Leica Q2 One-Year Review, Worth It?
Last year before Christmas, I decided to take the plunge and bought a Leica Q2. Now, with holidays coming and all kinds of sales going on, I thought you might be interested in my one-year experience with Q2 before you take your leap and get one. But, of course, one year is not a very long time for photography, and especially when we are still dealing with limitations in travel or daily activities. Nevertheless, I shot many pictures by making day trips and using the Q2 in my portrait photoshoot sessions. In this article, I will go through some pros and cons while using this camera and share pictures I took with the Q2 in the last 12 months.
Suppose you are wondering about my experience in cameras and photography. I have been shooting on and off for about 20 years for personal projects and commercial clients. And I have owned many cameras before purchasing a Leica Q2. When you hold a Q2 in your hand, you can feel the difference in quality! The camera body is made with a magnesium-alloy, and it does feel solid. Holding a well-made camera like a Q2 gives you confidence when shooting without worrying or overthinking the hardware. In addition, Q2 is a weather-resistant camera, so I don't have to worry if I am somehow caught in the rain. Of course, I still wouldn't shoot in a heavy storm, but at least I don't have to worry about dust getting in like the Leica Q. Since we are talking about camera body, I can't not mention the viewfinder. The viewfinder is so bright and clear, and it is truly a joy to shoot through the viewfinder. When it comes to Leica, you know the lenses are going to be incredible! While reviewing the images shot on my Q2, I have often been amazed by the lens's sharpness. The photos turned out sharp and clear with excellent micro-contrast.
I am done talking about the hardware because we already knew Leica's quality is impeccable. Now, I'd like to talk about my shooting experience and the features I love on the Leica Q2. The motto of Leica cameras has to be "less is more." The camera is not packed with bells and whistles, and it is almost like shooting a film camera. The menu is straightforward, and you can create your favorites for quick access. Once I set the camera up on the first day, I rarely needed to go into the menu to change things. It is nice to focus on creating and not what I could do with a camera. Occasionally, I need to pull up the quick menu because I want to shoot in black and white. The setting for black and white is also direct, and the result of the black and white output is phenomenal. I didn't have to tweak the setting much to get the result I wanted.
During my shooting session, I found the battery on Leica Q2 to last a long time. I never run out of battery in the middle of shooting. Although it is a long-lasting battery, I would still recommend you get a backup because sometimes I forget to charge my batteries when I am exhausted from travel. The autofocus is not as magical as what you see on Sony's cameras, but it is more than enough. The touch screen feature is also helpful to set my focus point quickly when I shoot. Furthermore, since the camera comes with optical image stabilization, you are not likely to see the camera shake as long as you have the right setting. With that excellent stabilization, I have even shot some short video clips handheld with outstanding results. Before I discuss the cons, I also want to point out it is so helpful to have that 47-megapixel resolution. I don't often crop my images, but the pixels are there, and I could still get an excellent output when I need to. One of the reasons I do cropping is for portraits. With a 28mm lens, you will get some distortion around the edges, so I often position the face near the middle and crop out the extra space.
Why does this camera have cons if I talked about how exceptional it is? Well, this camera is expensive. Leica has raised the price twice since I bought it a year ago. It is insane, but I guess they need to survive so that they don't have to sell their company like Olympus. Even the battery for this camera is close to $300, and you could literally buy another camera with that money. Nonetheless, we know the price we have to pay when we decide to join the Leica family; it is indeed not a surprise.
With that magnesium-alloy camera body and the big lens, this camera is the definition of weight. Unfortunately, the quality doesn't just come with a high price tag, and it will weigh on you as well. In addition, the lens is protruding much more than the Fujifilm X100V, so there's no way you carry it in your jacket. Since the camera is so expensive, there is not a big market for making its accessories. The camera has an interesting design in terms of how you could access the sd card and battery. I found it challenging to find well-made camera cases that look great and don't give me trouble accessing the sd card and changing the battery.
Previously I had mentioned how incredible the image sharpness is, but it does somewhat fall short for low light performance. About ISO 1000, you will see noise when you view your images in 100%. It doesn't bother me much, but I do think it is important to mention this. To remedy that, I would try to use a bigger aperture when shooting so I don't have to raise my ISO setting. Recently, I started to use DxO Photolab 5 on top of my regular Lightroom routine. When I have a high ISO image, I send it over to DxO Photolab 5 to reduce noise. It does take up some time, but the result is like magic and worth the effort. DxO Photolab 5 also works well with any cameras that suffer from high ISO noise, and I highly recommend the software. Lastly, if you shoot a ton of pictures like me, you will run into storage issues. The 47-megapixel doesn't come lightly, and each DNG RAW file is over 80MB. You could do the math or buy more external drives.
In conclusion, I wouldn't do it differently if I was given a redo. I have no regret owning the Leica Q2, and I am still amazed every time I hold it in my hands. If you have the budget and plan to get one, do it before they raise the price again, and they will do that based on the company history! I hope this one-year review helps you finalize your purchase, and hopefully, you enjoyed the images I shared. Life is sometimes challenging, do it while you can, and let's enjoy life on our photography journeys.
