Nearly a yr in the past, in November 2024, I spent £6,000 (about $8,100) of my very own cash on a Leica Q3 43. During the last 11 months, it has been with me on quite a few travels across the UK and throughout Europe, and I’ve shot over 40,000 pictures with it, together with all the things from avenue images, journey, landscapes and even main editorial options. I’ve acquired some ideas on these sorts of premium compacts and hopefully some strong procuring recommendation, whether or not you are contemplating this digital camera or one other compact just like the ever-popular Fuji X100VI.
Let’s dive in.
I’ve Taken Over 25,000 Pictures With My New Leica. These Are My Favorites
I purchased the Leica Q3 43 with my very own cash at full retail worth, which on the time was simply shy of £6,000 — effectively, simply over, together with the second battery I additionally ordered. That is an enormous amount of cash, particularly at a time when the purse strings are tightening and making large purchases — particularly non-essential ones like this — are tough to justify.
So, why did I need it?
Properly, a variety of causes, and I am hoping that any photographers on the market will perceive these, Leica followers or not. In recent times, I’ve discovered myself being a bit over-encumbered with gear that I’ve acquired in my 13 years taking pictures professionally. Too many baggage, tripods, lenses, lens adapters — no matter — and I more and more needed to take a extra stripped-back strategy to a lot of my images.
For years, I’ve used the Sony RX1R as a compact, “take wherever” digital camera after I do not wish to take a bag stuffed with package. It is a beautiful little full-frame premium compact that takes stunning pictures with its fastened 35mm lens. But it surely’s 12 years outdated now, and it is displaying its age, with sluggish, unreliable autofocus, comparatively low decision, and crucially, there is not any viewfinder, so it’s important to shoot utilizing the primary display and also you appear to be a vacationer. I spent years hoping that Sony would change it, and whereas it will definitely did, I would already purchased and fallen in love with my new Leica. Sorry Sony, you snooze, you lose.
The Q3 43 comes into its personal as an on a regular basis carry digital camera for avenue and documentary images
The Q3 43 is, in some methods, my RX1R’s religious successor. It has a stunning full-frame sensor with an especially high-quality fastened lens. It takes beautiful pictures, and I can carry it with me just about on a regular basis, maintaining it slung round my neck, able to shoot each time I see a chance.
It has a hard and fast 43mm lens, which can not go well with everybody, nevertheless it’s best for many of my work. I normally flit between 35mm and 50mm focal lengths, so 43mm is a perfect candy spot between the 2 that I’ve by no means discovered limiting within the many pictures I’ve captured with it. I attempted the 28mm model of the digital camera and did not get on with its wide-angle view.
I wrote lately about the three sorts of cameras photographers must have, which embody a workhorse, an on a regular basis carry and a extra inventive possibility, and whereas the Q3 43 has completely been all three for me, it is the second level the place I really feel it is had the largest impression for me. It is not a digital camera that I’ve needed to make any allowances for when carrying it round. I do not want an enormous images backpack, only a small sling or messenger bag. Generally I’ve even gone out with it slung round my neck with no bag in any respect.
I completely love having a digital camera with me all the time. It is true that the most effective digital camera is the one you may have with you, nevertheless it’s doubly the case if the digital camera that is all the time with you is really the most effective digital camera. Positive, it is not as small as my Sony RX1R, nevertheless it’s smaller than my Canon R5 and approach smaller than Hasselblad’s current X2D II and it has been a terrific companion on photowalks round Stockholm, Edinburgh and Barcelona. It is a pleasure having the ability to rapidly elevate it up and fireplace away.
Having the digital camera all the time able to go meant I might rapidly seize moments like this.
It helps that it is easy to function. I shoot principally in aperture precedence, twisting the devoted aperture ring on the lens after I wish to alter the depth of area. I hold it principally at ISO 400, and the digital camera is all the time fairly good at giving me the proper shutter velocity for no matter scene I am capturing.
At night time, I’ve to crank that ISO exhausting, particularly for the reason that digital camera would not have a stabilized picture sensor like my R5. In truth, on a technical degree, the Q3 43 would not form up tremendous effectively, with each its burst charge and autofocus system being slower than rivals. Its topic detection can be finest described as “hit and miss.”
Utilizing the Leica Q3 43 in Sweden was nice. Its small measurement made it simple to all the time have with me.
However that is why I like this digital camera. I haven’t got to dive into the infinite abyss of the settings menu to determine totally different autofocus choices. I simply hold this digital camera at single-point focusing, half-press the shutter to give attention to no matter I need after which recompose to take the shot. Or I will focus manually. It is a extra primary taking pictures expertise that encourages me to suppose extra concerning the shot I am taking and fewer concerning the settings I am utilizing to get it.
Then there are the built-in coloration profiles Leica gives, which I completely adore. I shoot nearly all the things utilizing Leica’s Chrome look, which does issues to colours and distinction that I am obsessive about. I principally pair this with a heat white stability and, extra lately, a PolarPro Gold Mist filter, which provides my pictures a heat, filmic vibe that I like. This filter nearly by no means leaves my digital camera and is, for me, a must have.
I like the tones that the digital camera can obtain, leading to nearly no submit processing.
In truth, I now shoot most of my pictures in JPEG and use them with nearly no post-processing. That is in stark distinction to my approach of working with the R5 — I solely ever shoot in uncooked on that digital camera, and all my pictures undergo some degree of labor in Lightroom. Do I want Leica supplied choices to tailor these profiles additional in digital camera? Completely.
I deal with the Q3 43 as a traditional point-and-shoot compact digital camera. I take advantage of primary settings to shoot rapidly and creatively, leaning on in-camera colours to attenuate my time caught modifying. It is supplied me a distinct approach of working, and I’ve completely loved each second I’ve spent with this digital camera to this point. In truth on the time of writing I am at the moment shortlisted in 4 classes within the British Images Awards — three of which I shot on the Q3 43.
The Q3 43 is small, however Sony’s full body RX1R is even smaller.
To be truthful, it is not simply the Leica Q3 43 that would offer you this. Fujifilm’s X100VI stays a social media darling because of its compact measurement and customizable movie emulation modes, whereas the Ricoh GRIII is lauded by avenue and journey photographers for its mix of high quality and pocketable measurement. I did take into account shopping for the X100VI as a substitute of the Leica, however I will be sincere, there may be one other factor I am maybe much less pleased with admitting.
I needed a Leica.
I do not like to consider myself as a standing image type of particular person, and whereas I’ve no want for a Rolex, a yacht or a Lambo in my drive (OK, perhaps a bit), I’ve all the time daydreamed about lastly proudly owning a digital camera that sports activities that iconic crimson dot on the entrance. I apprehensive that it would be a novelty that may rapidly put on off, nevertheless it hasn’t — I nonetheless discover myself excited to choose it up and take it someplace. It additionally helps that the strong steel building of the Q3 43 makes it really feel infinitely extra premium than the light-weight, arguably fairly plasticky really feel of the X100VI.
I used the Q3 43 for a marriage I shot over the summer season and I like the pictures I acquired with it — as did the bride and groom.
It provides me a inventive buzz that I do not actually get from my Canon R5. To lean on an analogy I’ve used earlier than, the R5 is a employee’s van; sensible, it ticks the bins for what they should do a job. An expert software for getting issues accomplished. But it surely’s not the car they fantasize about driving down the coast. The Leica is the fantasy automobile. A traditional Ferrari, maybe. It technically does a lot of the identical issues, nevertheless it does it in a really totally different approach that makes you’re feeling notably totally different once you use it.
A easy settings structure.
It might have been some huge cash to spend on a digital camera, particularly one which I strictly talking did not want. It helped that Leica within the UK gives interest-free credit score, so I really unfold the associated fee over 12 months, quite than dropping the money unexpectedly. But it surely’s cash I used to be — and nonetheless am — comfortable to spend.
It is given my images a lift I did not even know I wanted. I’ve had it nearly a yr now and I really feel I’ve developed extra as a photographer in that point and brought all kinds of pictures I am extremely pleased with. I am unable to wait to see what the subsequent years with it should deliver.
