Don’t
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Old Kai loves it. He thinks it’s a huge advance over the Q2:
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not for me, sadly IMO, like Naim latest owners, majority owned by Austrian Capital Management GmbH. Shame these great companies just turn into investment opportunities and are never the same again.
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Yep, it looks a very decent camera, though perhaps likely not quite as ‘good’, or versatile of course, as a decentish Sony, Canon, Nikon or Pentax in your hand with something in the 28mm range stuck on the front of it. So not only is it expensive, the vfm thing is debatable too.
That said, when the Q4 comes out, you’d probably be able to shift a Q3 for £3.5K still I guess.
Still a nice thing to have though.
Yes, it does make you wonder whether this, for some of these brands, is about style over substance, or ‘brand’ over substance. Cameras/imaging for example is an area of significant research and development and innovation and is very competitive … that comes at a significant cost and requires industrial resources to draw upon… it makes you wonder how some of these niche brands can compete… other than by focussing on their intrinsic legacy brand value which over time will diminish.
The Leica Q & M are both very valid cameras in terms of how they work and what they produce in todays work place.
Before I bought the M11 I did have the Q-P which I used for work alongside the Sony A9. I tend to grab the M11 before the A9 as I know the image quality, white balance plus lenses are better than the Zeiss Batis lenses I use with the A9.
The M11 (zone focus) is faster to use in most instances but, is as good as useless if I need to track a cyclist riding at speed. In other words, horses for courses. It’s why I need two systems.
For the average person who just wants one camera that does it all with the minimal of fuss etc the Leica M is not really going to do it. You need to invest time in learning how to shoot. It demands a certain skill level and most of all, the willingness to be part of the process rather than just clicking a button and letting the camera do it. This is one of the main reasons its still attractive today.
For those who like to shoot in a way that’s more involving it’s probably the most rewarding system to use. I’d say Leica lenses perform at a level above the majority of Sony lenses with the exception of some of the G Master lenses which are also extremely good… but also cost a lot. The menu system is the best I’ve experienced out of Canon, Fuji, Sony, Olympus & Nikon.
The system is also a lot smaller. The M11, 28,35,50mm spare battery and EVF takes up less space than the A9 with Batis 135 on it’s own. With the 60mp sensor, that means I can crop in to 90-100mm and still have a lot of pixels. For me, when I retire, the M system will be the one I keep and the rest will go.
The Q is a great camera as well. It gives you a lovely manual focus experience but with the benefit of AF. The Q3 has that massive sensor so while it’s a 28mm lens it will crop in to 60-75mm comfortably with no need to change lenses or clean dust spots from sensors. You’ll also find it outperforms most other 28mm lenses.
The VFM issue is an interesting one. It would be like saying is there a point to a Naim 500 series as the Uniti range is very good? In reality, the Leica cameras are VFM for some and not for others. It just depends on what you value the most.
For me it’s the feel, user experience lenses and cameras that perform to perfection and, the colour balance etc is bang on leaving me with less work to to later. But it’s a lot of money for that last 5% of performance. Only the user can decide if it’s worth it.
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A slightly different topic: according to some sources, Fujifilm have stopped producing certain batteries, the one that powers the GFX50R ans S. If it’s true, I find that worrying, as, once your batteries are dead (which happens after a certain number of years), you find yourself with an expensive camera which you can no longer use. Have other makes made similar annoucements?
Sam , have a look at Duracell Direct , I have used them for years as an alternative to Canon batteries .
Well, if a major manufacturer stops producing batteries for its own cameras, why should third-party manufacturers go on doing so?
I didn’t know Duracell did batteries for Canons. I’ve been using Neewar.
Good shout, I must definitely look into Duracell.
I’ve used Duracell Direct for camera and laptop batteries
Reasonably priced and good quality , in fact I would usually opt for them than the brand battery
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Q3 appears to be now unique in that niche. It is on my shopping list this fall for a probable trip to Viêt Nam next spring.
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I must confess I can certainly see the appeal of the Leica system. To me the way a camera or lens system feels in the hand and the way you interact with it are right up there with image quality as the most important thing. I enjoy photography because I appreciate the smoothness of a focussing ring, the logic of the user interface, the soft click of a shutter and the metallic feel of a well made lens. Plasticky cameras full of the latest high tech wizardry feel like digital watches to me - sure their performance/accuracy is superb, but somehow all the artistry has gone compared to a mechanical watch.
I feel Leica and Pentax are somewhat different in this respect and appeal to a more traditionally minded photographer. There’s no question if I was shooting fast action sports from the centre court at Wimbledon I would be using Canon or Nikon for their incredible autofocus tracking and their range of superb telephoto glass. But for a guy like me who is typically shooting landscapes, models, the family or (for professional purposes) static products like hi-fi or guitars then I’d rather shoot with a Pentax or a Leica than anything else I think because of that feel.
For years Pentax have lagged the best in tracking moving objects but I’m pleased to see that their new K3 Mk3 seems to have (finally) caught up with the leading brands in both this ability and also the ability to shoot video with autofocus. I want one really badly especially for the autofocus video but can’t really justify it when I rarely shoot action and have the K3 and K1 (both Mk1) already.
I do have a mate who is a big fan of shooting aircraft and so occasionally go out with him. My K3 and Tamron 70-200mm are left in the dust compared to his EOS 7 Mk2 and 400mm and 500mm fast L series glass. We do sometimes swap cameras and it’s great fun to see how well the Canon copes with those F15’s out of Lakenheath and how excellent his L series glass is. He shoots some stunning stuff with them. He’s a dedicated Canon user but I can’t see me ever defecting from Pentax either especially after this weekend’s Fuji experience!
I took the Fuji XE3 up to the North West audio show as I always use that for shows - it’s more portable. The thing had evidently somehow put itself into a mode whereby it was shooting in black and white except for when there was purple or pink in the scene. It took me about half an hour to figure out (by reference to Google) how to get it out of that mode and I lost some good shots of people coming into the show. I then discovered (because I shoot on auto at these shows) that it was not utilising a high enough ISO number to keep the shutter speed above a safe 1/30th in the darker rooms. The option to change the ISO range seemed to be greyed out and I couldn’t change it - cue more googling and fiddling deep into the bowels of menu after sub menu and more wasted time at an event I am being paid to cover. I hate the interface on that thing with a passion - I really do!! It was evidently designed by a computer science guy not a photographer. I’m seriously considering just taking the Pentax next time, it doesn’t have greyed out menus ever - any setting is usually no more than a button press and a twist of a command dial away and it doesn’t have stupid modes with black and white and then just purple in the scene… It’s a camera, designed to be a tool for photographers and its image quality and colour rendition blows the Fuji into the weeds.
Changing ISO is as simple on the K3 as pressing the ISO button and thumbing the rear command dial - if you want Auto ISO then you press the ISO button and then the Pentax green button - job done! It also has a fantastic auto ISO mode called TAV (brilliant for low light rock concerts and dim hi-fi shows). You select TAV on the top dial, then use the front command dial to set a desired shutter speed and the rear command dial to set the desired aperture. The camera will then choose the ISO automatically for correct exposure. It really is just so easy and intuitive.
And that’s before you even consider the perfection of the Pentax ‘Limited’ lens range all of which are just so incredibly beautiful and special to shoot with. It still staggers me when I watch the video and see them being handmade right down to the paint being hand applied to the barrel for the focussing distance numbering PENTAX | Limited Lens - until it sees the light - - YouTube
Anyway on a side note here’s a couple of shots I got at Lakenheath, gotta love the F15!! It’s hard to believe it first flew in 1972 and yet looks so modern still…
JonathanG
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Peeping over the fence?
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No - shot that through the fence bars! I did see some guys there with stepladders though!
J
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Lovely shots , I’ve just bought myself a Fuji .
If you read Ken Rockwell it is definitely a case of caveat emptor .
Love the F15, I wonder if it qualifies for the vintage planes thread?
PS When I lived on a V Bomber base , taking photos was not a good thing to do.
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Yep, moved years ago from Nikon D850 & D4 to Fuji, never once regretted the move. It’s as @A-Fin stated:
“You need to invest time in learning how to shoot. It demands a certain skill level and most of all, the willingness to be part of the process rather than just clicking a button and letting the camera do it”
That’s exactly how I feel about the Fuji X-Pro2 & X-T3, and that Fuji glass……superb optics!
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DSLR was a sensor upgrade…now we’ll have a shutter upgrade.