Q3 for Walk-Around Museum Flat Work

I am a museum rat. I have no artistic talent. I've been a photographer for 50 years with no artistic talent. But I know how to shoot great cameras! LOL.

I'm on week 7 of a 3-month Italy tour and am shooting Fuji GFX gear and my beloved Leica Q3. Because I'm lazy, and also because I like the Q3 more than any camera I have ever shot, I have more Q3 shots than GFX 100 II and S shots.

Which s easier - walking around these historic centers with GFX gear or with nothing but the Leica?

I have posted 3 sets of tenQ3 shots on the other thread and will keep posting new sets there, but I wanted to make a post and a point about using the F1.7 Q3 for museum shots, especially of canvas and wood panel shots.

It is incredible technical capability and really would have been impossible just a few years ago. It is getting closer to actual museum curator pro work where they have lights, tripods, tilt-shift, focus stacking, or the ability to remove panels for table shooting.

Several points:

1. Almost any museum will let you in with a Q3. Not so with my preferred GFX 100II and the 45mm F2.8 or F4 32-64.

2. No museum will allow a tripod, so stabilization becomes critical. The Q3 has it in spades.

3. The 28mm Summi is sharp wide open from corner to corner at F1/7. That is also key. 28 is a good focal length for panels if you have room to move and the paintings are not roped off.

4. Post processing has amazing lining up and straightening capabilities now, so you can get it right....

5. Museums are much better lit now with computerized LED systems that spread the light evenly and don't spotlight the paintings.

6. I can take F1.7 1/15 sec shots at ISO 200 to 400 and get incredibly sharp results with very little noise or other problems of low light shooting. The Q3 OIS is amazing.

7. Lastly, 60 MP is not 100 MP, but it is fantastic. I can crop away wall and get a nice framing. You have to leave room for straightening in post and with various canvas sizes there is always cropping.

8. I can see more detail here than I did in person. You can see the grain of the canvas or wood, the brush strokes, the missing or worn paint, the centuries of age and past restorations, and all kinds of little details. However, these old Masterpieces do not have fine details and tend to be a little faded and are not like taking a high-res shots in the city or nature. I posted a vouple of these on the Medium Format Forum and someone said these are as good as with a GFX camera. I said, well yes. The Q3 is better probably. For this....

This is the famous Accademia Carrara, Bergamo - maybe the oldest museum in Europ in terms of how long this collection has been hanging for the public. It has had a magnificent renovation and incredible lighting and they let you literally get right next to the paintings. I took 52 of these and will post ten here.

Take your Q3 into museums and have some fun! These are sometimes better than the museum postings on their website because I am posting full-size high-quality jpegs. I've included the frames.


Raffaello Sanzio - Saint Sebastion (1502) - Tempera and Oil on Panel


Neroccio di Bartolomeo de Landi - Madonna and Child - 1470 - Tempora & Gold on Curved Panel

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Huge panel - Had to get way back - Mattia Preti - Descent from the Cross - Napoli 1675

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Malinconico - Madonna & Child between Saints John & Peter. And Giodanesco - St Francis in Ecstasy & Coronation of Mary - End of 17th C.


Gerolamo Giovenone - Madonna and Child; Saint Michael, Saint Lucy, Saint Albert and Worshiper (1527)


Jusepe de Ribera, detto lo Spagnoletto - Saint Anthony the Abbot (1638)


Francesco Guardi - View of St Marks Square (1760 - 1770)


This one does have a shadow at the top of the canvas from the frame. Defendente Ferrari - The Adoration of the Shepherds (1530 - 1535)


The Crucixtion of St Peter - Napoli - End of 17th Century - Giordano


Very big and long panel - Had to crop a lot bottom and top - Sandro Botticelli - The Story of Virginia (1505). Tempura and Gold on Panel


Big Panel - Lorenzo da Venezia - Madonna & Child Worshipped by Saint Dominic and a Domeinican Num (1450-1460) - Tempura & Gold on Panel


Giordano - Napoli 1660 - Tavern Scene

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Greg Johnson, San Antonio, Texas

all excellent

Yes all really good

My visits to museum was equally fruitful with myQ3

Church interiors to however as a Christian I did contribute to the plate

Sir,

This is VERY impressive, and I have been hoping for many months that someone would post museum photos taken with a Leica.

My collection of museum photos is good too; however, most of the photos I have taken have been taken using a Nikon D850 and with whatever Nikkor lens I felt like using at the time, primarily 35mm, or 50mm, and a few using the 85mmn Nikkor.

That all changed when I saw the quality of RAW images taken with the iPhone 15 Pro, which I see as breathtaking for such a small device ... no longer do I carry the D850 to the museum.

Having said all of the above, I want to say with great clarity my desire to use instead a high-quality Leica like the Q3, but with either a 35mm or 50mm lens. If the Q4 arrives with the same focal length as the previous Q version cameras, it would not interest me as in my eyes, the Apple device is sufficient. A redesigned Q4 would be perfect for my efforts.

I hope a major player within Leica Corporation may see my text and consider my request.

Again, Greg7579 thanks for uploading your magnificent photos.

David

MFAH Armand Hammer Exhibit iPhone 15 example for my post in reply to Greg7579