[Music] Greetings everyone and today I'm pleased To be testing out and generally getting My head around a brilliant new camera From Leica that's a little different From the kind I normally work with the Leica Q3 it comes with a very nice Built-in 28 mm f1.7 lens which is Optically stabilized and permanently Fixed in place as well as a powerful 60 Megap fullframe sensor for those Especially interested in a performance Of the lens and I know I was I'll be Bringing out a separate review of that Very soon and it was really interesting For me to test out to be honest being a Like a camera with all the associated Qualities that go with its name it costs $6,000 or £ 5,300 here in the UK so it's well Outside most people's price range Including myself but these cameras do Have a huge fan base likers are of Course considered luxury no expense pair Product and I can see one of these Things being genuinely useful for a Number of professional photographers or Alternately a wonderful present or Something to treat yourself with on a Significant birthday perhaps but is it Any good let's take a look I'd like to Thank Leica for learning me this camera For a couple of weeks for testing Although as usual this is a totally
Independent review Leica cameras are Particularly known for their distinctive Design and robust metallic build quality As well as their Simplicity and this Thing is blessed with all of those Things being chunky and a little heavy But feeling comfortable in your hand for Anyone used to more complicated cameras With more options and more controls Ironically there's a learning curve to Its Simplicity with few dials but for Customizable buttons you'll want to set Your camera up carefully and tweak its Settings as you come to learn more about It after shooting over time it's worth Remembering that a number of it controls Are based on the lens itself for example The option to switch it to autofocus or Macro modes for instance find out more In my upcoming review of the lens itself The camera's screen and its viewfinder Are absolutely gorgeous they are bright Big and jam-packed with high resolution Detail the screen can hinge up and down But not around completely and I found it A little fiddly to actually pull out of Its position especially when a camera Was mounted onto tripod I loved the Camera's enormous detailed viewfinder Also with its fast refresh rate the Camera runs off quite a large battery I Wasn't impressed with the battery life Though only getting about 4 to 500 shots With it but enough for a good days worth
Of shooting at least the camera can be Charged via USBC which is certainly Helpful and it only has one SD card slot Something else I should note at this Point is that this camera isn't Amazingly fast to use it takes around 3 Seconds to boot up annoying when you're Suddenly stumbling across some fleeting Subject or another it can also be a Little slow to load up your pictures for Browsing and sometimes even takes a few Moments to load up its menu only a small Gripe there but perhaps a faster Processor would have helped the camera's Autofocus is very good with nice subject Detection although it's not as fast or Confident as other manufacturers on the Market today and bright light can fool It into Mis focusing I tested it with my 4-year-old girl running around the place And about 80% of the time I got good Hits which is fine on a challenging Subject but other cameras can do better Still though honestly it worked fine and Apparently it's a nice upgrade from the Older Q2 Cam's autofocus while the Cam's 28 mm lens is obviously fixed its 60 Megapixel sensor means that the camera Offers a number of crop modes for those Who like that sort of thing 35 mm 50 75 And 90 mm although obviously the Megapixel count of your images will Vastly reduce as you crop in it's a Feature that doesn't agree with me so
Much though I'd personally prefer to Just get the wide 28 mm image and crop In myself during editing but at least This could reduce your workflow somewhat The camera's maximum burst rate is a Very respectable 15 frames per second But as you can see here the camera's Buffer will run out quite quickly even If you're using quite a fast SD card in Terms of physical connectivity the Camera offers USBC and micro HDMI ports Here so not much but like the rest of The camera they are quite well weather Sealed the Q3 also has a very fast Flash Sync speed of up to 12,000th of a second Make it useful for outdoor flash Photography this is the first like a Camera I've ever even touched and the Look of its images is something I took a Shine to immediately a number of Customizable picture profiles are on Offer called like her looks also the Basic settings look pretty gorgeous to Me I love the colors and the contrast They really draw you into the picture in A strangely alluring way I found the Auto white balance often being a bit too Cool for me though that was a problem But I loved the high contrast black and White mode Especially on the object of this lens's Pictures let's take a look at image Quality firstly Raw versus jpeg although I like this camera's jpegs technically
The war mode is far better capturing a Simply unbelievable amount of detail the Jpegs are comparatively a little Oversharpened with rather noticeable but Not ugly noise and talking about noise Let's look at high ISO levels ISO 100 to 400 looks lovely ISO 800 starts looking A little grainy as does 1600 although a Lot of detail is still being captured ISO 3200 looks grainy but still detailed But 6,400 and 12,500 start getting a bit too ugly here As you can see you can actually push the Iso up to 100,000 but the image becomes Unsurprisingly Dreadful so I'd say the Q3 captures a somewhat noisier image Than other full-frame cameras I've Tested but those images do at least have Quite a lot of detail to them and the Actual quality and pattern of that Graininess does actually look Surprisingly nice surprisingly filmic Perhaps it's a contributor to the Particular look of the camera's images I'll also quickly mention that I thought The camera's dynamic range was excellent Even shooting in jpeg mode I was easily Able to pull loads of good-looking Detail from the shadows and highlights Of this high contrast image let's see About video quality now astonishingly The camera is capable of shooting 8K Video and has lots of video footage and Style options and speeds this is
Normally a feature reserved for Professional video or high-end Interchangeable lens cameras and its Presence on this camera one so obviously Designed for still Shooters feels really Strange actually seriously but I'll Still take it let's start by looking at The 4K video quality it is excellent Capturing tons of detail with very fine Grain and the footage is only really Starting to get a little noisy at ISO 1600 ISO 3200 is just about usable 6,400 And 12,500 not so much let's bump things up To 8K then as you'd expect the detail Being captured in footage here is truly Spectacular as well as the huge file Sizes you'll have to deal with and Interestingly the noise profile is Virtually the same as it was at 4K noise Only really becomes noticeable at ISO 1600 and it's only really at 3200 that Grain looks a little ugly and again well Don't push things Beyond iso3200 is all I'm going to say here so that is some Highly impressive video quality the Camera also has all kinds of speeds and 10 bit recording options as well as 120 Frame per second 1080p mode although I Found its footage to look a little soft Something else I'll mention is that the Autofocus struggled a bit more in video Mode to keep up with moving subjects and There doesn't seem to be any digital
Stabilization although the lens's Optical stabilization seems to do a good Enough job and please accept my Apologies I forgot to check for Rolling Shutter but apparently it's a bit of a Problem on this camera overall with the Q3 there is a lot to love and a few Things I found frustrating also but Thankfully nothing too disastrous I Wanted a little easier customizability With white balance settings especially As I found the auto white balance to be A little cool for my tastes also the Camera's autofocus while being very good Is not quite up to the same standards of Speed and precise confidence as Canon Neon and Sony's although it's not far Off by any means perhaps a faster main Processor would have helped here well That also would have helped to navigate And look through your pictures a bit Faster and at this price point we should Be expecting the very best but putting Those niggles aside I loved its picture Quality and most of all the style Character and color of its images Although the jpeg engine is a little Noisier than I was expecting it still Produces bold colors and high detail Even at high ISO levels the camera's 28 Mm lens is very good quite inspiring to Use in fact for a 28 mm and I can't wait To finish my review of it it's a real Pleasure to work with and it has a few
Tricks up its sleeve some people will Find a camera like the Q3 frustrating They'll want to control and customize Every last thing and have special Buttons on a body for well just about Everything other people will just Embrace its Simplicity customize its few Buttons the way they want and be happy I'm more the former to be honest I was Glad to get back to shooting with my Canon eosr 5 after testing the Q3 I like My buttons although admittedly the Q3 Does have a decent number of Customizable control buttons but at the End of the day the Q3 is a tactile and Very pleasurable camera to shoot with And I loved its results in the final Pictures even if I had to adjust my White balance once in a while it's not a Camera for everyone but I can tell it's One of the most refined like cameras They've ever brought out so if this kind Of thing is your bag then you're going To love [Music] It Thanks for watching everyone and a Special thanks to my patreon supporters Who get all kinds of exclusive bonus Content and make such a difference to me Keeping this channel going check it out In the description below and ciao for Now
