#Summilux 28mm

[loganwuzhere]

NYC Subway, Oct ‘18.

Shot on Leica Q.

[thomas-ef]

Essen Baldeneysee

[amanwithaleica]

Nepal with the Leica Q

For the past 10 days I visited Nepal. I was there for Send Me Somewhere, to document the work of RNW (Radio Netherlands Worldwide), interview and photograph some of the people that took part in the WASH project that Simavi initiated in Ghorka and I joined the Sai Ram foundation when they distributed the WakaWaka lights to a community just outside of Kathmandu. A busy schedule, but it was great to be able to help so many initiatives that help rebuild Nepal after the earthquakes.

1/320 sec, f 4.0 @ ISO 100 

Download this photo for free as a wallpaper on sendmesomewhere.com

Of course I have many stories on my time in Nepal, but - as this blog is called ‘a man with a Leica’ - I’m writing this blog to tell you about my experience with the brand new Leica Q that I brought with me. (courtesy of Transcontinenta BV, thanks guys!)

Let me start by saying I’m in love. Not so much that I will dismiss my trusted Leica M, but enough to not want to miss the Q in my camera bag, next time traveling. For me the M and the Q are complementing and reinforcing each other. My M is most of the time used with a 35mm or a 50mm Summicron. The Q comes with a 28 mm Summilux. With the M I take my time, to get the settings right, to manually focus, to reframe etc. With the Q I can use the autofocus and the shutter on automatic… It’s quick (I’ve been shooting out of a car, something I’ve never done with the M), accurate and the colours are amazing. The M does it’s work in low light, even up to ISO 2000. The Q gives me 1 or 2 stops extra as I can even go up to 3600 easy, with the ISO and I can open up to f1.7  Maybe one of the nicest features for me, the Q offers macro. 
As I did with the M9 when going to Cuba and with the Monochrom when going to India, I tend to completely lose my self in a first hands on with a camera. So I haven’t been using the M that much in the past weeks, as I wanted to fully discover the Q.

If you don’t really like technical talk, please look at the pictures and skip to the last paragraph… If you do like that kind of talk, have fun…

1/1600 sec, f4.0 @ ISO 200

I have to admit, I had to get used to it. 28mm meant I had to get in even closer for my shots. With the Q, you also have the option to digitally choose for 35mm and 50mm in the camera. It will give you the framelines in your viewfinder and the JPGs you get that way are basically a crop of the 28 mm Sumilux. When importing a cropped picture as a .DNG file, it will still give you the original 28mm image. So I don’t really understand this option as I’d rather crop in Lightroom anyway. Must be a commercial trick of some sort, but I don’t get it. After the first few days I was already used to the new 28mm perspective and I was starting to love it.

1/350 sec, f4.8 @ ISO 250

1/320 sec, f4.0 @ ISO 100

1/1000 sec, f2.8 @ ISO 100

The macro option is a very welcome one. This is one of the things I’ve always missed with the M. Getting closer than the 0.7 meter that the M allows me, opens a whole new range of possibilities and creativity. Of course I’ve missed a ‘regular’ shot or two as I forgot to flip the dial back in to the normal range and my focus obviously did’t work, but I blame that on the camera being new to me.

1/125 sec, f2.8 @ ISO 100

Like I said, shooting in near dark was great. I miss the fact that the self timer is now an option in the menu instead of flipping your on/off switch an extra bit, as I use the 2sec option often in low light to reduce camera shake. The autofocus works perfectly, even in low light, due to the Af help light. In aperture priority, the settings were often spot on giving me little to no noise up to ISO 3600. I have no idea if I could push it even further, as I haven’t been in a situation where this was needed.

1/30 sec, f1.7 @ ISO 1600

1/60 sec, f2.8 @ ISO 3200

Speaking of autofocus. The Q is made for this. The manual focus option works… but is a bit stiff. If you want manual focus, the M is a way better option than the Q. But in autofocus the Q is extremely fast, accurate and it has it’s own little extra features as well. Most of the time I just used it with a single field autofocus that I could navigate through the frame. But using the touch screen and pointing out the desired point of interest was also a nice option. When I was just sight seeing with other people who were using an Iphone as a camera, the point ánd shoot option worked amazing as well. Extremely quick and still being able to play with the depth of field like no phone camera could. The Af-c option for me opens new doors of creativity. The moments I used to have to use zone focussing to make sure I would capture moving objects, I suddenly am able to shoot from a moving car with an aperture of f2.0 or f4.0.

1/8000 sec, f2.0 @ ISO 200 from a moving car.

1/2000 sec, f2.0 @ ISO 200 from a moving car.

The viewfinder is digital and that’s a big difference. It’s a very clear and good viewfinder with extras like magnification when focussing, but it’s just not the same as an optical viewfinder. Therefor I found myself using the camera mostly in live view. The M has the same option as well, but with that camera I rather use the optical viewfinder. In the viewfinder, using the function button it’s easy to excess other nice options... to name just one: shooting a panorama. Not something I’ll use very often but hey, it sure is fun every now and again.

1/100 sec, f4.0 @ ISO 100 Panoramic 

All in all, for me the Q was a hit. I agree with many M lovers that the Q could never replace the M. Personally I don’t think that has ever been the idea behind launching this camera. To me it’s not a matter of either/or. But of course it’s quite an investment to buy both these cameras. On several occasions I read about the M being a better investment, as the Leica M lenses keep their value. The Q indeed might loose it’s value in time. I don’t understand this argument when choosing to buy a camera. I buy a camera because I want to shoot with it, because I like the way it works, because it gives me the quality that I need to deliver the images I decided to take. When you’re looking for a camera to train your skills, to develop your craftsmanship, to be flexible with your range of lenses choose a Leica M. If you’re looking for a top quality camera that lets you play around, gives you all the options of a fast, accurate and modern camera, choose the Q. Personally I think these cameras both love to be in my bag together (I for sure love them to be there), each having their own special qualities en features and both giving me beautiful high quality images.

1/250 sec, f4.8 @ ISO 250

1/500 sec, f2.8 @ ISO 250

You can see the photos a bit larger at my Flickr account.