Leica Q3 Monochrom Review | Photography Weblog

Ease of Use

Side by aspect with the Q3 and Q3 43 fashions, the Q3 Monochrom has a way more stealthy look, with an all-black leatherette coating on the entrance of its physique and the maybe shocking full omission of the same old purple Leica brand within the entrance top-right nook.

In addition the Leica Q3 and Monochrom engravings on the top-plate are additionally fully black, reasonably than white or gray as on the Q3 / Q3 43, and a few of the lens markings have been modified from yellow to gray. Otherwise the three Q3 fashions are fully equivalent by way of their exterior design, operation and management format.

The Leica Q3 Monochrom has the identical 60 megapixel full-frame BSI (AgainSide-Illuminated) CMOS sensor that was initially developed particularly for the flagship M11 Monochrom rangefinder digicam, which provides a 21% improve on the decision supplied by 2020’s 47.3 megapixel Q2 Monochrom mannequin.

In conjunction with the Maestro IV picture processor, this enables the Q3 Monochrom to output 14-bit uncooked information with a claimed dynamic vary of as much as 14 stops, present an in depth ISO vary of 100-200,000, and shoot 60 megapixel photos at 4fps with steady AF/AE.

Whilst 60 megapixels will undoubtedly be a giant draw for potential homeowners of this digicam, Leica have additionally sensibly offered two smaller 36 and 18 megapixel modes which assist keep away from a few of the processing and storage challenges of the the 60 megapixel mode whereas additionally boosting the burst capturing buffer instances.

So the Q3M might be set to document 60, 36 or 18 megapixels DNG Raw photos with 14-stop dynamic vary utilizing the complete sensor space, one thing that Leica are calling “Triple Resolution Technology”.

The Leica Q3 Monochrom has a set, versus detachable, lens. The 28mm focal size offered is all-encompassing and makes this digicam notably appropriate for panorama and travelogue images.

An easy and clearly marked macro setting on the lens barrel permits topics as shut as 17cm to be captured, whereas in any other case the minimal focusing distance is an everyday 30cm. The manually selectable aperture vary extends from f/1.7 as much as f/16 with an automated setting offered too.

This is coupled with a shiny/quick f/1.7 aperture to permit for decrease gentle capturing hand-held. As the lens is pretty broad the consumer is of course prompted to get fairly near their topics if they need them to fill the body, or nearly all of it, to essentially take advantage of the ‘bokeh’ alternatives supplied by that most aperture.

Leica has moreover offered a screw-on/screw off lens hood, do you have to want to use it as a further assist to stopping lens flare, or keep away from undesirable artifacts in brighter circumstances. There’s additionally a thread on the entrance for conventional 49mm glass filters.

Impressively the lens is optically stabilized, a shocking function given the wide-angle, full-frame nature of the lens, which coupled with the spectacular noise efficiency at excessive ISOs makes it very simple to hand-hold the Q3 Monochro in lower than good lighting circumstances and nonetheless obtain pin-sharp outcomes.

In addition to the 28mm optical focal size, the Q3 gives 4 totally different crop modes that simulate longer focal lengths.

At the press of the small unmarked button subsequent to the rear thumbgrip on the rear of the digicam, you may change to 35mm, 50mm, 75mm and a model new 90mm crop mode, with an oblong overlay displayed to assist with composition.

The 35mm equal crop gives 39 megapixels decision, the 50mm crop 19 megapixels, the 75mm crop 8 megapixels and the 95mm crop 6 megapixels.

These digital crops are solely utilized to the JPEG information, with a full-size 60 megapixel DNG Raw file additionally recorded on the identical time.

As the digicam is cropping into the full-size picture, reasonably than interpolating up a la most digital zooms, there isn’t any degradation of the picture high quality, only a discount within the megapixel depend.

You may after all apply related crops your self throughout post-processing, however offering them in-camera has the principle additional advantage of creating composition a lot simpler and extra intuitive while additionally saving on reminiscence card house.

The 35mm and 50mm crop modes proved to be genuinely helpful, successfully supplying you with a 28-50mm focal vary that is simple to make use of while nonetheless providing sufficient decision.

The 75mm and 90mm modes are more durable to make use of as a result of tiny are of the body that is made accessible for composition – the digicam actually wants to offer larger magnification when utilizing these modes – and likewise the sub-10 megapixel decision photos which are recorded.

There is not any built-in flash offered on the Leica Q3 Monochrom, though there’s a offered hotshoe for the addition of flash, ought to that be required.

As you’d most likely anticipate of a Leica digicam, guide specializing in the Q3 Monochrom is a veritable pleasure, though the technique of switching between AF and MF is kind of delicate and initially effectively hidden.

Switching to guide focus happens through a fingernail press of the so tiny you’ll miss it lever on the lens itself, that in flip permits the lens ring to maneuver (it’s ‘stuck’ in place in auto mode) and guide distance markings on stated barrel to be chosen, whereby the digicam gives the consumer with an enlarged portion of the topic on-screen, permitting focus to be extra critically decided.

Auto-focusing on this new Q-series digicam incorporates a contrast-based AF system that doesn’t embody part detection in addition to distinction detection pixels, as on the color variations.

In follow, auto-focusing wasn’t noticeably that a lot slower than on the PDAF-equipped Q3 and Q3 43. Interestingly, it moreover employs Panasonic’s depth from defocus system to construct up a depth map of the scene to additional improve the AF.

The Q3 Monochrom additionally advantages significantly from the addition of clever topic recognition. It’s a reasonably easy system by trendy requirements that solely recognises the eyes, faces and our bodies of individuals plus animals, with two reasonably complicated choices buried on the backside of the AF Mode menu – the primary choice is Eye/face/Body Detection and the second is Eye/Face/Body + Animal Detection (why is not animal detection separate?) – however no less than it really works effectively sufficient in follow.

Leica digicam have by no means been notably famend for his or her blistering steady capturing charges, and the Q3 Monochrom is definitely no exception to that rule.

While on paper it provides as much as 15fps bursts, the fact is that the main target and publicity are locked on the first body till you drop all the way down to a reasonably extra pedestrian 4fps. The buffer is no less than 63 pictures in RAW, although, so you may no less than shoot for a very long time at 4fps earlier than that price slows down.

Some photographers might also argue that 4fps is greater than quick sufficient for a avenue digicam with a typical focal size lens, particularly as the superb autofocus system might be employed on the identical time.

The Q3 Monochrom has each a mechanical shutter that gives speeds between 120sec to 1/2000sec and an digital shutter that runs from 1sec to 1/16000sec, with a Hybrid choice additionally accessible that mechanically switches between them. Flash synchronization is as much as 1/200sec.

This is not only a digicam for stills, as Leica have included DCI 8K video recording. DCI 8K which is supported at as much as 30p with 4:2:0 10-bit coloration when recording internally or at 8-bit when recording externally through the micro-HDMI port.

If you solely want 4K recording, that is offered at as much as 60p with 4:2:2 10-bit coloration internally or externally, whereas Full HD runs as much as 120p for sluggish movement playback.

Other key video options embody ProRes recording at 1080/60p, Leica’s L-log profile, and LUT compatibility. The Q3 Monochrom does not have a microphone socket, although, as a substitute counting on its USB-C port to permit an audio enter.

This port may also be used to cost the digicam through a powerbank, helpful for extending the battery life when out and about. Talking of which, the Q3 Monochrom makes use of a battery, the BP-SCL6, which has a CIPA-rated lifespan of 350 pictures per cost. The Q3 Monochrom can also be nonetheless appropriate with the BP-SCL4 battery that was used within the Q2M.

The digital viewfinder that sits within the nook of the digicam has additionally obtained a major improve, with the decision being bumped up from 3.68 megapixels on the Q2M to five.76 on the Q3 Monochrom. It has a 0.79x magnification and both a battery-conserving 60fps or a clean 120fps refresh price for extra lifelike movement rendering.

The tilting 3-inch, 1.84M dot LCD touchscreen might be moved each upwards and downwards to swimsuit working from quite a lot of capturing positions, reasonably than fastened in place as on the earlier Q fashions, which makes waist-level and overhead capturing a lot simpler.

The display does reasonably spoil the aesthetics of the Q3 Monochrom, nonetheless, because it juts out barely from the rear of the digicam, interrupting the graceful strains. Still, that is before everything a photographic device, reasonably than an costly decoration, so we are able to overlook this slight fake pas on Leica’s half.

It has additionally necessitated a restructuring of the controls on the rear of the digicam in comparison with the Q2M. Instead of the vertical row of three buttons to the left of the LCD display, the Play and Menu buttons have been moved to above and beneath the D-pad respectively, with the customisable Function button transferring alongside the Photo/Video button. The shutter button is threaded to just accept a mechanical cable launch.

The Q3 Monochrom helps the HG-DC1 Wireless Charging Handgrip, an elective accent that when fitted facilitates wi-fi battery charging through Qi-compatible charging mats, such because the Drop XL Wireless Charger that Native Union has made particularly for Leica.

For the primary time ever within the Q digicam collection, the Q3M helps Content Credentials, a expertise by the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) which provides a digital signature to photographs to assist confirm their origins and any post-processing which made its debut within the SL3-S mannequin.

Image Quality

All of the pattern photos on this evaluation had been taken utilizing the 60 megapixel Large setting, which produces a median picture measurement of round 35Mb for JPEGs and 90Mb for RAW information.

The Leica Q3 Monochrom recorded nonetheless photos of excellent high quality in the course of the evaluation interval.

This digicam produces noise-free JPEG photos at ISO 100 as much as ISO 6400, with some noise beginning to seem at ISO 12500. The sooner settings of ISO 2500 by to 100000 are nonetheless very usable, though we might recommend avoiding the quickest ISO 200000 setting if in any respect attainable. The corresponding Raw information have a lot much less apparent artifacts however are noticeably much less sharp than their JPEG equivalents.

Noise

ISO sensitivity might be set between ISO 100 and ISO 200,000 in full-stop increments. Here are some 100% crops which present the noise ranges for every ISO setting, with JPEG on the left and RAW on the appropriate.