Lecia Q3 Monochrome

[KLaban]

If parts are available then anything is possible, either by the manufacturer or by third party services. Unsurprisingly, spare parts availability is key.

As an example M9 and variants are still serviceable but the CCD sensors have been discontinued.

[Rob C]

If parts are available then anything is possible, either by the manufacturer or by third party services. Unsurprisingly, spare parts availability is key.

As an example M9 and variants are still serviceable but the CCD sensors have been discontinued.

Pity about the sensor: afaik, my old D200 has a CCD sensor, but the later D700 did not. The CCD is very nice with tones (I’m talking black/white) up to about 34O ISO, but not that good with low light, which the 700, on the other hand, loved. I suppose a case could be made for the poor high ISO ability to be seen as a positive, in that it reduces the somewhat clinical look of high ISO and lets it be confused with “grain”…

[KLaban]

Pity about the sensor: afaik, my old D200 has a CCD sensor, but the later D700 did not. The CCD is very nice with tones (I’m talking black/white) up to about 34O ISO, but not that good with low light, which the 700, on the other hand, loved. I suppose a case could be made for the poor high ISO ability to be seen as a positive, in that it reduces the somewhat clinical look of high ISO and lets it be confused with “grain”…

Yes, the irony is with developments in modern noise reduction software (including AI) your D200, my M9 and Hasselblad H series CCD cameras would have been far more capable moderate ISO candidates. The M9 was a joy to use, wonderful colour, but very limited in use due to these ISO issues.

[Rob C]

Just looked at byThom, and it seems there’s a rumour that Leica has been sold. It’s just mentioned in passing, with no further information.

[KLaban]

There's certainly a lot of speculation on the Leica Forums at the moment.

I wonder if DJI could be interested and where would that leave Dr. Andreas Kaufmann?

DJI is the best thing that ever happened to Hasselblad.

[Rob C]

I wonder if DJI could be interested and where would that leave Dr. Andreas Kaufmann?

Polishing his doctorate? Considering the fate of the old UK car industry, it would only make poetic justice if some UK firm bought it.

[KLaban]

Figures published by Digital Photography Review show a meteoric rise in fixed lens compacts sales.

https://www.dpreview.com/articles/2386206926/cipa-data-2025-camera-lens-shipments-fixed-lens-cameras-interchangable

[degrub]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/shopping/blackstone-backed-leica-camera-weighs-1-billion-sale/ar-AA1UP5Kn

[Rob C]

One of those damned links I can’t find again: Leica M12 goes properly digital, including the rangefinder, and even developing its own sensor. Seems a step in the right direction. What’s was wrong with keeping the general shape but also climbing out of the photographic Middle Ages?

I think the old M3 body shape looked beautiful at the time - still does - but conflating those looks with a viewfinder/framefinder system that isn’t 100% accurate and declaring the pairing forever inviolate is just nuts. But hey, fanatics are what they are. In the real world, I knew pros who had M systems as well as F systems, and were perfectly content using both those horses for the appropriate courses. Which was how it should be and would have continued to be, had fanboyism and “art” photography not inevitably muddied the waters with money and the eventual effect it had on Leica as a company: at times, it must have hated its fans for holding it back.

[KLaban]

Leica AG is a success story.

In many ways I find the enthusiast fanboy more palatable than those who have barely held, let alone owned or used a Leica camera and yet are very free with their opinion. I've always been hardest on the manufacturers that make my cameras, including Nikon, Hasselblad and Leica and will continue to be so: it's in my interest.

My hope is my images made with the cameras I own and use speak for themselves.   

[Rob C]

My hope is my images made with the cameras I own and use speak for themselves.

I’m sure that they do; after all, equipment is just a tool to enable the snapper’s idea to be presented in a permanent way. Unless I had prior knowledge, I’d have absolutely no idea what equipment you use in your travels. How could I? I suppose the same applies to my cellphone snaps, and without the containing box label telling everyone who might care, the world could just as happily believe I shoot a film Leica with a 21mm lens set at the smallest stop. That said, many quite famous M photographers seem to fall into a common trap, especially when they do street: there’s a tendency to cut off feet even in full height figures. I can only put it down to parallax error, which if shooting via a separate viewfinder or even the built-in one, seems an easy thing to do. SLR cameras existed for many good reasons, precise framing being one of them.

[KLaban]

One of the main advantages given for using rangefinder cameras for street photography is that they allow the photographer to see beyond the image frame. I found it useful for timing people entering the given frameline and hence into my captured image.

Street shooting is often necessarily rushed, I've been known to amputate folk's feet regardless of camera!

;-)

[Rob C]

Street shooting is often necessarily rushed, I've been known to amputate folk's feet regardless of camera!

;-)

Result of years of war photography and hanging around M.A.S.H. a little too much?

[KLaban]

Result of years of war photography and hanging around M.A.S.H. a little too much?

Yup, where's Houlihan when we need her?

[Chris Kern]

One of those damned links I can’t find again: Leica M12 goes properly digital, including the rangefinder, and even developing its own sensor. Seems a step in the right direction. What’s was wrong with keeping the general shape but also climbing out of the photographic Middle Ages?

If Leica were to manufacture an M camera with an electronic viewfinder, I'd be sorely tempted to acquire one and a couple of lenses despite the outrageous cost.  I'm strictly an amateur shooter, and I have no illusions that my Leica Q3 produces "better" images than my Fuji X bodies.  But the Leica is so much more pleasant to use.  I've done everything I could think of to configure both the Leica and the Fujis so I don't have to muck with the menus except in rare circumstances, but I find the shape, control design, and manual control placement of the former much more congenial than either of the Fujis—an X-T5 and an X-E5—even though the X-E5 is a "rangefinder-style" body similar to that of the Q3.  It's hard for me to put my finger on exactly why—that is, until I actually put my fingers on the respective cameras.  It's certainly not the Leica brand, per se; I couldn't care less about that.  But I suspect Leica's designers have a more sophisticated take on that form-factor because it's the core of the company's DNA.

[KLaban]

If Leica were to manufacture an M camera with an electronic viewfinder, I'd be sorely tempted to acquire one and a couple of lenses despite the outrageous cost...

But, Chris, they have.

Leica M EV1

[Chris Kern]

If Leica were to manufacture an M camera with an electronic viewfinder, I'd be sorely tempted to acquire one and a couple of lenses despite the outrageous cost.

But, Chris, they have.

Leica M EV1

Now all Leica needs to do is add autofocus capability and offer some M Mount lenses to exploit it, and I really would be sorely tempted to unleash my credit card.  I might be persuaded to live without image stabilization, although the Q-series cameras seem to have squeezed an optical image stabilization module into their respective compact lenses, but I'm not eager to once again be limited to manual focus only.

[KLaban]

Now all Leica needs to do is add autofocus capability and offer some M Mount lenses to exploit it, and I really would be sorely tempted to unleash my credit card.  I might be persuaded to live without image stabilization, although the Q-series cameras seem to have squeezed an optical image stabilization module into their respective compact lenses, but I'm not eager to once again be limited to manual focus only.

Chris, I hear you.

Unfortunately I can no longer use any camera without some form of stabilisation (I've checked this by turning stabilisation off on my Q3 and Nikon Z bodies). This is no doubt made worse by age induced unsteadiness and compounded by high resolution 46 and 60 MP files.

I could be tempted by a Leica M EV2 that had stabilisation, a higher resolution EVF and a faster processor, but like you I would still miss the speed of auto-focus for street shooting.

The Q3 43 remains my go to choice for street.

[Rob C]

Haven’t used the Nikon in a few years, but only the lenses with af got used long before deteriorating vision put me into iPhone territory. Sadly, even with af, only the lightweight 50mm G let me feel steady. The much better 85mm G just sways about, making exposing and framing both acts of chance. Anything else I have requires tripod assistance, the psychological kiss of death these days. It’s a young man’s game, in the end, both spiritually as physically. ;-(

[KLaban]

Haven’t used the Nikon in a few years, but only the lenses with af got used long before deteriorating vision put me into iPhone territory. Sadly, even with af, only the lightweight 50mm G let me feel steady. The much better 85mm G just sways about, making exposing and framing both acts of chance. Anything else I have requires tripod assistance, the psychological kiss of death these days. It’s a young man’s game, in the end, both spiritually as physically. ;-(

As a young illustrator I could lower my pulse rate at will in much the same way as a marksman can. The result was zero tremor.

All these years later the cameras do it for us.