Jono Slack Review: The Leica Q3

[jonoslack]

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The Original Leica Q was released on June 10th 2015, It was a real surprise, with lots of novel features and was a big success for Leica.

The Leica Q2 arrived on 7th March 2019, it was the same basic concept with a lot of useful updates:

• New Full Frame 47mp Image sensor
• Weather sealed dust and splash-proof
• New, faster Maestro family processing engine
• Same Summilux f1.7 28mm Asph lens
• New OLED EVF 3.68mp (same resolution as Q but clearer)
• Extended ISO range from 50-50,000 ISO
• Video Recording C4k 24p/4k 30p/FHD 120p/FHD 60p/FHD 30p/FHD 24p
• Higher speed AF
• Higher capacity battery (the same as the Leica SL)
• Faster top electronic shutter speed (1/40,000th sec)
• New 3 button User Interface (similar to Leica CL)
• Touch screen functionality on the LCD
• Improved digital zoom with framelines for (28),35,50 and 75mm
• Improved Wifi and Bluetooth

It was a big list! The Leica Q2 has become a hugely popular travel camera, and is in use today with hundreds of photographers, sometimes as a second camera but often as a first camera. It's so good that I know several professional photographers that use it as their primary camera.

I've just been to the LSI (Leica Society International) Spring Shoot in Rome, where I think there were more Leica Q2s visible than M cameras and L cameras put together!

The Leica Q2 was such a success that Leica then brought out the Q2 Monochrom

If you're interested then you can find my writeup for:

• The Leica Q2 here
• The Leica Q2 Monochrom here

and two articles on the original Q2: „Hemingway“ and „Q in China“

The Leica Q3

So, today (May 25th 2023) Leica have released the Leica Q3. I've had one for several months now, and in this article I'll discuss the improvements (or otherwise) in relation to the Leica Q2.

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Changes:

• New 60mp BSI Back Illuminated CMOS Sensor (similar to Leica M11)
• USB-C and Mini HDMI connectors
• PDAF Focusing
• Tilting LCD
• Improved Bluetooth and WiFi
• Small, Medium and full sized DNG and/or JPG files 60,3, 36.5, 18.6 mp
• Reliable Geotagging in conjunction with Leica Fotos
• Rear Button Layout change
• Long exposures possible (with any combination of ISO and shutter speed) Long Exposure NR can be disabled.
• One additional function button
• USB-C Charging
• Optional Grip enabling WiFi charging
• Better resolution EVF 5,760,000 dots magnification 0.79
• Better resolution Display 3" 1,843,200 dot
• Digital Zoom now has 28, 35, 50, 75 and 90mm framelines
• Leica Looks

The Body

The Leica Q3 has the same, wonderful, 28mm f1.7 Summilux lens as it's predecessors, This is certainly a case of (if it ain't broke, don't fix it).

However, there are changes to the rear of the body

Tilting LCD

Leica have been doing their research, and the most requested new feature was a tilting rear monitor (it doesn’t twist). This will save you dirty knees when photographing that toadstool, and allow you to take photographs over the heads of the crowd at any event or concert.

This has been very nicely implemented: Most of us will have the screen behaviour set to EVF Extended (so that menus and review comes up on the rear screen LCD and the EVF is used for framing and shooting). If you pull out the tilting LCD then the camera assumes that's how you will be framing and the LCD switches on. When you push it back in it reverts to EVF Extended. Excellent!

USB-C and Mini HDMI connectors

There is a new port on the left hand side of the camera (looking from the back). This contains USB-C port and a mini HDMI connector. The door itself is plastic and it is hinged on two rubbery strips attached to the camera body so it pulls clear. It seems to me that this is a much better solution than a hinged door (however tough) because if it breaks it won't be part of the camera and should be easily replaced.

Rear Button Layout change

This is a bit more controversial. The three Play - Function - Menu buttons on the left hand side of the back of the body have been moved to the right hand back of the camera (to make room for the flippy LCD). Instead of 3 buttons however there is just the Play and Menu buttons, with an improved four way switch where the FN button used to be.

I'm not really convinced by this, I can see the rationale, but it was good to be able to use both hands on the rear screen, and the large function button on the left was extremely useful. But it only takes a day or so to get used to it.

 

One additional function button

There is an additional function button on the back of the camera at the top, This might seem like a replacement for the old function button on the left, but now you can also configure the set button with a long press.

Optional Grip enabling Wireless charging

I haven't tried this (Leica didn’t send me a grip), but I understand that you have to be careful to place the camera correctly to get it to charge (like other devices really). As far as I'm aware this is the first full frame camera to have wireless charging.

The Hardware

New 60MP BSI Back Illuminated CMOS Sensor (similar to M11)

The new sensor is a real step forwards. Leica aren't very forthcoming about sensors, but as I understand it this is a modified version of the sensor in the Leica M11. BSI sensors are much better at low light, and this is something I've had a look at (see the image quality section below).

The only downside of the new sensor is that it has a slower readout time than the one on the Leica Q2, This will result in more of a ‘rolling shutter’ effect when using the electronic viewfinder, it also results in a slightly longer blackout time between shots when you fire quickly. For most people this will. be something they don't even notice, but for someone who shoots bursts of photos it might be an issue.

Phase Detect Auto-Focusing

Both Leica and Panasonic (in both the SL, S and Q cameras) have been using Contrast Detect AF in the past. This works well, but the difficulty is that if an image is out of focus the camera doesn't know whether front or back focusing, and has a tendency to hunt back and forth. Phase detect requires specialised pixels, but can detect where the plane of focus should be and head in the right direction without hunting.

This is a real step in the right direction, at the moment the focusing of the Leica Q3 doesn't seem a great deal better than the Leica Q2 (which was very good), but this is something that should be able to be improved in firmware updates in the future. Leica have finally bitten the bullet and used the best method of auto-focus.

Improved Bluetooth and WiFi

The Leica Q3 has hugely improved WiFi and much better Bluetooth than the Leica Q2, As a result the connection with Leica Fotos is much faster. Download of images over WiFi to your phone or tablet is really fast In fact it's much faster than a cable connection (and of course much more convenient).

Small, Medium and full sized DNG and/or JPG files

Like the M11 you can choose three levels of file quality - the sensor native resolution is.

• 60MP, 9520×6336 pixel files, it can also output
• 7416×4928 (36MP) or
• 5272×3498 (18MP)

…both with DNG raw files or JPG.

Personally I'm not very convinced by this, I feel the best way to preserve space is to do proper culling, but I do understand that lots of people like the option to create smaller resolution files. Very little detail is lost using the lower resolution.

Long exposures possible

With the Leica Q3 any combination of ISO and shutter speed can be used, and long exposure NR can be disabled. This makes the Leica Q3 very suitable for night photography, especially when you consider the excellent high ISO capabilities of the camera.

USB-C Charging

This option is so convenient. It means that when you arrive in Fuertaventura for 10 days and find you forgot to pack your charger it's no drama. In fact I find it more convenient than the traditional charger - I have a USB block by my bed to charge phone / watch and it has a USB-C cable so it can charge the camera overnight as well.

It also means that you can charge the camera from a power brick when away from an electricity supply.

Optional Grip allows Wireless charging

The optional grip connects to the camera, and allows wireless charging. Sadly I didn't have a grip, so I couldn't test this. Apparently Leica will also be selling an induction pad to go with the camera.

Better EVF 5,760,000 dots magnification 0.79

I have to say that I never had much problem with the Leica Q2 EVF, but this is even better, it's clear and bright and incredibly detailed.

Better resolution Display 3" 1,843,200 dot

The display quality is really good, clear and bright with excellent viewing angles and real detail.

Digital Zoom has 28, 35, 50, 75 and 90mm framelines

There are now 5 digital zoom levels:

28mm	9520 x 6336 px	60.3 MP
35mm	7616 x 5072 px	38.6 MP
50mm	5328 x 3552 px	18.9 MP
75mm	3552 x 2368 px	8.4 MP
90mm	2960 x 1968 px	5.8 MP

The extra sensor resolution makes the digital zoom even more usable than previous Q cameras - I have to say that I wasn't really convinced until now. However, I only shoot DNG, so I am not committed to the lower resolution in post processing.

The 35 and 50mm options are particularly useful.

I was thinking that 5.8mp for the 90mm really isn't very much, and then remembered that we decorated our Cornish house with A2 sized images from the Olympus E1 back in 2005, that camera was only 5mp and the images look great.

Just like the Leica Q2, at the longer focal lengths the display shows frame lines representing the crop. For lots of purposes this is perfect, but I think it would also be great to have an option to show the crop full screen (both in shooting mode and in replay).

Leica Fotos

Leica Fotos works extremely well with the Q3: WiFi download of larger DNG files is incredibly quick (much faster than using the cable provided).

Geotagging is now accurate and consistent. You don’t need to have the camera connected to the app for it to work, just to have the app loaded on your phone.

Leica ‘Looks’ can be chosen in Fotos and transferred to the camera - they are:

• Contemporary
• Classic
• Blue
• Selenium
• Sepia

Probably more will be added later if this is successful. The Looks can also be accessed through the jpg settings on the camera. This isn’t something I’ve really examined, I tend to shoot DNG only, and make changes in Lightroom rather than the camera.

Fotos has really come along since the early days. I’m still trying to figure out how to incorporate it into a complete digital workflow, but it’s really good for creating quick content for social media, and also for connecting to Lightroom Mobile. But for me it’s worth it’s presence for the Geotagging alone.

Focusing

In single shot mode the focusing is very precise and quick, just as it was in the Leica Q2, Eye detect seems to work pretty well too. Continuous focus and tracking are still behind the competition, but at least now Leica have finally embraced PDAF (Phase Detect AF) we can expect real improvements in firmware going forwards.

Image Quality

This is where the Q3 really shines, the new sensor has incredible dynamic range and excellent high ISO characteristics. It's hard to measure the dynamic range improvement (it's obvious though), but I feel that the new camera offers about 1.5 stops improvement in noise at high ISO.

Here are some comparisons at 100 ISO, 3,200 ISO 12,500 ISO and 50,000 ISO.

If you want to look more carefully at the differences in image quality then you could not do better than to look at my friend Sean Reid's site, which is well worth the subscription at www.reidreviews.com.

Conclusion

The Leica Q3 offers some solid advantages over it's predecessor, including an excellent new sensor, PDAF focusing, a tilting LCD, much improved Bluetooth and Wifi, variable sized DNG files and excellent Geotagging in conjunction with Fotos. The new EVF is sparkling and the digital zoom has somehow come into it's own. The only slight downside is the increased blackout time when shooting fast. The image quality is right up with it's big brother the M11 and it would make a great companion with the M11 or the SL2 for lots of serious photographic assignments.

The Leica Q has always been the perfect travel camera, and the Leica Q3 has built solidly on that heritage. I'm sure that a very large proportion of the current Q and Q2 users will find the improvements well worth the upgrade, especially the USB-C charging and the much improved low light quality.

[SJH]

Thanks @jonoslack another great insight into a new Leica release, mine is ordered and on it's way!!

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The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[Al Brown]

A brutal tiny machine. And priced very 2023-ish.

[M11 for me]

Thank you, Jono, for your excellent article. I am in the way to Zurich right now to attend the announcement. 

[dugby]

Q3's Digital zoom 28mm - 90mm,  brings back fond memories of shooting with my Digilux 2 Vario 28mm-90mm

[LocalHero1953]

Thank you, @jonoslack, a very helpful review, and, as always, I love your pictures!

I find the Q2 AF to be fast and accurate - except for face/eye recognition, which I found so bad that I never used it, let alone tracking. I believe the Q3 now uses iAF as in the SL2/SL2-S, which switches between AFc and AFs; I hope this implies that tracking, and body/face/eye recognition, will be greatly improved.

It won't be top of everyone's list of issues, but do you know if the 30 minute limit for video recording is still there (as in the Q2)? Being able to use the Q3 for static recording of theatre performance would make this even more versatile for me (and would allow me to replace both the Sigma fp and Q2 with the Q3). If that limit is still there, I shall have to ask Leica if it is a limitation set by the hardware (e.g. heat dissipation) or whether it will be removed with a firmware update.

I am also not convinced by moving the buttons - just as we seemed to be converging on a common interface across all Leicas😒

Edited May 25 by LocalHero1953

[lencap]

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Thank you Juno for another wonderfully helpful review! 

I just bought the SL2-S 50mm Summicron f/2.0 ASPH using Leica's discounted bundle price and voucher offer.  At that price it was, and is, an outstanding bargain, around $4,600 pre-tax.  I upgraded from the 601 and find the new combo outstanding.  I also added a Panasonic Lumix S 20-60 lightweight zoom to the bundle, covering my most used focal lengths.  

The new Q3 has me wondering if I should buy it or not.  I owned the original Q and found the 28mm focal length less than ideal for the type of images I create.  As a travel camera it's unmatched, but for people shots the 28 leaves a lot to be desired, at least for me.  So the new Q3 still has the same issues that the original had - a perspective that is at odds with how I prefer to compose (I'm a 50mm standard shooter by preference).  When I look at the Q3 crop size I wonder if an 18.9MP 50mm crop on the new Q3, combined with the 28mm focal length lens is something I would find to be more useful than my SL2-S/50mm combo.  Having the Panasonic lens also extends to wide shots quite dramatically.  And all the images will be 24MP, a far better match for my typical viewing/processing and very occasional prints.

I may buy one anyway, knowing that the camera will be in great demand, but the "Gotta have it" factor seems a bit less intense than I expected. Phase detect focusing promises a lot more flexibility, but the rolling shutter issue seems to still be present.  And in terms of video (which I rarely use) I'd actually prefer the larger SL2-S body.  Overall the Q3 appears to be a fine camera, but adding more pixels to a 28mm focal length still seems limiting.  As an alternative, although clearly a different solution as an imaging tool, my iPhone 14 Pro is always in my pocket, has a similar default focal length to the Q3, 48MP image capability, easy zooming, and as part of the Apple ecosystem can be easily processed/shared/stored.  The iPhone also allows for down rez created images, similar to the new Q3 and M11.  

For now, I'll stick with the SL2-S/50mm as my primary tools, and see how often I pull out the iPhone to capture the image I'd like to compose.  That will let me know if adding the Q3 is worthwhile.  Clearly I'd prefer a light weight highly portable platform like the Q3, but it also must improve on the overall "goodness" of the SL2-S combo to be my primary tool.  

Edited May 25 by lencap

[Spodrasky]

I have the Disney Leica Q2 and this will most likely be my only Q camera I need. Great review Jono.  I will stay with my M and SL cameras as the workhorse cameras. I am probably the only person that hates flippy screens. I really hope the SL3 does not have a flippy screen. I am sure it will since it supposed to the be the all-around camera. Like the fact they are moving more into phase detect, however I manually focus 90+% of the time.

The new sensor is wonderful. Does the Q3 have image stabilization. I do not see that in the specs.  I find for myself I cannot really shoot the M11 below 1/250th. I move fairly quickly and the large sensor shows more slight movement than my M10M monochrom. Maybe over time I will have less misses with the M11

[snooper]

Charging wireless is not a big issue. You just have to move slowly the camera on the charging pad until the green LED (upper right corner above the screen) lights up. Very convenient. 

[hdmesa]

45 minutes ago, Spodrasky said:

I have the Disney Leica Q2 and this will most likely be my only Q camera I need. Great review Jono.  I will stay with my M and SL cameras as the workhorse cameras. I am probably the only person that hates flippy screens. I really hope the SL3 does not have a flippy screen. I am sure it will since it supposed to the be the all-around camera. Like the fact they are moving more into phase detect, however I manually focus 90+% of the time.

The new sensor is wonderful. Does the Q3 have image stabilization. I do not see that in the specs.  I find for myself I cannot really shoot the M11 below 1/250th. I move fairly quickly and the large sensor shows more slight movement than my M10M monochrom. Maybe over time I will have less misses with the M11

"Flippy screen" is a screen that can flip around facing forward and all directions. This is a "tilt screen" that only tilts horizontally.

I don't have a preference, flippy vs tilt, but if it's going to be tilt, it should have been 3-way tilt screen that works when shooting vertical images. Half or more of my shots at low/high angles are in the vertical orientation.

[jwveld]

Great review and nice images.. .Good to see this camera in action. 

[Louis]

Thank you Jono for your usual wonderful review.

Now, I guess you are free to test the new SL3 that seems to be smaller than SL2, with 60MP! 😉

I have the feeling it would be for 2024, and can’t wait for your review! 😅

[jplomley]

Hope the SL3 will be more than 60 MP to get the most out of the APO Summicrons

[microview]

" I think it would also be great to have an option to show the crop full screen..."

 

Tthat was something I was holding my breath for, alas. Maybe possible with firmware change???

And thanks for your review.

[Chaemono]

Colors look different from the M11. It’s probably the LR profile or the lens but given Jono‘s taste, there could be some change in the Leica color science for the Q3 to differentiate the look of the files from the M11 files. I don’t own either camera. First thing that struck me.

[Coppereye]

I have an original Q which I love.  It just seemed to fit in my hand.  Looked at upgrading a couple of times but I’m not one that upgrades because of more pixels.  Not sure about the Q3 yet it’s being sold at £5300 which is only £200 more than the Q2

How long will Leica continue to sell the Q2 I wonder?

[Printmaker]

2 hours ago, jplomley said:

Hope the SL3 will be more than 60 MP to get the most out of the APO Summicrons

I doubt it. I remember hoping that the M10 would be 36 mp when it was released. But Leica moves slowly. However, the new 60 mp BSI seems to be a very capable sensor.

Having used high resolution sensors (109 & 309), you really don’t see much of a difference once you get past 100 mp. 60-100 seem to be the practical limit. 
 

Back on topic, this seems to be a good camera. And thanks Jono, job well done. But I’ll wait for the Monochrom version.

[huwm]

I'm someone else who likes a fixed screen

Happy to stick with Q2

[Chaemono]

I just compared the pictures in Jono‘s review of the M11 with the ones in his review here. The M11 pictures strike me as having better WB in combination with punchy colors. It must be the daylight WB setting, that Jono usually uses for outdoors, that doesn’t work as well in the Q3,. The Q3 pictures look more yellowish than the M11 pictures to my eyes.

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica Q

[Steven]

Here's my take on the Q3 after a couple days of use. 

Objectively speaking, it's a great successor to the Q2. All the main features that we all expected are here. Finally a decent AF, a sturdy flip screen, outstanding image quality, thanks to a superb lens and sensor combination. Low light is so much better too. For those that cared for video, except for the mediocre AF, it's a pretty huge upgrade from the Q2 in terms of IQ and features. The other new features such as USB charging, new shutter release, fast app connection, etc.. all add up to make it a very worthy upgrade if you're a Q2 shooter. Overall, the image I get from the Q2 is often very impressively sharp, and reminds me of the M11. 

Subjectively speaking, the only reason why I would pick a Q over an M with a 28 Summilux, or even better a 28 Elmarit, or even even better a 28 Summaron, is the possibility to autofocus. The AF in the Q2 was unusable to me. The Q3, while much better, is not good enough. It misses many many shots, and when it doesn't miss, it sometimes doesn't know what I really wanted in focus. My point is, I'm still more accurate, and more importantly more intentional with an M. Beyond precision, there are the colours: while they are good and natural, they are not Kodak film stock.

For these two reasons, I'll pick up my MP over my Q3 99% of the time. I'm just faster and more accurate with an M than Q. No debate. And I enjoy more the final scans of film, than the Q3 files that take me so long to edit, as with every Digital camera. 

P.S. the SL2-S remains the digital camera that produces the nicest image. All digital cameras included, since digital exists. 

Edited May 25 by Steven