Leica Q2 (DCI4K)

[Mattias Burling]

I care so little it's hard to put words on it. Guess this thread is yet another lost cause. Out.

[Emanuel]

Threads are a good place for healthy discussion, trade of ideas and alike. As much as life, the hell is full of good intentions, which doesn't mean we must give up to listen something outside our bubble. Miracles happen at times, more often than strictly a skeptical standpoint makes the best to still believe, there's variably the chance of a rainbow when rains ; -)

 

 

[Django]

Well I had a go with a unit yesterday.. and the output kinda blew my socks off!

The 80mb DNG / 300mb TIFF files are simply glorious. The 47MP sensor paired with that 28mm Summilux lens is a match made in heaven.

Build quality is very nice.. but not M series nice. Lens felt a little plasticky. I was also kind of disappointed to find out it is focus by wire albeit with a pretty mechanical feel.

Ergonomics are kind of hit & miss. On the hand I miss a lot of the buttons/dials I'm accustomed to, on the other hand 'less is more' is kind of the Leica philosophy.

Video wise.. the DCI 4K looks really nice. Clean sharp image at 28mm & 35mm crop. At 50mm crop you start to see some aliasing and at 75mm IQ suffers a lot.

Couldn't figure out how to change the shutter speed which was stuck at 1/100th. Also ISO seems locked on auto. Not sure if that was user error or if video just doesn't offer much manual control.

Overall this camera is a compact beauty and delivers some of the nicest stills I've ever experienced. The Leica color science & lens rendering is probably my all-time favorite in a digital camera.

The 28mm with the crop modes is incredibly versatile. I think I could use this fixed-lens camera for 90% of my needs.

Now yes a Z7 + 28mm Zeiss OTUS would probably give similar/better results but that's $8.5K vs. $5K.. and a different type of experience.

I think this camera will be a hit for Leica, the 30 copies at my local store sold out on the first day!

[BTM_Pix]

I was quite interested in what Hugh Brownstone had to say here about the rolling shutter performance....

 

[Emanuel]

2 hours ago, Django said:

(...) on the other hand 'less is more' is kind of the Leica philosophy.

Not only theirs... ; ) Mine and many others.

In essence, photography is shutter, ASA, ISO, whatever, that is, sensitivity and aperture. What else?

Maybe AF and monitoring features assist today.

Other than that, it is much... LESS

...pretty BS for geeks (not for shooters) to my book : -)

[Django]

38 minutes ago, Emanuel said:

Not only theirs... ; ) Mine and many others.

In essence, photography is shutter, ASA, ISO, whatever, that is, sensitivity and aperture. What else?

Maybe AF and monitoring features assist.

Other than that, it is much... LESS

...pretty BS for geeks (not for shooters) to my book : -)

Yes I adhere to that philosophy too until.. less is less.. 

the Q2 actually went a step back and removed ISO (and delete) button from the original Q:

The top also sees the movie record button & drive mode removed:

I get what Leica is going for with this streamlining, and it is refreshing especially on something as 'pure' as the M line.

For the Q, seeing it is more of a hybrid and indeed has some advanced AF modes, an extra back button, joystick & ISO dial wouldn't hurt.

Basically, I'm not sure the ergonomics have been improved here but I could be wrong (only spent a short time with the camera).

2 hours ago, BTM_Pix said:

I was quite interested in what Hugh Brownstone had to say here about the rolling shutter performance....

1

Yes it is interesting.. except i haven't got a clue what he means by mechanical vs electronic shutter.. for video???

 

[BTM_Pix]

6 minutes ago, Django said:

Yes it is interesting.. except i haven't got a clue what he means by mechanical vs electronic shutter.. for video???

 

Yeah, that was the "interesting" part for me as well !

Haven't seen any other mention of it in any other review either.

9 minutes ago, Django said:

The Q2 actually went a step back and removed ISO (and delete) button from the original Q:

I'd prefer a lock image button than a delete one to be honest. Far better to put something destructive in a menu especially with the much larger capacity cards these days.

The diopter control being recessed isn't a winner for me personally either as I do adjust it a lot depending on how vain I'm being about wearing my glasses  

[Django]

Yeah seems like a classic case of form over function !

[Inazuma]

Did anyone here get this  camera? I've disregarded it for a long time because of its size compared to the RX1 and the 28mm focal length, but I've recently come to see the light. 28mm is quite nice to have and the fact that it's f1.7 and 47mp means you pretty much get a 35mm f2 equivalent when cropped. Also the lens is stabilised and when you want to do a bit of a video it gives you 1080 up to 120fps and 4k up to 30fps, with fairly detailed and sharp images from what I can see, as well as only 16ms readout.

[Django]

I still dream of owning it but can’t really justify the expense after purchasing a M9 + 28mm Summicron last year..

The good news for video though is that an update gave the Q2 full manual control with shutter speed control/priority (was previously locked on auto only in video mode).

If you can afford it this camera is a hybrid hidden gem imo.. it’ll be mine some day!

[Andrew Reid]

40 minutes ago, Inazuma said:

Did anyone here get this  camera? I've disregarded it for a long time because of its size compared to the RX1 and the 28mm focal length, but I've recently come to see the light. 28mm is quite nice to have and the fact that it's f1.7 and 47mp means you pretty much get a 35mm f2 equivalent when cropped. Also the lens is stabilised and when you want to do a bit of a video it gives you 1080 up to 120fps and 4k up to 30fps, with fairly detailed and sharp images from what I can see, as well as only 16ms readout.

4K at ONLY 30p.

[Django]

“For brilliant, true-to-life moving pictures, the new Leica Q2 offers a 4K video mode with 3840 x 2160 pixels and frame rates of 30 or 24 frames per second.”

It also does C4K at 24p.

[PBR]

On 7/15/2020 at 2:57 PM, Django said:

“For brilliant, true-to-life moving pictures, the new Leica Q2 offers a 4K video mode with 3840 x 2160 pixels and frame rates of 30 or 24 frames per second.”

It also does C4K at 24p.

I've already mentioned this in the "Complete list of 4K cameras for filmmakers" thread. The info is still incorrect in the first post there. And now Andrew keeps spreading the wrong information in other threads, too.

However, I don't think it's that important. I doubt anyone would get the Q2 primarily for video. It's a nice bonus that it can also shoot video. But the stills you get out of this camera are excellent and it's such a joy to use.

[Andrew Reid]

Ok looks like I was wrong.

I'll update the list 😆

The Leica CL and TL2 plus original Q still have no 24p, so very weird that the Q2 has it.

[Inazuma]

On 7/15/2020 at 1:14 PM, Django said:

I still dream of owning it but can’t really justify the expense after purchasing a M9 + 28mm Summicron last year..

The good news for video though is that an update gave the Q2 full manual control with shutter speed control/priority (was previously locked on auto only in video mode).

If you can afford it this camera is a hybrid hidden gem imo.. it’ll be mine some day!

So I came into a little bit of money recently and ended up ordering this camera (preowned of course). I've only had it for a few hours now but I'm pretty excited. The capabilities and ease of use of this thing are pretty incredible. I'm primarily using this for stills but the video has good potential for casual usage. The crop modes actually work in video (both 1080 and 4k) and the detail is pretty good, although in 4k and 1080p120 there is obvious aliasing. 

This is a still from a DCI 4k capture. As you can see from the blockiness of the shadows the dynamic range is limited but I'm impressed with the colour, which looks quite true to life. One thing I used to dislike about the Fuji's is that the different hues and shades of plants would get lost and merge into an ugly green. 

Because the crop mode works in video, you conveniently get a 28mm f1.7, 35mm f2, 50mm f3 and 75mm f4.5 in a small body (although 1080p at 75mm looks terrible). It should be a great camera for taking on hikes or going to social events.