Landscape: Leica Q3 or M or yet another?

[Alexander108]

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vor 19 Stunden schrieb F-train:

Why would you not have been able to get this shot with a Q?

Maybe a final comment on the Q3s ability to crop. I'd say it is a feasible solution up to 50mm. 

At 70mm the resolution of a Q3 image is 8MP compared to 45MP on the R5. Left Q3 and right R5 (taken this morning). I love to print in 75x50cm (roughly 30x20 inches). This would work but it would not be what I want in terms of image quality. 

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vor 2 Stunden schrieb Miltz:

Honestly… if you want light weight and wide angles you have to go with Olympus. I have the Q3 and Q3 43. 28mm isn’t wide enough. The ultra wide on Olympus are tiny and great quality. No way the sensor compares, but unless you plan to print 60x40 you’ll be fine. 

It is always a compromise. I now sold my heavy RF 15-35mm lens and the EF 100-400 in favor of a 16mm 2.8 prime and the much lighter RF 70-200. This is the solution. I bought the R5 and the Q3 for their great sensor quality. The 70mm crop has 3244x2433 which is roughly 8MP. Not enough for me personally. The D-Lux 8 would probably do a better job at 70mm. Maybe I'll do a test shot later today.

 

 

[jankap]

Of course Topaz Photo AI is there for the emergency cases.😜

[Alexander108]

vor 5 Minuten schrieb jankap:

Of course Topaz Photo AI is there for the emergency cases.😜

Why go out and take pictures, after all?

AI can give you everything without stepping out of the door. Without bothering carrying gear dealing with aperture, shutter speed and ISO. 

Although that I work with AI, I try to avoid it in my photography on purpose. 

[jankap]

Topaz Photo AI does not offer the AI, that you mean here. Not yet ........🥲

[Oxfordian]

18 hours ago, jankap said:

The Q3 has an 28mm and a sensor with 60 Mpixel. So cropping to 70mm would give (28/70)2 x 60 -> 9,6 Mpixel. That is not much, 3500 x 2600 pixel.

It depends, for a monitor or the forum it is ok, but for a print... 

Another question is, if the 70mm photo was perhaps cropped to publish it on the forum.

You can print from an 8mp image, back in the early days of digital I used to do prints of images that were shot on my Canon EOS 10D, high tech then more low tech today, the camera had a 6 MP sensor if memory serves me right.

[Alexander108]

I am happy for everyone using AI in photography. This can certainly improve the results. 

My personal approach with the rise of automation in photography is: do photography and do your best to get it right. 

I am fully aware of the problem of where to draw the line. No LR post-processing? No autofocus? Maybe even no digital photography? 

But these are questions everyone needs to answer themselves. 

[jankap]

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23 hours ago, Alexander108 said:

I am fully aware of the problem of where to draw the line. No LR post-processing? No autofocus? Maybe even no digital photography? 

Wat about film and/or B/W?🫠

[jankap]

The Lytro Illum camera (offering change of DOF in post) also produces output in 2D-tiff. Not cropped these pictures are too big for the forum: 2022 x 1404 px giving 3 Mb. But the pictures, that it produces, are decent.

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The version OOC. Look for the antennae, they are interrupted!

Edited August 2 by jankap

[Alexander108]

vor 1 Stunde schrieb jankap:

Wat about film and/or B/W?🫠

Ok. Found the answer: Kodak Brownie #1!

Edited August 2 by Alexander108

[ColinS]

On 7/23/2025 at 5:05 PM, Alexander108 said:

Who would fly over from Europe to visit the Grand Canyon, and all the other places with a Q3/D-Lux 8 combination only? 

LOL. I'm flying over to the USA in 2 weeks and that's probably what I'll be taking. I'm going to Pennsylvania and Ohio though, rather than Arizona. I've bought a Pixii Max (which is arriving tomorrow) so I might put a 50mm F2 Summicron on that and swap for one or the other. Or take that as well. 

I was out there in 2017 and I must have had my old V-Lux 20 and a Canon EOS. 

Edited August 3 by ColinS

[MindsEye]

On 7/24/2025 at 5:31 AM, Alexander108 said:

During the years I took mainly landscapes only 1/3 were in the range that my Q3 could cover. What surprised me was that 1/3 was wider that the Q3 could get. Another 1/3 was way beyond the Q3s range. It is clear to me now that the Q3 would not be sufficient for visiting these great places again. I bought the Q3 for street photography and I am extremely happy with it. Could not do street with the R5.

@Alexander108 In the end, it's a mind set. If you are at peace traveling with just a Q3 and your smart phone you will be happy. If you are constantly wishing you had a 15mm or 400mm focal length lens with you and that you are "missing" shots, maybe you won't me so happy.

My perspective is that of having made my full time living as a photographer since 1985. I think part of this is an age thing. As I get older I "need" and certainly prefer less and simpler.

I've made most my living over the years selling large prints of landscapes. Because I lived in Flagstaff for 26 years, a lot of those images were from the areas you are planning for your trip, especially the Grand Canyon. I also published an article in PetaPixel years ago about using metadata to determine what lens to buy based on looking at what focal lengths you have used in the past, similar to your analysis above. I have come to realize there may be a pretty big flaw in this logic. I say this because once you have a lens mounted and are composing you will likely be using one end or the other of the zoom range and shooting most your shots at that focal length.

Pick a lens you use a lot for landscapes and see how many were at, or near, the ends of the zoom range. Also when looking, keep in mind that your results may be skewed based on how long you were in a particular place or what kind of shot you were seeking at that time. For example, I did an extensive shoot of various buildings for a client. At the time I happened to be using Canon and had a 17-40mm lens. This was only one job for one client but because it was big project, it totally skews my metadata numbers for images shot in the 17-20mm range.

As someone else pointed out, you will just shoot different kinds of shots if you only have a Q3 with you. Over time I have grown tired of schlepping lots of gear. So when I go out and shoot landscapes these days I either bring my Q3 or if I have a specific purpose in mind, my M11 with 2 or 3 lenses. The latter is still a much lighter kit than an R5 and a bunch of lenses. If all you have with you is a Q3 you will be amazed at how many great images you will bring back home.

[ravinj]

Great points in the post above. One "primary" camera / lens, Q3 or a small interchangeable mirrorless and then maybe add something like the Sony RX10 IV to cover that shot of the elusive goat on a cliff far away. 

I am trying to get in the mindset of not worrying about the shots I may miss and focus on the shots I can take with the camera I have. 

Schlepped Leica S2 with S lenses and tripod on long hikes in Glacier National Park long ago. No more!

[Alexander108]

Did I mention that there was an opportunity to buy a preowned M10 Monochrom in excellent condition for a (kind of) reasonable price? So I got that one and bought a 50y old Summicron 35/2 for less than 1100 EUR. During our recent Italy trip I mainly used the M10M with that lens, the only one I had at the time. Here is a selection of my probably best street photography in Italy this year. Only two or three images were taken with the Q3.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/192748529@N06/albums/72177720328946399/with/54777040045

In the meantime I bought quite a few old and "inexpensive" Leica lenses (if inexpensive is a term that applies, after all but in total I paid less than 30% as if I would have bought them brand new): 15mm f/4.5 Voigtländer Super Wide Heliar Aspherical III (the only brand new), Elmarit 24/2.8, Summicron 35/2, Summicron 50/2, Summicron APO ASPH 90/2. That was quite some investment. 

I am extremely happy with my M10M and the idea is to sell all my Canon R5 gear plus the beloved Q3 to fund an additional M11 + Visoflex. I will wait through October to see if they indeed bringen an M11 with EVF. If that works (not sure about focusing with an EVF compared to range finder) I'd go for that. But for landscape, let's be honest isn't the biggest concern. But that's another story. 

So, did I miss the autofocus? Not at all. Actually manual focusing gave me a better hit rate and was overall faster. What will I lose taking this step? Only very long focal lengths (200mm). But with the 90mm lens I can certainly crop to 200mm with the 60MP sensor of the M11. 

It was quite a journey for me but the M is the system I want to go with: light (compared to the Canon R5), love the manual approach (I never used auto aperture in the Q3 anyway), and the overall old style photography. I was rather intimidated by manual focusing fist and was extremely anxious when I first went out with the M10M in my hometown of Wolfenbüttel in Germany. There was the "Altstadtfest" going on and so it was great for street photography. My expectations were low. I expected 10% where I nailed the focus and the rest somewhat soft pictures . But the opposite was true. I nailed the focus on 90% of my pictures. Now in Italy it was close to 98%. Learning zone focusing with the right aperture works well and the range finder is just great.

So these are my experiences over the past 8 weeks. A total paradigm shift, a shift of mindset.

[Jackalope]

A quick thought on cropping with the Q3 (which I own). There is a lot of evidence out there that you're better off using the zoom on the D-Lux 8 beyond 50mm. Why not bring it for the days you don't want to lug the whole setup?

BTW I grew up in Arizona and know the canyons country well. Having something wider than either the Q3 or DL8 is a good idea.

[Alexander108]

I just ordered an M11 and sold the Q3. In the meantime I bought a 15mm Voigtländer, 24mm Elmarit, 35mm Summicron, 50mm Summicron, and 90mm f/2 APO-Summicron-M ASPH already all pre owned. I feel now well equipped for the trip in May. 😀