The Leica Q3 is one the most loved and lauded cameras ever. Does the addition of a new 43mm lens make a popular classic even better?
Photographers love fixed-focal-length cameras since a single lens forces you to think carefully about the composition and move within the scene to capture the shot. There is a simplicity and a meditative experience to be had, wandering the streets with a compact camera on your shoulder. Make no mistake though, the Leica Q3 43 is a pricey piece of bling at $6,895.
You can push the digital cropping to provide a 150mm equivalent lens but the megapixel count drops to a measly five. Most photographers I know who have played with the Leica Q3 have found its handling characteristics to be pleasant and intuitive. I think this is a big part of why people so willingly fall in love with this platform. But the Q3 is by no means a perfect camera and the same things that plagued the original Q3 are here on the new 43mm version as well.The single SD card slot is perfectly acceptable for the application that most people will use the Q3 for.
I was also very impressed with how well the lens handles flare. Even bright light sources cause minimal loss of contrast and there is no ghosting to be seen, even at tight apertures. Bokeh is clean with no optical issues whatsoever and the lens gives a pleasing cat’s eye effect at f/2. Stopping the lens down gives fairly round-looking specular highlights and everything looks buttery-smooth in the out-of-focus areas.
One thing that the Leica Q3 43 can do very well is portraits with flash. Its mechanical leaf shutter can sync up to a maximum of 1/2000 of a second with flash and the base ISO of 50 further cuts ambient light. This allows you to shoot on bright sunny days with fairly wide apertures and still cut the background exposure down to below middle ground. Then using a decently powerful flash you can light up your subject and get dynamic-looking environmental portraits.
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