New Q3 owner

[ALScott]

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Glad I found this forum.  It looks like one of the few good ones.  My new Q3 should be here tomorrow.  The only other Leica I have had is the C-Lux.  I worked for newspapers as a photographer for 10 years, started in college on the yearbook staff and have been away for too long and want to "enjoy" photography again.  I started looking for a point and shoot that was more like my working equipment than the C-Lux is but still very easy to carry and unobtrusive.  I have always been a Canon guy, still have a 6D and really like it but hate lugging all that goes with using a DSLR for fun shooting.  I thought I would just get a Fuji X100VI due to price of Q3 but then really dug into the differences and due to scarcity of X100VI the secondary prices are silly.  The Q3 looks like it will suit me and what I am used to much better.  In all my years working as a photographer, been a while now, I only used EOS 1's, fill in the blank, whatever top model was available.  I see some issues with AF of the Q3 but I have been out of the game for so long I am thinking it will be fantastic to me.  I want to use this for street photography, trips, family etc and I like the wider lens over the 35mm of the X100VI.  I know you could get the adapter but then it's as deep or deeper than the Q3. Plus, the image quality looks to be fairly unbeatable in the Q3.  

Should the first thing I do is update the firmware?  Is there any special way it should be done?  

[Sharpshooter]

I’ve had my Q3 for about 2 weeks now and it came with the latest  firmware already installed, so all you’ll need to do is take it out of the box, charge the battery and fire away.

I think you made the right decision with the Q3 over the X100vi. I’ve been running the X100v for about 18 months now and the difference is like chalk and cheese. Don’t get me wrong the X100v is a fine piece of kit, but the Q3 is so much more capable and - to me - easier to use.

Enjoy your new camera in good health.

V

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

[ksrhee]

If you are getting the new Q3 now, the firmware should be updated (2.01).  I got mine a few weeks ago, and it came with the latest firmware.

[David Wien]

AL,

Welcome to the Forum. Yes, update the firmware. Instructions come with the download, as I recall. I did mine with the SD card, as Canon do.

Then read the manual, several times, and set a profile and favourites, both of which features save time in use. None of these has to be done tomorrow: have fun first!

David

Edited March 6 by David Wien

[Wellsyboy]

You're in for a treat!!

[Pindy]

I just picked mine up yesterday. It came with FW 2.0.1 already installed. Make sure you charge your battery(ies) fully on the first charge, it'll help with their longevity. I have owned the Fuji X100, X100S and X100V. All of them are good cameras, which got better as they went along, but the Q feels so much closer to my former M6, I'm finding that I bond with it much more quickly and it just feels like home. Perhaps the best digital camera experience I've had, at least in the short time I'm owned it. Enjoy it.

The one thing that threw me was I'm so used to an analogue shutter release button, which you don't have to fully depress for it to release. The Q3 button, it's a definitive press all the way down on my copy. Otherwise, it was not releasing when you press it *just* past the halfway point, which is what I'm used to with digital cameras.