My Leica Q2 finally arrived. Apparently not many are making it to the UK at the moment and those that are are being snapped up on pre-orders. Like the original Q, it seems that this is a very popular Leica camera. Here are some first impressions.
BODY AND LAYOUT.
Very similar to the original Q. There are some changes to the bottom of the camera. The card slot is now part of the weather sealing and has a new opening mechanism and the battery is the same design as on the SL. i.e. it slides in to be flush with the body. I do have a bone to pick with Leica however. They are selling a Leica Q2 handgrip. This is EXACTLY the same as the original Q handgrip, which I have on another camera. I therefore spent £100 for nothing. Annoying.
New Battery
New SD Card Slot
MENU AND CONTROLS
It's a Leica, so it's a minimalist layout and menu system. Users of other cameras would wonder where all the menu items are. Because there are very few options. Now this is great in my view. It's all about focus, set the aperture, ISO and shutter speed and press the shutter. You can focus either manually (The camera has focus peaking) or using the excellent AF system. The MF is particularly nice. You have to unlock the focusing ring and after that when you move the focusing ring the viewfinder image magnifies and the peaking shows up. Now this is the best implementation of focus peaking on a Leica, better than on the M10 or SL. The menu is customisable and you can come up with a set of favourites for the things you use the most.
LENS AND SENSOR
More pixels, 46.3M, on what is probably the same sensor as in the Panasonic S1 R. (It has exactly the same number of pixels) The Q2 has ISO 50 which is simply breathtaking when combined with the superb 28mm f/1.7 lens, which in Leica Tradition is sharp at all apertures, including wide open. Colours are spectacularly good and the lens is sharp from corner with no vignetting or CA or fringing. But then that's exactly what you would expect.
IMAGE CROPPING
There are options for 35mm, 50mm and 75mm frame lines to appear. However, I like to keep the full 28mm view available and crop later. The quality is so good that it's possible to crop an image to around a 100mm equivalent, then upsize it to around 12MP and still get a very sharp file. Great for my stock work.
VIDEO
I've never seen any review of the Q2's video, so this could be a first.
Stills and Video frames - No Cropped Video
Video Resolutions
The Leica Q2 is not designed to be a professional video tool and it certainly isn't that. There is a lot of automation that can't be changed. However, the 4K footage is decent enough and you can manually focus, though aperture selection is impossible. The built in IS is not that great for hand holding and some additional stability is needed. It does however have no crop factor so the 28mm setting gives a true 28mm. Now set up on a tripod and manually focused the Q2 could produce some very decent 4K footage. And it does shoot 4096 x 2160 format. One of the reasons I sold my Leica TL2 was that the video quality was pretty awful and the Q2 is significantly better than that. Not as good as the SL (Typ 601) which I thought produced lovely cinematic video, but then that camera has a super 35 crop, which the Q2 doesn't.
In many ways the Q2 can be seen as a social documentary camera. The 28mm lens allows getting in close to the action and there are the cropping options. And with the dust and splash proof weather sealing options the Q2 is more rugged than it's predecessor. and that is where I see it's video fitting in. On a mainly stills based assignment or project there is the option to produce some decent video footage and it would suit those who want this to be as fast and easy as possible.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Pretty much everything I was expecting. I liked the original Leica Q anyway and this feels exactly the same. The larger sensor, better battery life and (limited) weather sealing are all real improvements. And the hike in image quality is very welcome and indeed the best image quality I've ever seen in any camera I've owned. Video is OK, but then I expected no more than that. This is not a camera for everyone certainly and it is expensive. However, considering the extra resolution and the fact that the camera has a stunning lens, I don't believe that it's ridiculously pricy. It's 25% more than the Sony RX1 II with a higher resolution and I know which camera I'd rather have.
THINGS I LIKE
- Increased resolution gives superb detailed pictures.
- Base ISO at 50. Again makes for great picture quality.
- Cropping up to 100mm equivalent allows upsizing and the production of smaller but still high-res files.
- Minimalist layout and menus, which for me is exactly what I want.
- Small(ish) and relatively light.
- Excellent bright EVF.
- Nice crisp and fast AF.
- Excellent macro facility.
- Best focus peaking in a Leica.
- You can use the Q2 as 100% automatic or 100% manual, Both work equally well.
- Fixed lens so (hopefully) no dust spots to clean up.
- Silent electronic shutter.
- Viewfinder on left side of camera, so no 'screen nose' problems.
- Q2 handgrip is exactly the same as the Q handgrip, Leica should have made this clear.
- Video could have more options. 4K is decent quality, has no crop and it's easy to manually focus. However more changeable options could have been added surely.
- I like everybody else would like the cameras I buy to be cheaper.
Whether or not the Leica Q2 is a camera for you depends on what, how and where you shoot. I don't like to attract any attention, I shoot mainly wide angle images, I don't need ultra high resolution for my Stock Work. And while I have it for the 28mm setting, I don't for the cropping, however I can live with that. I shoot very little fast action and can also live without an ultra wide angle lens or a long telephoto. Like all of my Leicas I feel inspired to shoot with the Q2 and it will get a lot of use. I'm selling a lot of cameras since it has arrived, as I'm now very keen to lighten my load when out shooting. The aim is to have the Q2 and Leica M10 as my only digital cameras.
I will be writing more about the Leica Q2 of course and to be honest I am unsurprised as to how good a camera it is for me. I used the original Q so know it works for me ergonomically and I had seen some good samples so the IQ was no surprise.
Finally a word on the sensor. This has to be the same sensor that is in the Panasonic Lumix S1 R. I've looked at samples from both cameras and they are VERY similar. It is clear that there is also a lot of Panasonic tech. in the Q2 and Leica and Panasonic have always worked closely, even before the L-Mount Alliance. Now the Q2 has Made in Germany written on it, so while it may have a lot of Panasonic tech. inside it, Leica do make it. But I don't see any problems with this collaboration. As far as I'm concerned it's a productive association.
