Best Leica for street photography

[Le Chef]

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I never understand this “Quest for speed on the street”. It feels more like Austin Powers than HCB or Elliott Erwitt. To me street photography is like fishing: you wait a long while for something to happen wherever you have “parked” yourself, and then if you’re lucky something happens. You’re setup with the right lens, exposure set as you see it, and focus in the area where you anticipate something happening. Then you capture the moment.

I’ve watched people shoot fast on the street, and the resulting shots are horrible. They rush around poking their cameras into people’s faces, just because they can, faff about with a myriad of settings, miss some really interesting shots, and what you end up seeing are startled individuals, lots of large noses, and no story. If you look at HCB and Erwitt’s shots they tell stories that engage. It may just be that the best street shots are the slow shots that take time to develop…

Edited September 13, 2024 by Le Chef

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[Anbaric]

1 hour ago, Le Chef said:

I’ve watched people shoot fast on the street, and the resulting shots are horrible. They rush around poking their cameras into people’s faces, just because they can

Bruce Gilden?

[Le Chef]

32 minutes ago, Anbaric said:

Bruce Gilden?

How much of an ass do you want to be as a photographer?

[newtoleica]

On 9/13/2024 at 6:03 PM, lofercan said:

The speed that the Q can give you for fast photography and on the street, the M series can never give you. It is my opinion

The M is faster than the Q on the street. I have both and use the M10-P in preference. It's faster as I can zone focus accurately, and 'trap' focus. Both of these are faster than AF, always. Manual focus with the rangefinder with practice is as fast as the AF on the Q2 and more reliable. I always use a tab on the lens and pull it from infinity to almost correct by the position of the tab and knowing the distance, the final drop into high contrast takes a fraction of a second. I have used the Q2 on the street. It's fine, but sometimes grabs the wrong subject and takes a while to go 'green'. I much prefer the M. The Q2 is for family and more casual stuff.

[Le Chef]

You can use the Qs to focus manually. Not as nice to do as with an M, but more than doable. I just wish when you focused manually that it had the old school SLR prism to focus.

[Miltz]

On 7/1/2024 at 9:26 AM, Sharon said:

Hello,

I would love to hear opinions... what is the best Leica for street photography? I currently use Q2. I love it, but for upcoming street photography workshop I wonder if I should upgrade .

I don't like to carry very heavy equipment , but I think a zoom lens can be a benefit. 

Thank you !

No such thing. Everyone has an opinion. There is no street photography lens or camera despite marketing. Don’t fall into the trap of having others answer a question where only your opinion matters. 

[Le Chef]

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A phone works just fine for street, if you’re not fussy. Many use their phone this way every day, and they have no rationale for spending $10k or so on a Leica.

[lofercan]

11 hours ago, newtoleica said:

The M is faster than the Q on the street. I have both and use the M10-P in preference. It's faster as I can zone focus accurately, and 'trap' focus. Both of these are faster than AF, always. Manual focus with the rangefinder with practice is as fast as the AF on the Q2 and more reliable. I always use a tab on the lens and pull it from infinity to almost correct by the position of the tab and knowing the distance, the final drop into high contrast takes a fraction of a second. I have used the Q2 on the street. It's fine, but sometimes grabs the wrong subject and takes a while to go 'green'. I much prefer the M. The Q2 is for family and more casual stuff.

I use manual focus, the only thing I worry about is the framing of the shot. I set the speed to automatic and work with the appropriate aperture. This allows me a very effective speed in taking that I couldn't achieve with an M that I have tried a lot. A cordial greeting

[Matt Stevens]

I think the Q2M may be the ultimate street camera. For my esthetic, B&W is the color of the street... Or in this case the color of a bar off the street.

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Edited September 15, 2024 by Matt Stevens

[Voxen]

On 9/14/2024 at 11:27 PM, newtoleica said:

The M is faster than the Q on the street. I have both and use the M10-P in preference. It's faster as I can zone focus accurately, and 'trap' focus. Both of these are faster than AF, always. 

You can zone focus with the Q as well, it is no different than M in that matter. And when you need AF it is there.

I do a lot of street photography, for me the Q is much better at it than the M, but it is personal preferences. I'm currently doing it with a Ricoh GRIII which is the king of street photography (if we want to compare).

[newtoleica]

2 minutes ago, Voxen said:

You can zone focus with the Q as well, it is no different than M in that matter. And when you need AF it is there.

I do a lot of street photography, for me the Q is much better at it than the M, but it is personal preferences. I'm currently doing it with a Ricoh GRIII which is the king of street photography (if we want to compare).

Of course everyone's experience is different, but MF in the EVF is slower than a RF and the DOF markings on the lens are even more inaccurate than usual, though I doubt that makes much practical difference, so yes you can zone focus. 

Personally I would never use a camera that didn't have a viewfinder, even though I do some shots 'on the hip' taking the camera to my eye to view the frame is an essential component of photography for ME. Holding up like a phone would utterly destroy my immersion in the process. V personal and I know many like it as a very unobtrusive camera. It probably lends itself to a certain type of photography that's very 'grabbed all angles, instant', whereas generally I'm a bit more controlled. 

Best

Brendan

[BWColor]

Which camera is best in an unfriendly “street photography” country?  I used two in South Korea, the M11M/35mm and the X2D/38mm.  If needed, both can use a cellphone as viewfinder and shutter release.  Both work great when using zone focusing.  The Q3 would have also been a good choice, but when shopping for the Q3, I ended up with something totally different..the Hasselblad.

That said, I was careful not to get too close, or take images where individuals were easily identified.  One beach had a sign threatening photographers with huge fines and up to ten years in jail.  Yes, the sign was in English and no, this wasn’t in North Korea.

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Edited September 16, 2024 by BWColor
Additional information

[Voxen]

3 hours ago, newtoleica said:

Personally I would never use a camera that didn't have a viewfinder, even though I do some shots 'on the hip' taking the camera to my eye to view the frame is an essential component of photography for ME. Holding up like a phone would utterly destroy my immersion in the process.  

I was exactly like you but I changed my mind using the GRIII. 

For any kind of photography I can not stand not having a good viewfinder, but for street photography I discovered it is actually a much better experience when you need to shoot in a hurry for not missing the decisive moment. The time it takes to bring the camera to my eye and let it "understand" what's going on there, I already shot a couple of frames while using the screen. Plus it is way more discrete, as most people don't notice or just think I'm holding a smartphone. Now that I'm used to it, I can hardly get back to a VF for fast shooting.

 

Edited September 16, 2024 by Voxen

[David Cantor]

On 9/13/2024 at 7:05 PM, Le Chef said:

I never understand this “Quest for speed on the street”. It feels more like Austin Powers than HCB or Elliott Erwitt. To me street photography is like fishing: you wait a long while for something to happen wherever you have “parked” yourself, and then if you’re lucky something happens. You’re setup with the right lens, exposure set as you see it, and focus in the area where you anticipate something happening. Then you capture the moment.

I’ve watched people shoot fast on the street, and the resulting shots are horrible. They rush around poking their cameras into people’s faces, just because they can, faff about with a myriad of settings, miss some really interesting shots, and what you end up seeing are startled individuals, lots of large noses, and no story. If you look at HCB and Erwitt’s shots they tell stories that engage. It may just be that the best street shots are the slow shots that take time to develop…

 

On 9/13/2024 at 7:05 PM, Le Chef said:

I never understand this “Quest for speed on the street”. It feels more like Austin Powers than HCB or Elliott Erwitt. To me street photography is like fishing: you wait a long while for something to happen wherever you have “parked” yourself, and then if you’re lucky something happens. You’re setup with the right lens, exposure set as you see it, and focus in the area where you anticipate something happening. Then you capture the moment.

I’ve watched people shoot fast on the street, and the resulting shots are horrible. They rush around poking their cameras into people’s faces, just because they can, faff about with a myriad of settings, miss some really interesting shots, and what you end up seeing are startled individuals, lots of large noses, and no story. If you look at HCB and Erwitt’s shots they tell stories that engage. It may just be that the best street shots are the slow shots that take time to develop…

Compose the image Sammy and wait.........https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxoYxZpujbc

 

Edited September 16, 2024 by David Cantor

[Le Chef]

2 hours ago, David Cantor said:

Compose the image Sammy and wait

He makes many good points on composition and waiting. Some would argue though that this is not “street” which seems to throw up what I would call paparazzi style frenetic grab-and-go shots with little thought to composition or storytelling.

Storytelling wherever it may happen seems to be the better motive rather than simply stuffing a camera in someone’s face for the adrenaline hit of capturing  a shot that says very little.

[PeterKelly]

On 9/13/2024 at 10:03 AM, lofercan said:

The speed that the Q can give you for fast photography and on the street, the M series can never give you. It is my opinion

I have a Q3, a M10M and an M11. All three are great for street work but I use the M10M most often because of its low light/ high ISO performance. 
 

I find zone focusing with the M bodies to be the simplest and fastest way to shoot street subjects. F8, Auto ISO and the focus set to 1.5 or 2 meters is my basic setting with a minor tug on the focus tab if the subject distance changes significantly.

 

i would second the opinion that you shouldn’t take any new camera too a workshop.

[M Street Photographer]

Basically, it doesn't matter if you use a Q, M, GR III, etc. when you focus zone. None is noticeably faster or slower when it is not in sleep mode. I have had this experience with the Q3, M10R, GR III, A7 RIV and even the Digilux 3 over the course of many years. If a photo went wrong, it was always my fault and never the hardware.

What’s much more important to me is that I feel comfortable with my equipment.In addition to the haptics, this also includes the direct setting options of the camera if I want to change something.The size of the camera has never been a deciding factor.I spent a day testing out the Fuji GFX 50s and I have to say that apart from the weight, which I didn't like, I had no problems with street photography. On the contrary, I had the feeling that people took me more seriously and viewed me as more serious.