zoom camera. 

Exactly!

The Q series with a normal zoom would be a zoom with a camera attached, even worst with a less than 3.5 zoom.
First it would look rediculus and second the camera will be extremly tippy and uncomfortable to hold for a longer time, especially as the Q series ergonomics are not the best.

Chris

[mrgigi]

I suppose the other option is to wait for sensor technology/resolution on the Q3 to improve so that the cropping approach they have advocated and built in can produce useable cropped photos at higher artificial focal lengths.  On a separate note, I can already envision a Q3 with the new M11 sensor technology and the options for changing the raw sensor resolution to lower resolutions for improved images in low light situations with reduced noise.  That would be fantastic, since the Q2 does struggle in low light with respect to noise at higher ISOs.      

[flow1]

Instead of macro mode I'd love to see that switch the lens converting in to 50 mm :))

[jaapv]

.

 

[jaapv]

Given that the Q2 has no vario lens, I think this a rather unlikely scenario.

[T25UFO]

Leica reinvented a new form of zoom and called it cropping.  Just combine a high megapixel sensor with a brilliant (and fast) lens and you don’t need a zoom.

[Le Chef]

No. By the time you had faffed about designing the lens, realized it could never be even close as fast as the 28mm f1.7 or it would have to be as big as an SL lens, you would discover that buyers would disappear and put there money elsewhere if they wanted a zoom lens.

[liggy]

7 hours ago, Le Chef said:

No. By the time you had faffed about designing the lens, realized it could never be even close as fast as the 28mm f1.7 or it would have to be as big as an SL lens, you would discover that buyers would disappear and put there money elsewhere if they wanted a zoom lens.

Agreed.  

Much of the appeal of the Q series is the fast lens and it’s rendering.  I can always use an adapter to shoot Leica glass on my Sony or GFX.  The overall package that the Q2  offers is attractive and a slower zoom wouldn’t be as compelling to me at least. 

[AndrewDD]

Physics... or optics... A zoom lens is slow, big, or short. That was the issue with the X vario. Which would you want the Q2 vario to be?

[TheCarpenter]

On 1/17/2022 at 11:43 PM, AndrewDD said:

Physics... or optics... A zoom lens is slow, big, or short. That was the issue with the X vario. Which would you want the Q2 vario to be?

I am still an X-vario user and would would be quite interested in a Q-vario.  A slower lens would be fine if the high ISO performance was amazing.  

I am mostly interested in travel and landscape photography and have never thought to myself...  I wish less of this photo was in focus.  But I might be and outlier.

[DavidJohn]

I snapped these at the 50mm crop on my Q2 Mono.  Maybe they won't blow up to a 20 x 24" print, but they work for any size that I would do.

I think a zoom would take away from what a Q2 is meant to be—light weight, weather sealed, fast lens, unobtrusive.

 

 

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[DavidJohn]

I should have mentioned some details.  Macro setting, f22, 3 sec., 200 ISO.

The subject is a dead flower bloom

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica Q

[Bazookajoe]

Defeats the whole point of owning a Q2. A zoom on a Q2 -which at the very least would have to be an f2 zoom- would be huge. The camera would be huge, heavy, and much less unobtrusive.

Use the crop function to 'zoom,' like Leica suggests. It really works. And it still retains the function of an f1.7 lens.

Don't just take my word for it, read this:

Leica Q2: The joys of crop to zoom