Anyone traded their Q3 43 for Q3 28?

[bqwertpl]

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Hi everyone. 
 

I’m getting ready to purchase my first ever Leica Q - Q3 28 mm or 43 mm. Coming from Sony Rx1r II. 

I can pickup the 28 mm tomorrow if I want. The 43 mm is weeks (if not months) away. I’m buying from state with no sale tax, so the wait is long and I had to put my name down.. 
 

I have not been using my Rx1rII in over 2 years. Got tired of the small batteries and outdated firmware (also overly complicated). 
 

On my iPhone 16pro I mainly use 24 mm (1x) lens = about 95%. 
the remaining 5% is the 2x and 3x lenses, which I believe starts over 40 mm and up. 
 

My heart tells me to patiently wait for the 43 mm until it’s in stock - could be march/april. 
 

I wonder if anyone went back to Q3 28 mm because they just could not deal with the 43? My biggest worry is picture quality not matching the APO lens, on the 28 mm. 

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[Kim Dahl]

APO or not.

I have both 28mm and 43 mm.  

28mm from the start and 43mm the day after it arrived.

I use them for everything family and vacation and a little professional (editorial photos for newspapers and magazines)

My advice is:

You shouldn't choose based on whether it's APO or not. You should choose based on focal length. !!

In the practical world, they are some fantastic lenses. No difference.

43mm has a different "expression" but only because it's 43mm and not 28mm - and the construction is different.

I love them both.

BUT If I were to only have one, it would always be 28 mm. 

My 43 mm will never be a 28 mm. But my 28mm can easily become a super good 43mm.

With it you can do almost everything. You can crop a lot.

[JNK100]

I have the Q3 28mm. I would be be very surprised if you were not happy with the quality of the images!.

All serious reviews I have read concur. 

I am sure the 43 is superb too. Best to choose your camera based on the focal length you prefer 

[Chris W]

As above - choose based on the preferred focal length.

I'm personally not a fan of 28mm as a field of view.

[jmschuh]

I have both cameras and if I had to choose a single camera, I would keep the 28mm version.
The optics is first class and there is nothing to complain about.
With the 28mm version, which actually has an angle of view of a 26mm lens, I can still take a 50mm picture with enough pixels. But if I only had the 43mm version, the interesting wide-angle range would not be available to me.

Don't worry about the 28mm version. The optical quality is really very good. The fact that the 43mm APO version is perhaps a little better at the edges does not make the 28mm lens a bad lens. The 28mm optics built into the Q is at the highest level in the class of this focal length. In the end, what counts is what comes out at the bottom, and both cameras are excellent in this respect.

So only decide according to the focal length (angle of view) you want.

 

[JNK100]

It is a strange question really as no one buys an interchangeable lens based on output-quality instead of focal length.

You could end up with a supremely sharp 16mm lens for wildlife if this was.the case...

[T25UFO]

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5 hours ago, bqwertpl said:

I can pickup the 28 mm tomorrow if I want. The 43 mm is weeks (if not months) away. I’m buying from state with no sale tax, so the wait is long and I had to put my name down.. 

Surprised there is a wait for the 43.  Available for immediate delivery in the UK, both from Leica Store and main Leica dealers.  I would go with the 28 anyway because it's more versatile.

[bqwertpl]

Thank you everyone. I will be heading to the local store today with SD card and my laptop to snap few pics and just see the files on my own. 
 

The reason I mentioned the lens quality is because this is not an easy purchase for me (financially) and I have been planning it for years. So, besides the focal length, I also think a lot about getting the best I can, since I’m not sure when I will be able to do something like this again. 
 

As far as inventory for the 43 mm here in US… not available almost anywhere at this time unless it’s strictly Leica store and you get lucky. 
The 28 mm is finally showing steady availability in online stores for the first time. 

[jjroroek]

3 hours ago, Kim Dahl said:

APO or not.

I have both 28mm and 43 mm.  

28mm from the start and 43mm the day after it arrived.

I use them for everything family and vacation and a little professional (editorial photos for newspapers and magazines)

My advice is:

You shouldn't choose based on whether it's APO or not. You should choose based on focal length. !!

In the practical world, they are some fantastic lenses. No difference.

43mm has a different "expression" but only because it's 43mm and not 28mm - and the construction is different.

I love them both.

BUT If I were to only have one, it would always be 28 mm. 

My 43 mm will never be a 28 mm. But my 28mm can easily become a super good 43mm.

With it you can do almost everything. You can crop a lot.

i have the 28 and indeed a superp camera and lens but...........i miss the DOF of the 50 mm summilux or summicron. a picture taken on 28 mm 1.7 croped to 50 mm has a DOF of 3.1  . only for that reason i am considering buying a q3 43, but not without keeping the 28 because i like the wide field of the 28  en the quality of that lens. 

[Cogito]

Just to give a different perspective, especially if you're shooting people: I would have preferred to have a 50mm lens or longer, my best photos have been taken with an 85, but because Leica made a Q3 with 43mm I got that and have to admit I like the ability to have a slightly wider image and cropping to 70 or 85mm looks very good. I wouldn't want to go wider though, to me 28mm(26mm) looks too much like phone photos, but that's just me, I've seen extremely nice environmental portraits taken with the Q2 monochrom(Paul Reid,) but now he's recently switched to an M10M mostly so he can pair it with a 50mm lens. 

[Kim Dahl]

Potrætter - That's why I bought the Q343 BUT it's not good at hitting the right eye.

 It's a lottery whether it hits the closest eye or the other.

A portrait where the farthest eye is sharp and the other is blurry - that's not good enough.

I really hope Leica does something about it in a firmware update.

[keithlaban.co.uk]

@Kim Dahl

Do you switch to the nearest eye?

[bqwertpl]

1 hour ago, Cogito said:

Just to give a different perspective, especially if you're shooting people: I would have preferred to have a 50mm lens or longer, my best photos have been taken with an 85, but because Leica made a Q3 with 43mm I got that and have to admit I like the ability to have a slightly wider image and cropping to 70 or 85mm looks very good. I wouldn't want to go wider though, to me 28mm(26mm) looks too much like phone photos, but that's just me, I've seen extremely nice environmental portraits taken with the Q2 monochrom(Paul Reid,) but now he's recently switched to an M10M mostly so he can pair it with a 50mm lens. 

Mostly cities, landscape, cars, our mini schnauzer and macro. Don’t do portraits a lot, if any. 
 

Would like to explore street photography. 
 

BUT I have one flaw haha …. I love pixel peeping 😞 it all started with the Sony RX1R and then the mark II. 

[JNK100]

44 minutes ago, Kim Dahl said:

Potrætter - That's why I bought the Q343 BUT it's not good at hitting the right eye.

 It's a lottery whether it hits the closest eye or the other.

A portrait where the farthest eye is sharp and the other is blurry - that's not good enough.

I really hope Leica does something about it in a firmware update.

Best just to manually select the focus point.

[costa43]

You will get a firm split of opinion on this topic. If you do not want/like/need the 28-42 range or you prefer stronger tele performance then the 43 is the better option. It's MTF is a little stronger too.

Against my initial thought, I ended up going for the 28. It's a more useful focal length as a weather sealed travel camera to me, especially with 60mp. I also prefer the look of my 50mm Summilux over that of the 43mm on the Q when it comes to people snaps, so that was also a factor for moi. 

 

[Jonas Larsson]

8 hours ago, Kim Dahl said:

APO or not.

I have both 28mm and 43 mm.  

28mm from the start and 43mm the day after it arrived.

I use them for everything family and vacation and a little professional (editorial photos for newspapers and magazines)

My advice is:

You shouldn't choose based on whether it's APO or not. You should choose based on focal length. !!

In the practical world, they are some fantastic lenses. No difference.

43mm has a different "expression" but only because it's 43mm and not 28mm - and the construction is different.

I love them both.

BUT If I were to only have one, it would always be 28 mm. 

My 43 mm will never be a 28 mm. But my 28mm can easily become a super good 43mm.

With it you can do almost everything. You can crop a lot.

As a 28 owner this is comforting. Thanks for sharing. 

[Kim Dahl]

You can be more than happy with your Leica Q28 - it's a fantastic camera.

[goldgranada]

3 hours ago, bqwertpl said:

Thank you everyone. I will be heading to the local store today with SD card and my laptop to snap few pics and just see the files on my own. 
 

The reason I mentioned the lens quality is because this is not an easy purchase for me (financially) and I have been planning it for years. So, besides the focal length, I also think a lot about getting the best I can, since I’m not sure when I will be able to do something like this again. 
 

As far as inventory for the 43 mm here in US… not available almost anywhere at this time unless it’s strictly Leica store and you get lucky. 
The 28 mm is finally showing steady availability in online stores for the first time. 

BTW There is a "like new" version of the Q3 43mm available, with a somewhat premium price of $7,299 at MPB.com...just saying it's looks like a long wait for the big brick and mortar stores in USA,  like Adorama & B&H to get stock in Q3 43mm cameras. I was elated to find a nice used one at the "normal" price and happy with the purchase. See below:  https://www.mpb.com/en-us/search?q=Leica Q3 43....

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[Alexander108]

vor einer Stunde schrieb bqwertpl:

Mostly cities, landscape, cars, our mini schnauzer and macro. Don’t do portraits a lot, if any. 
 

Would like to explore street photography. 
 

BUT I have one flaw haha …. I love pixel peeping 😞 it all started with the Sony RX1R and then the mark II. 

You may not be too happy photographing landscapes with a 43mm lens. Even 28mm feels sometimes a bit long for landscapes.

I am extremely happy with my Q3-28 and also do a lot street photography. Here are a few pictures mainly taken with the Q3 (some with the Ricoh GRIII): 

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 Some of the pictures (like this one) are heavily cropped. The 60MP sensor really allows for candid street photography even if you cannot get as close as you like. OK, DOF may not be perfect. I use my Q3 for landscapes as well as street photography. The lens is great and I believe it's a more versatile camera than the 43mm version for this variety of photography.

[bqwertpl]

14 minutes ago, goldgranada said:

BTW There is a "like new" version of the Q3 43mm available, with a somewhat premium price of $7,299 at MPB.com...just saying it's looks like a long wait for the big brick and mortar stores in USA,  like Adorama & B&H to get stock in Q3 43mm cameras. I was elated to find a nice used one at the "normal" price and happy with the purchase. See below:  https://www.mpb.com/en-us/search?q=Leica Q3 43....

You see, I’m getting mine from New Hampshire. No sales tax. That alone saves over $400 which is well worth it. Just the wait times is the bummer. 
 

today I’ll be checking the 28 mm one and see how I like it.