In November, I spent £6,000 of my money on a Leica Q3 43. I’ve been with me on multiple trips across Europe for the past six months. Whether you’re looking for this kind of premium compact and another compact like this camera or the popular Fuji X100VI, you’ll have some ideas about either your solid shopping advice.
Let’s dive in.
I took over 25,000 photos along with my new Leica. These are my favorites
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I bought a Leica Q3 43 with my own money at full retail value, but at the time I was shy for £6,000 – well, just That’s all, Include the second battery I also ordered. It’s huge money, especially when the strings of the wallet are tightened, and it’s especially difficult to justify anything like this.
So why do I want it?
Well, for many reasons, I hope that the photographers out there will understand if these, Leica fans. In recent years I have noticed that my photographs over 13 years are etched a bit in professional gear. Too many bags, tripods, lenses, lens adapters – anything – I was increasingly hoping to take a peeling approach to more and more photos.
For years, I used the Sony RX1R as a compact “Take Anywhere” camera when I didn’t want to carry a bag full of kits. This is a stunning little full frame premium compact that takes beautiful photos with a fixed 35mm lens. But now he is 12 years old, indicating his age. Importantly, There is no viewfinder so you need to use the main screen to shoot, making it look like a tourist. I spent years hoping that Sony would replace it, but where Sony left a gap, Leica filled it.
Q3 43 is, in a sense, its spiritual successor. It features a luxurious full frame sensor with very high quality fixed lenses. It requires a stunning image and I can always carry it with me, keep hitting it in my neck, ready to shoot every time I see an opportunity.
I took Q3 43 to the Arctic Circle and took a photo from behind the car, speeding around the frozen lake. A fun time.
It has a fixed 43mm lens, which may not suit everyone, but it’s perfect for most of my job. I usually fly between 35mm to 50mm focal lengths, so 43mm is the ideal sweet spot between the two that I have never been limited in many photos I captured. I tried the 28mm version of the camera, but I couldn’t tell from its wide-angle view.
I recently wrote about three types of cameras that photographers need. This includes mainstays, everyday carry and more artistic choices. It wasn’t the camera that had to make some kind of allowance when carrying it. No need for a large photo backpack, small slings or messenger bags. Sometimes I would go out with it hanging around my neck.
I always love having a camera with me. It’s true that the best cameras are cameras with you, but it’s double-like whether the cameras with you are always like that actually The best camera. Fine, it’s not as small as my Sony RX1R, but it’s smaller than my Canon R5 and it was a great companion Photowork around Stockholmand Edinburgh Barcelona. It’s a joy to be able to lift and fire immediately.
Being a camera ready always meant that you could quickly capture moments like this.
It’s helpful to be easy to operate. I mainly shoot with aperture priority and twist a dedicated aperture ring into the lens when I want to adjust the depth of the field. I keep it mostly on ISO 400. The camera is always pretty good at giving the correct shutter speed in the scene you are capturing.
At night, I need to crank that ISO strongly, especially since the camera doesn’t have a stable image sensor like the R5. In fact, on a technical level, the Q3 43 is not very well shaped, with both the burst speed and the autofocus system being slower than its rivals. Subject detection is also best described as “hit or miss.”
Using the Leica Q3 43 in Sweden was great. That small size was always easy to carry with me.
But that’s true why I like this camera. To understand the various autofocus options,[設定]There’s no need to dive into the endless deep bys of the menu. I keep this camera in single point focus, press half of the shutter to focus on what I want, then reconfigure to take a shot. Or focus manually. This is a more basic shooting experience, encouraging me to think more about the shots I’m taking and I don’t think much about the settings I use to get it.
Next is the built-in color profile provided by Leica. I use Leica chrome look to shoot almost everything. I mostly pair this with a warm white balance, and recently Polarpro Gold Mist filter, It gives my images a warm cinematic vibe that I love. This filter rarely leaves my camera and is a must for me.
I love the tones that the camera can achieve and as a result it is hardly processed.
In fact, I’m currently using most of my photos with jpeg and using them with little post-processing. That’s in stark contrast to how I work with the R5 – I only photographed Raw with that camera and all of my images do some work in Lightroom. Would you like Leica to offer the option to further adjust these profiles with the camera? absolutely.
We treat the Q3 43 as a classic point-and-shoot compact camera. Use basic settings to shoot quickly and creatively, leaning against the colors in the camera, minimizing editing time. It provided me with another way of working and I thoroughly enjoy every moment I’ve ever had with this camera.
The Q3 43 is small, but the Sony full frame RX1R is even smaller.
To be fair, it’s not only the Leica Q3 43 that can give this. Fujifilm’s X100VI remains a social media beloved thanks to its compact size and customizable film emulation mode, but Ricoh Griii has been praised by street and travel photographers for its fusion of quality and pocketable size. I have considered buying an X100VI instead of a Leica, but to be honest, there is another factor that I am not proud of.
I I wanted it Leica.
I don’t want to think of myself as someone like a status symbol. I don’t want a Lambo on a Rolex, a yacht or a drive (OK, maybe a bit), but I’ve always fantasized about owning a camera with that iconic red dot on the front. I was worried that it would be a novelty to wear out soon, but it’s not – I’m still excited to pick it up and take it somewhere. Additionally, the solid metal construction of the Q3 43 makes it feel like the X100VI’s lightweight and undoubtedly more premium than the extremely plastic feel.
It gives me creative topics that I really can’t get from a Canon R5. To rely on the analogy we used previously, the R5 is a worker’s van. Practically, it checks the box for what they need to do their job. A professional tool to get things done. But it’s not a vehicle they fantasize about driving the coast. The Leica is a fantasy car. Probably a classic Ferrari. Technically, they do almost the same thing, but do it in very different ways and feel a noticeable difference when using it.
Simple configuration layout.
You could have had a lot of money to spend on camera. need. As Leica in the UK helped me provide interest-free credit, I actually expanded over 12 months, rather than actually dropping cash at once. But that’s the money I was happy to spend and I was happy to.
It’s given me a boost that I didn’t even know that my photos needed me. For six months, I have had it, but I feel like I’ve evolved more as a photographer. I can’t wait to see what the next six months will bring.
