Leica Q2 1st Shots at 28, 35, 50 and 75 from Ted Krohn
(Just a note here from Steve first: I have the Q2 in hand and will be doing a first look report this week (video and written). A full review VERY soon. So far I love this camera, much more so than the 1st Q. I’ll tell you why this week ; ) Now a few first shots from Ted…)
Hi, Steve!
Yesterday I purchased one of the four Leica Q2s the Washington, DC Leica Store had on launch day. I was motivated by the Q2 because of its really large full-frame sensor, its ability to crop-zoom to 75mm, its splash proof-iness and its superb fixed lens (I’ve gotten tired of switching lenses and/or worrying about lenses extending and sucking in dust or moisture or both. And does it deliver! After purchasing it I retreated to an old bar/restaurant near the White House called Old Ebbitt. I wanted to toggle through the menus before taking some night shots in DC.
So, handheld, full Auto mode, I took these four pics at native resolution and then cropped at 35mm, 50mm and 75mm resolution. Looking at them on my iMac this morning, I am stunned at the quality and sharpness and lack of noise of even the 75mm crop shot! At a cropped 35mm, fully 30MP are in use, so better at 35mm than the Q was at 28mm. A HUGE factor for me! Other than a one-time automatic light adjust in Photos, no tweaking on any of the four pics.
Best Regards,
Ted
I’m not a fan of digital crops. I doubt I’d use the feature since I prefer to have the full image in post production, giving me the ability to crop in infinitely fine increments rather than just four.
This mode is just a stupid commercial argue. You can do the same on your computer with any camera … And the DOP of the 28mm stay a DOP of a 28mm even when crop at 75mm. The Leica Q or Q2 is a camera with a 28mm , that’s it …
As I stated it is a convenience thing. Also, you can frame in those facial lengths in camera, something you can not do in post. Just convenience, not stupid at all.
Sure, try to shoot at 75mm with the frame… !!!! And what about DOF ? But, don’t be wrong, I love the Q ( except buffer) I onwed it and worked with it for 3 years, but like working with a 28 mm ( may be 35mm) no more! I’ll buy the Q2 only if the bufer is faster, I unfortunately think it’s not the case…
The crop factor at 75mm is 2.7 x – in other words, it utilizes a portion of the FF frame sensor of exactly the same size as a 1″ sensor.
Even with a better lens on the Leica, it is difficult to explain why the Q2 at pseudo 75mm should produce an image of radical better quality than a Sony RX100 V that sells for $ 1000 . . . what am I missing?
What you’re missing is that the RX100V will not produce the same image quality at 28mm FF.
If the EVF Zoomed into the cropped setting I could live with it but seeing a 28mm view (actually looks a little wider to me) is just daft
It’s beautiful and feels lovely to hold but after 10 minutes shooting in the shop and street I was fed up with the view
I so wanted to love this but it’s not for me
There ir some mistake. 3rd (50mm crop) and 4th (75mm crop) are exactly the same and they shouldn’t.
You are correct, Steve must have inadvertantly posted online the third image twice. But watch his just posted video with his preliminary review where he demonstrates the 28mm, 35mm, 50mm and 75mm capabilities in pics of his wife.
I’ve now taken some 250-300 pics, including in dark-ish DC Smithsonian galleries and museums and I continue to smile a LOT when I see the results. But Wow! those file sizes are big – no surprise to you with full frame cameras – but I’m going to have to soon get a seriously large second hard drive… 🙂 I’ll be testing the Q2’s splash proof-iness in Iceland week after next – stay tuned!
I did dont post the third image twice. All four are here in this post – 28, 35. 50 and 75.
either you posted 50mm cropped twice, or 75mm cropped twice. 3rd and 4th image are identical.
I am a bit confused. The same lens (28mm) is fixed to the camera, right? So the software in camera is just cropping the original 28mm image? So, if I take a portrait in the 75mm mode, will the photo still have the slight distortion that a 28mm lens would give you or is the software doing something else to make it look like a true 75mm lens? I don’t really understand what advantage this camera has over the original Q (other than resolution)…can someone explain? The other thing that confuses me is that when the camera crops, many pixels are cut out of the photo, so wouldn’t the resolution (pixel dimension) be less when switching to a longer mode?
I reckon this lens is good in the middle, so lens distortion would be minimal when cropped. Perspective distortion depends on the distance to the subject. At 75mm crop, you would take a few steps back to take a picture. Yes, each mode will have less resolution, but it is very handy for framing, I think. Of course, you could always crop later in post, but photography is also about framing, so these crop modes help to take the picture you want.
Any correction of distortion would be on edges and corners, and you’re cropping out these, increasingly using only the central part of the image the sensor captures. No change in pixel size either; just using less pixels.
Ted , Great photos.Enjoy the camera. Could you download these as dng on to photos? Thanks Neal
Why ? They would just look the same… the digital zoom is just a crop of the 28mm dng file
Great images but why do number 3 (50mm) and number 4 (75mm) look the same with no visible crop difference.
Thanks Ted for these, impressive indeed.
Steve, please could you cover portraits at 28mm and through the range? I am interested in knowing if that adds distortion to faces.
Also, how are jpegs? I came across a site that showed rather flat uninteresting OOC jpegs. I do not see much point in having jpegs if you have to process them anyway.
Can’t wait for your review, which is always a treat.
Of course it won’t add distortion if you’re framing at 75mm subject distances.
50 and 75 frames look like the very same.
It seems like the last 2 images are the same.
I concur with Ted after picking up my Q2 in the weekend the images when you view them on the Imac they are stunning .
I expected them to be good but you have to see them to understand.
I have a history over 10 years of many Leica camera’s including the original Q, Leica SL, Leica M10 and many exotic Leica lens’s but I have to say this is up there with the best especially with the ISO 50 option.
Ooh lovely images. Thank you very much for sharing. I can’t wait to pick mine up today. Will give it a good test on a 6 week trip to Iran next month!
GW
Very nice shot to work with! If the cash were there I’d be inline for a Q2 too. I see no depth of field change with the different crops. Please correct me if you see something different. That could be an issue or not, depending on how important depth of field is to you.
There will be no difference in DoF. It´s just a crop, not a change in the optics. You get 75mm with 28mm bokeh.
Thanks Stefe and Ted!! If i may, i hear your initial feel is more positive than with the Q1, how comes? Just curious on your pov on if worth the upgrade. By the way, i’ve heard the iso of the Q2 may be not as good as the Q1 due to the higher MP, would be great your have some insight on that. Thanks!