Leica Q3 / Q3 43 / Q3 Monochrom Firmware v4

[IRL]

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Is anyone experencing an issue with the functionality of 'toggle info levels' in both shooting and review modes? it works okay in the default profile but doesn't seem to work at all in any saved profile...thanks.

[LocalHero1953]

1 hour ago, Smogg said:

This is where things get tricky: you have to constantly change modes, and to do this on the Q3 43, you have to open a submenu using a dedicated button, and then press another button several times to select the desired value. On the vast majority of cameras, no special action is required.

But the Q has never been anything different. Do you mean cameras with lots of buttons?

 On the SL3-S I have a button just for this purpose (swapping AF modes). The Q just doesn’t have enough buttons - that’s not a problem of this firmware.

 Something that may help: the ‘zone’ reduces in size as the crop increases, so narrowing the area within which faces are looked for. 

Edited 19 hours ago by LocalHero1953

[Steve19958]

14 hours ago, Elliot Harper said:

I updated and I don't see the freezing issue with switching the profiles. Your anecdote sample doesn't speak for me.

I recreated all my profiles with 4.0 no more spining circle.

[JimKnopf]

vor 32 Minuten schrieb LocalHero1953:

But the Q has never been anything different. Do you mean cameras with lots of buttons?

 On the SL3-S I have a button just for this purpose (swapping AF modes). The Q just doesn’t have enough buttons - that’s not a problem of this firmware.

 Something that may help: the ‘zone’ reduces in size as the crop increases, so narrowing the area within which faces are looked for. 

Yes, it's a good feature of Leica that autofocus and exposure are adjusted to the crop factor.

But: Does object recognition work just as reliably with crop factors of 50 or 75 as it does with 28?

[Elliot Harper]

Be cool guys, look at SL forum the firmware update thread for about 75 response and we got more than 270. Either we love Q too much or we hate it too much.

relax, we got the same features / bugs as SL3/S got

[LocalHero1953]

33 minutes ago, JimKnopf said:

Yes, it's a good feature of Leica that autofocus and exposure are adjusted to the crop factor.

But: Does object recognition work just as reliably with crop factors of 50 or 75 as it does with 28?

NB The size of the zone shrinks as the crop itself shrinks. 

[LocalHero1953]

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I have just spent an hour with the Q3 43 shooting energetic teenagers rehearsing a musical theatre production, in parallel with the SL3-S.

My immediate conclusion is not to jump to quick conclusions about AF, with either camera. These are significant changes, both in the menu settings and in how live AF processing actually happens - it's going to take some time to work out how best to use it.

Firstly, I suspect the update line about AI being involved in AF is significant itself. There were times when I felt that subject selection for AF was not following specific rules, but rather it was making 'common sense' decisions. For example, when I set Zone/Multifield and Body/Face, I expected it to only look for faces within the marked zone and, if it couldn't see a body/face, default to multifield. In fact in some cases when no body was within the zone it selected a person outside the zone - which is what I would have wanted it to do.

Secondly, Body/Face is stickier than it used to be: it would sometimes track someone when they passed behind another body, and would sometimes track the same person between successive shots. It could be that it is actually identifying an individual to follow, or simply it is just better at discriminating between a face and the back of someone's head, or a face that is roughly in the same position from shot to shot.

Irritations:

I want to switch off both Zone/Multifield and Field/Spot, thus allowing the camera to search all over the scene. There is no option to do this. Sometimes I don't want to have to move the zone or field across the screen by joystick/arrows, I just want to let AF do its thing without constraint. Perhaps the best option would be allow us to change the size of the zone as a menu setting, from full screen down to a small block.

Sometimes it didn't pick up all the faces in a zone: it picked the most prominent, but didn't see a second, even though it was obvious (to me), so I couldn't use the joystick/arrows to select it.

I wish the Q had a joystick. It looks like I'll be using the arrow buttons more than is comfortable. The SL3-S joystick falls naturally under the thumb. The Q3 43 arrow pad doesn't.

And I had my first freeze, when re-selecting my own standard profile. I don't think it involved the default profile, but I can't be sure - I was working at speed. I popped the battery for a moment, and it hasn't happened again.

But to repeat: there's a lot more in this update than is usual, and it will take (me) quite a bit of learning and practice to find out what is really a problem and what just requires a different way of working.

---------

Edit. I see that the Zone size can be changed by touch/pinch on the screen. I hope it will be possible to do this by other means as well - I don't like using touch other than in menus.

Edited 17 hours ago by LocalHero1953

[LocalHero1953]

1 hour ago, Elliot Harper said:

Be cool guys, look at SL forum the firmware update thread for about 75 response and we got more than 270. Either we love Q too much or we hate it too much.

relax, we got the same features / bugs as SL3/S got

There are a lot more Q owners out there than SL owners!

[Elliot Harper]

9 minutes ago, LocalHero1953 said:

There are a lot more Q owners out there than SL owners!

Or Q owners are just more anxious than SL owners?

I was like that a decade ago when a Q was my only Leica. Time goes by and my Q evolves to Q2, Q3 , and Q3/43. And my arsenal includes SL and M, I’m cooler and cooler. When either of my Leica freezes, I pop out the battery and pour myself a good quality of congac watching sunset or sunrise depending on the time and weather. And then come back 2 hours later inserting the battery back in and everything is fine.

In case this cognac and sunset medicine don’t cure the Leica plague I open my laptop sending an email to my favourite dealer and he usually responds within a day or two by sending me a prepaid postage. I posted the camera and then forgot about it. Two to three months later, I got my camera back working like a charm.

Q people, be cool. This is the life you chose with Leica. Live with it 
🤣

Edited 17 hours ago by Elliot Harper

[Smogg]

2 hours ago, LocalHero1953 said:

But the Q has never been anything different. Do you mean cameras with lots of buttons?

 On the SL3-S I have a button just for this purpose (swapping AF modes). The Q just doesn’t have enough buttons - that’s not a problem of this firmware.

 Something that may help: the ‘zone’ reduces in size as the crop increases, so narrowing the area within which faces are looked for. 

No, I'm talking about cameras where I always shoot in one mode: tracking, and I don't use any additional buttons except for BBF. If I want to focus on a person, the camera recognizes them if they're close to the focus square, and then I recompose. If I want to focus on an object, the focus simply "sticks" to that object, and then I recompose. But on the Q3 43, I have to constantly change the autofocus mode.

[Daniel C.1975]

vor 27 Minuten schrieb LocalHero1953:

 

---------

Edit. I see that the Zone size can be changed by touch/pinch on the screen. I hope it will be possible to do this by other means as well - I don't like using touch other than in menus.

.... ok, deleted my comment, as you have edited yours. I've saved the setting with "whole picture as zone" as a preset for when I need it. 

 

Overall, I can switch between the presets and not a single freeze so far. I had some problems to connect with my phone (iOS 26.2), but this is good meanwhile. 

For me, the positives are outweighing the negatives by a good margin. Some stuff I need to get used you, but overall I am more than happy with the update. 

[Daniel C.1975]

For all who hoped to have a lower chance to accidentally move from Photo to Video mode, it is not all good. 

Yes, the video-icon in the menu is half hidden, but now (not sure if this was already possible before, at least I never noticed it) you can switch from photo to video when swiping to left in live-view and vice versa from video to photo. Due to the new functions, I might use the touch-functionality in live-view more often, what also means that I might more often accidentally switch to video when touching in a hurry. Happened to me yesterday twice while testing and chimping around. 

As I am a 100% stills photographer, I would love to have a function to turn-off video completely - like in the original Q. 

Edited 17 hours ago by Daniel C.1975

[JimKnopf]

vor 52 Minuten schrieb LocalHero1953:

I have just spent an hour with the Q3 43 shooting energetic teenagers rehearsing a musical theatre production, in parallel with the SL3-S.

My immediate conclusion is not to jump to quick conclusions about AF, with either camera. These are significant changes, both in the menu settings and in how live AF processing actually happens - it's going to take some time to work out how best to use it.

Firstly, I suspect the update line about AI being involved in AF is significant itself. There were times when I felt that subject selection for AF was not following specific rules, but rather it was making 'common sense' decisions. For example, when I set Zone/Multifield and Body/Face, I expected it to only look for faces within the marked zone and, if it couldn't see a body/face, default to multifield. In fact in some cases when no body was within the zone it selected a person outside the zone - which is what I would have wanted it to do.

Secondly, Body/Face is stickier than it used to be: it would sometimes track someone when they passed behind another body, and would sometimes track the same person between successive shots. It could be that it is actually identifying an individual to follow, or simply it is just better at discriminating between a face and the back of someone's head, or a face that is roughly in the same position from shot to shot.

Irritations:

I want to switch off both Zone/Multifield and Field/Spot, thus allowing the camera to search all over the scene. There is no option to do this. Sometimes I don't want to have to move the zone or field across the screen by joystick/arrows, I just want to let AF do its thing without constraint. Perhaps the best option would be allow us to change the size of the zone as a menu setting, from full screen down to a small block.

Sometimes it didn't pick up all the faces in a zone: it picked the most prominent, but didn't see a second, even though it was obvious (to me), so I couldn't use the joystick/arrows to select it.

I wish the Q had a joystick. It looks like I'll be using the arrow buttons more than is comfortable. The SL3-S joystick falls naturally under the thumb. The Q3 43 arrow pad doesn't.

And I had my first freeze, when re-selecting my own standard profile. I don't think it involved the default profile, but I can't be sure - I was working at speed. I popped the battery for a moment, and it hasn't happened again.

But to repeat: there's a lot more in this update than is usual, and it will take (me) quite a bit of learning and practice to find out what is really a problem and what just requires a different way of working.

---------

Edit. I see that the Zone size can be changed by touch/pinch on the screen. I hope it will be possible to do this by other means as well - I don't like using touch other than in menus.

Thanks for your input. That's very helpful.

It's exactly as I imagined. The AF settings are still typically Leica-like and "not intuitive." The autofocus isn't as erratic as it used to be, but it still remains a bit unpredictable. Object detection isn't reliably consistent.

According to the manual, faces outside the "zone" are also detected. Only the "field/spot" mode detects objects within the field. You can also adjust the field size (a little bit).

[JimKnopf]

vor 46 Minuten schrieb Smogg:

No, I'm talking about cameras where I always shoot in one mode: tracking, and I don't use any additional buttons except for BBF. If I want to focus on a person, the camera recognizes them if they're close to the focus square, and then I recompose. If I want to focus on an object, the focus simply "sticks" to that object, and then I recompose. But on the Q3 43, I have to constantly change the autofocus mode.

That's exactly right.

I even have two focus functions on my production cameras. The shutter release recognizes faces across the entire sensor area—excellent for snapshots. The BBF overrides this function, and I select a specific object or person. I work 100% in AFC mode. This allows me to continuously reframe the image while the autofocus is locked on, and I always have the current exposure setting adjusted for the object or person.

Edited 16 hours ago by JimKnopf

[Schneidr]

vor 17 Stunden schrieb quiet.seattle:

Dear Leica,

Please:

Fix the focus peaking so that it can be applied to manual only (and not shown in playback).

Fix the playback on portrait/vertically shot images so that are shown vertically.

I have to say I like the focus peaking also in AF Mode as it validates the chosen focus point and even gives some quick Information about  depth of field in busy shootings. I have peaking on/off in the center button of the wheel - very convenient!

[meditux]

Hello everyone, I'm currently using Leica Photos 4.8 and can no longer pair with it after updating to 4.0. Is there a solution for this, or do I need to use a newer version? My iOS is 16.7.12, and I can't update to a higher version.

[Schneidr]

Am 19.12.2025 um 08:20 schrieb Smogg:

Help me find an effective and quick scenario for photographing moving people off-center (classic street photography). What settings should I use in firmware 4.0? Tracking doesn't work when people detection is enabled (the frame is fixed in the center of the screen and doesn't attempt to follow the person). How can I circumvent the scenarios defined in Q3 43 and achieve results? Moving the focus point (rectangle) isn't an option; it takes a long time even with a joystick, and the screen doesn't recognize touches when wearing gloves. What are you using? 
Surprisingly, with this camera, which seems designed for street photography, I always have the most difficulty (regardless of the firmware version) with the settings that would make the process simple and effective. It feels like the developers think completely differently than I do. What's wrong with me?😂

Not sure if someone mentioned this: if you use „zone/multi field“ you can enlarge the zone to the whole screen. Simply  hold your finger to the zone and then enlarge with 2 Fingers. In combination with  eye detection human eyes will be detected wherever they are. Re-composition in this setting works nicely  with iAF or AFc in Addition.

Edited 15 hours ago by Schneidr
Added iAF as option

[Smogg]

54 minutes ago, Schneidr said:

Not sure if someone mentioned this: if you use „zone/multi field“ you can enlarge the zone to the whole screen. Simply  hold your finger to the zone and then enlarge with 2 Fingers. In combination with  eye detection human eyes will be detected wherever they are. Re-composition in this setting works nicely  with iAF or AFc in Addition.

What if the person isn't there, or only part of their body is visible, preventing the camera from identifying them? In this case, I need to focus on a specific object and don't want to hastily fiddle with the settings and change the mode.

[Smogg]

I'd like to thank Leica for finally listening to user requests and giving them the option to disable unused crop modes. This significantly speeds up switching between the remaining options. There's just one more small step left: making the crop full-screen.

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica Q

[Schneidr]

vor 50 Minuten schrieb Smogg:

What if the person isn't there, or only part of their body is visible, preventing the camera from identifying them? In this case, I need to focus on a specific object and don't want to hastily fiddle with the settings and change the mode.

Well, if there are no person / human eyes while using eye detection mode what else could the focus  system do than using Multi AF Focus Points (which is the case). I have a separate profile for Spot Focus. In specific situations I am using Manuel Focus. Both options can be activated very fast. Frankly, I do not see any issues with the camera or the update in these situations.