Our team at DPReview TV wanted a monochrome version of the Leica Q2 and they got it. Is this a case of 'be careful what you wish for'? Nope. As Chris explains in our hands-on review, the Q2 might just be his new favorite camera.
Thank you for a most interesting review. I hope that all of your readers will remember that products like this have nothing to do with economy — they have to do with excellence. As Coco Chanel famously said; ‘the best things in life are free, but the second best are very expensive....’
If you can swing it go buy one, if you cannot, buy something less expensive. You win either way.
Question about the 50mm crop, will a photo taken with the wide angle lens still be a wide angle shot even if cropped? It might be less noticable perhaps. You could take a portrait and the person will have a big nose, so will the 50mm crop still have a big nose? Given it’s a fixed lens for this camera, the lens might be crafted to be a 50mm in the centre so such distorsions might be reduced? (is this possible?) I admit I might have missed something.
The big-nose issues, and other such perspective distortions, are a function of the distance from the camera to the subject. Or more precisely, the difference between the distance from which the picture was taken, compared to the distance and magnification at which the image is viewed.
General-purpose wide-angle lenses don't create the fun-house perspective distortion by themselves, nor do telephoto lenses create the familiar distance-compressing distortion by themselves. As stated above, these are due to a mismatch of your image-viewing perspective compared to the original shooting perspective.
Whatever the focal length of the original shot, the final image will look normal (and actually most natural) if you ensure that ratio of your viewing distance compared to image size is the _same_ as the ratio of the original shot. If you put your eye very close to a "big-nose" portrait, the big-nose effect will disappear and you'll feel that you're just standing fairly close the person's face.
Ran out of space to make these points that follow the prior comment:
So a wide-angle lens tends to result in "big-nose" portraits only because it encourages you to stand too close when taking the picture. If you resist this temptation and stand about 6 feet (2m) away, then later crop away the unwanted wide background portion, you'll get a perspective that is correct and natural for typical portrait image viewing.
A mild-telephoto (60mm- to 90mm-equivalent) is considered a "portrait" focal length simply because it encourages you to stand about the right distance away, while giving you a shot that fills about the right amount of the frame with the subject's head-and-shoulders portrait.
If you get the Q2 or a similar fixed-wide-angle camera, you simply need to avoid the temptation to get too close to portrait subjects and similar perspective-distorting traps. The in-camera crops can help with this, but they're only a helper tool - you can do it yourself: stand back and crop later.
I've been a full-time pro since 1984. And a serious amateur before that. My photos have been published all around the world, and my TV shows have been syndicated on over 200 networks. But I'm looking forward to the best years ahead, as I'm going more into moviemaking and some other exciting stuff. True stories! Thanks for asking. And it hardly matters, because this is NOT about me. My comment holds true whether looking forward to photographing my first rainbow, or filling the Grand Canyon full of prints. B&W is what it is. It was an unfortunate circumstance way before our time, and just became a bad habit.
If perpetrators of B&W could force themselves to expand, even if they're colorblind, the world would be a more beautiful place. It might be hard for some, just like learning to read might be hard for some illiterate adults, but if that's the case; it's worth the struggle.
And Tom, you know your "what do you have to show?" snobbery confirms my "you can take photography back to the Stone Age, and be a snob about it too" comment. Thanks for that much.
I googled Ralph Gibson. Now I'm wondering if it will help if I wash my eyes out with soap. If you want to take colorless photos, you can do that with any camera.
Tom, hundreds of millions of women worldwide still wear the hijab every single day, because it's their tradition. It's not ideal, but it's what they do anyway. And that helps explain why some museums are stuck with a tradition that was just an unfortunate circumstance to begin with.
Tom, you've got one ridiculously overpublicized photographer, who's shackled by archaic debilitations. You're not making the best argument for restricting yourself to colorless imagery.
Perhaps a bit of humility is in order. The fact that he is or was at Magnum, and that he is in top museums around the globe, says maybe something about his talent, no? That you call him overpublicised says more about you. Your casual dismissal would count more if you were at Magnum. I also like colour photography. But nothing wrong with someone who made his most memorable work in b&w.
How did this become all about one overrated photographer? We're still talking about a severely limited camera here, aren't we? Why the heck would anyone want a deliberately debilitated but still expensive camera? My answer to that is that it's a case of habitual ignorance and self-righteousness taken to extremes. All things considered; it's pompous. And I'm here to tell you: The Emperor has no clothes.
A totally laughable, ridiculous product when you can create amazing b/w images from any color camera at 1/4 the price. I challenge DPR to do a side-by-side comparison between one of these b/w images and one created by a camera at 1/4 the price. I'll bet nobody can tell the difference.
At 11:25 we directly compare the monochrome sensor to a similar bayer sensor. As you can see, the B&W sensor has huge advantages at high ISOs. Also, while it's not demonstrated in this episode, monochrome sensor will also capture more detail compared to a bayer sensor.
The advantage of a monochrome sensor is detail and dynamic range. The advantage of a colour sensor is a greater level of creativity in creating a B&W image.
I looked at the comparisons. Now, I've always been a photon whore since I was pushing Tri-X 400, but the price differential is just not worth the improvement to me. But then, I'll never be a Leica owner, anyway. Just too expensive for the small improvement in actual images.
Please please please, Fujifilm bring a trio of X100 M, X-T3 M and X-Pro M cameras with the same monochrome sensor at 1/3 the price of a Leica Q! They will sell like hot-cakes for photography and video!
I thought the same thing: the video segment shot on the Q2 looked really great to me.
It kind of reminds me of when DRPTV shot a video segment using the SL2: it too looked amazing. There was something different...something kind of special. This Q2 Monochrom is the same way IMHO: it's got a unique look that's very appealing.
That's a beautiful plastic bag. I so miss plastic bags. They're extinct here in NZ. It makes me want to travel to Canada to document them in the wild before they're gone from there too.
ISO range is shifted up as the sensor is more sensitive to light. Thus the move from 50-100 base ISO, this was only mentioned as 'strange'. Also there is a massive difference in that high ISO performance illustrated in the video. This stems not only from the greater sensitivity, but also that no pixels are merged through debayering. So no splodges of colour coming out of nowhere and then getting converted to a grey splodge like would happen with a bayer array.
My only surprises are that it lacks a faster shutter and perhaps more importantly, a decent eyecup that keeps the sun out. Otherwise, I could see the appeal for a well heeled shooter.
Some of these shots remind me of Acros film sim on my Fujis. I know the resolution's in a different league, etc.. but even today there is still something magical about shooting in monochrome.
As an ex-Leica user (M3) I enjoyed the video. The only thing that bothered me was that Chris seemed to have a filter attached for 90+% of the time - then shows us the beautiful rendition of skies and landscapes.
Does the filter come with the camera? If not, why include it in the review? Especially as some of the sun flare was criticised.
The sun flare was sensor reflections. Doesn't come from the filter. Chris uses filters regularly and if you watch the video of what is in his bag he has quite a lot. Monochrome cameras benefit from the use of filters even more so than colour.
When I used to shoot B&W films, having an entire collection of filter with you is pretty much a requirement. Stack a red filter and you can turn the sky black... dramatically highlighting the white clouds. That same effect is not something you can easily replicate through post-processing. I imagine this alone could bring a lot of joy and creativity back to photography!! (Can you say Ansel Adams approves!??)
Very good point, Makkuro! I have to admit that digital photography has freed me of so many filters (which I always felt degraded the image) - now I only have a polarising filter and a graduated filter. But I can't recall when I last used the latter as Lightroom & Photoshop seem to do an equally good job!
Almost 1200 EUR more expensive, than the ordinary Leica Q2, which came out 1 1/2 Year ago, and 28mm. No, i shoot my Contax, or Yashica, or Minolta with 35mm Lens, and real B&W Film.
Exchanging the Sensor all 36 Exposures. ;-) 6k for this Camera is way over the Top, i'd get a Biogon F2, F2.8 35mm, and a M Film Body, if i had 6k, and still Tons of Cash then being left.
"I'd get a Biogon F2, F2.8 35mm, and a M Film Body, if i had 6k, and still Tons of Cash then being left."
Until you actually shot, developed, and scanned your film. This comparison only comes out ahead if you don't intend to actually use it much. It also ignores the huge image quality difference between the two.
Fine. You can also shoot a disposable. An M + Biogon is not going to produce the same results. There is very little point in comparing. I'm sure someone else will come along and say they'd rather use their phone. I'm really not sure what your point is.
Assuming you scan the film yourself (and here you also need the money for a good scanner), but develop them at a lab, in my country, i would pay an average 15EUR per roll. That would add up to 1500EUR for 100 rolls. Say you shoot only 3 rolls a session (as opposed to several hundreds or even thousands of images and variations you would do with digital), and still it would mean that you will do some 30 photo sessions with 1500EUR. If it is just a hobby and do that occasionally, sure it is fine as you could do that in 2-3 years. But that adds to the cost of the film equipment you use (and if you want something reasonable in terms of quality you are still going to pay some 1.5-2.5k + the scanner price or scanning at the lab cost.
Leica... I absolutely, positively, will not buy a Leica camera without the "RED" dot!! Well, actually, most likely, fore sure... this B&W only camera could have 10 "RED" dots and I still would not buy it!! It might look more attractive at $1,200US... but without the "RED" dot, only $500US :)) HAGD & Stay Safe!!
Well, if I won the lottery I would buy both a color and a monochrome version, just so I would display them in a case with a back poster of "Paint it Black" song. And another copy to use it :))
Damn it Leica! Another item for my "forget about" list. Why did I watch this video? I feel myself so miserable! Happy now Chris? Great video anyway! Thanks...
Even though it is a camera that is "slightly" outside my photography budget, I enjoyed watching the review. Perhaps a big disappointing that the video result is not on the same level as the photography experience but maybe not unexpected coming from Leica. I admire the business skill that Leica demonstrates by surviving in a cut-throat digital camera environment where they continue to focus qualitative user experience and not venturing too far into experimental new futures that might be superfluous for most. But at the end I still prefer a color camera. Thanks for an interesting and entertaining video, as always.
Besides only one focal length, I question not having a good grip, good eyecup, and manual shutter speeds of only 1 to 1/2000 seconds. Like the B&W evf and toning features though... But, sensor flare splatter - Uugh!
Back in the day "The Calgary Herald" did a once a week picture on their editorial page called Alberta Album. The photography staff was required to be on the look out for a picture of Alberta both rural and urban as they did their daily routine, all black and white of course. You have a treasure trove from this shoot that would have I believe made the editors very happy. I always enjoyed Alberta Album.
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