My Journey to Leica

[Jackalope]

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After renting a Q2 for a few days last week, I was hooked, and started looking for something used right away. Early this week I found a used Q2 on the Adorama site, and bit the bullet. The camera looks brand new...but I'll know better after I've had the chance to shoot with it for a while. 

When I was still in high school, a friend's stepfather took us into the darkroom and taught us the rudiments of developing and printing our own images. My mother bought me an Asahi Pentax Spotmatic, probably in 1966, and it served me extraordinarily well for many years. I shot mostly slide film, mostly Velvia. The camera was built like a tank; I eventually gave it to my son when he became interested in photography near the end of the last century (he got much more serious than I did: he studied with the great American photographer Emmet Gowin and eventually purchased a Mamiya medium format camera).

Once I was married with young children, photography and pretty much everything else went out the window. When the kids were in high school in the '90's, I returned to some very casual photography...and went digital early, with a Kodak DC 290. I will admit that I have absolutely no memory of owning this camera, but the Photos app assures me that I did. My computer again tells me that I next purchased a Minolta DiMAGE F100; I do remember using this little thing for trips to Europe 

Now the evidence points to increasing bouts of Gear Acquisition Syndrome: I had a Canon Powershot A70 by 2004, which I again toted around Europe (work took me to Germany several times a year, which was always a good excuse to go to Italy). By 2005 I had moved to a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX1; I suppose you could say that I was sniffing around the edges of Leica land, since the camera had a Leica-branded zoom. I really loved this little camera, and kept it a bit longer than its predecessors.

We were living in England in 2010, and just before moving I entered the micro four thirds universe with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1. This was a great little travel camera, and it served me in good stead for a number of years. The image I brought back from the West Highland Way in Scotland remain some of my favorites.

Well, I was in love with the camera at least until 2013, when I moved up the sensor ladder to CMOS: a Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-RX100. I see now, looking back, that this was a fork in the road. The little box took great pictures, but I was always aware of the technical side of things...and the better the Sony, the more aware of technology I became.

Our first trip to Burma in early 2015 caused me to reevaluate...and upgrade...to a Sony A6000. I never loved the camera, but this first of many trips to Burma produced the best images I've ever taken (we travelled to Burma yearly until the coup last February). Was it the camera, or was it the incredible first shock produced by this remarkable country? Who knows. But I liked the pictures so much that I decided that Sony must have some secret sauce, and, if an APS-C sensor produced pictures like that...then a full frame sensor must mark the way to the promised land.

In 2017, the A6000 went up on Ebay, and a new Sony A7 RII, along with a couple of lenses, was soon on the way to my door. I rather imagine that this is a typical pattern: Amateur photographers of a certain age, kid's tuition and mortgage paid off...So you can guess what was coming. By late 2019, the A7 RII gave way to an A7 RIV. And that really concluded an eight-year Sony "arc." Photography forums are littered with people who finally gave up on the incredible complexity...and size...of the Sony system. They're great electronic devices, there's no doubt about that. But I felt a hankering for something simpler, something more direct. 

In 2021, yes, just last year, I sold all my Sony gear--and there was a lot of it--and purchased a Fujifilm X-Pro3 and a couple of the little F2 prime lenses (is it sacrilege to call them Fujicrons on this forum?). I loved and still love this little camera: I take it everywhere, and it produces wonderful images. I'm not selling it: I will use it for the terrific JPEG's that it produces, and use my Q2 for shooting RAW.

Will I travel with both? I don't know. Probably, if we're going somewhere in a car (I took several Fuji lenses with me to Iceland last summer because we had a rental car). The first real test will be our second 100-mile walk on the Southwest Coast Path this June. I think I'll take the Leica...but will report!

[Stephen_C]

Thanks for an interesting story—and one very similar to my own (substituting Canon for Sony, plus a lot of wildlife photography). Moving to the Q2 is a fundamental change of discipline, of course, but, oh, the weight-saving! Landscape work (and, I guess, street photography, if that's your thing) is wonderfully unencumbered. I do miss some telephoto reach but with the Q2 sensor there's always the ability to crop if you wish to do that.

I just feel the Q2 is another phase in my photography life—one which I'm still learning.The results can be stunning.

Stephen

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[Viv]

Based on my own experience with the Q2, I believe that you will derive great satisfaction from using it.

The Fujifilm X-Pro 3 ain't no slouch neither, although a very different camera.

If you ever feel the urge to change from the Fuji, consider the Leica CL. There are rumours of its demise, but it is a wonderful camera, all the more attractive as buying proposition if prices start to fall.

I look forward to seeing some of your Q2 photos posted on this forum.

[Dave in Wales]

Q2, IMVHO = A simple, beautiful, point & shoot camera just as complicated as one wants to make it, leading to leisurely unhurried picture making.

Not forgetting the kudos of the red-dot around ones neck.

My new OM-1....OTOH, is the complete opposite........BUSY, BUSY, BUSY.

My only problem with the CL was lack of any form of IS.

 

[wda]

On 3/26/2022 at 6:58 AM, Dave in Wales said:

Q2, IMVHO = A simple, beautiful, point & shoot camera just as complicated as one wants to make it, leading to leisurely unhurried picture making.

Not forgetting the kudos of the red-dot around ones neck.

My new OM-1....OTOH, is the complete opposite........BUSY, BUSY, BUSY.

My only problem with the CL was lack of any form of IS.

 

Cartier Bresson did not need IS. For most of my life I operated without IS. Lack of IS has not affected my photography with the CL. There are proven methods to combat lack of IS. IS need not be a deal-breaker, useful though it can be.

[Herr Barnack]

My journey to Leica began with a film MP black paint and a 50mm Summilux BP in 2003.  In the following year, I added a 28mm Summicron and a 90 f/2 APO to my Leica kit.  Fast forward to the debut of theM240.  I traded in my comprehensive Nikon kit for a black  M240.  I have been exclusively Leica since then (M and Q2), although I still have my Rollei 35SE and Nikonos V.

I really have not missed my Nikon SLR gear, although I still love Nikon's F3hp and will get another copy at some point.  The M system does so many things well.  I never have been a sports or wildlife/bird photographer, so I don't miss telephoto lenses. 

Edited March 31, 2022 by Herr Barnack