Leica had released Leica Q2 for almost one year since 2019/03. It is a decent high-end compact camera. It is perfect for traveling when the DSLR is way too bulky. I believe that Leica did keep listening to the users’ feedback since it was released. With the upgrade of the new 2.0 firmware, I believe it has become the exact Q2 that it is supposed to be. If you are a Q2 owner and haven’t upgraded the firmware, you should do it immediately.
Here is the link to get the firmware
Highlights of what Q2 firmware will bring you
The new firmware provides a much better user experience of switching the mode between photo and video. With the previous version, it was error-prone to switch to video mode unintentionally. It was an annoying issue that has been bothering me a lot. With the new firmware’s top-level menu, the steps to switch to video mode becomes more concrete which I truly enjoy.
The photo persisting speed is noticeably faster with the new firmware. Having a higher resolution (47MP) in Q2 is a good thing but it impacts when you take continuous shots in a short amount of time. I was switching from Leica Q which I felt a downgrade after I started using Q2. For sure it is still not a Sport DSLR but saving speed had become much reasonable.
I have been dealing with unreliable wifi connection to the camera. If you need to download the photos from the camera to mobile phones directly, it was very difficult to achieve. There were problems like being unable to join the wifi, download or remote control was interrupted in the middle. I had to reset my iPhone’s network setting completely to resolve the problem previously. All of those problems made it not useable. I see significant improvement with the new firmware, the remote control’s delay was reduced, the photo downloading from the camera is also much faster.
Accessories to consider
SanDisk 128G with 300MB/s – The 51MP resolution requires a high-performance SD card to able to write the data to write quickly.
ONA – The Bowery Messenger Bag – I had purchased multiple bags for Leica Q and Q2. I had found this one is the best size to fit it.
Anker USB C Hub as SD card reader – Most of the recent laptops don’t provide an SD card reader anymore. This USB C hub provides power delivery for a modern Mac and PC laptop and also a fast data transfer rate.
Asus ZenBook 14 UX434FLC-XH77 – It is perfect for travel with a 2.7 lb weight and a powerful MX250 graphic card to boost Lightroom.
Conclusion
With the new firmware, I finally see a Q2 that I was expecting. I also hope that Leica will continue to improve the camera through the firmware upgrade. It is a world with mobile priority and Leica still needs lots of effort with the integration with its Leica Fotos App on mobile phones. Leica can still do lots of integration with its mobile application. For example, the app should be able to download photos automatically by marking photos on the camera. It can geo-tagging