Upgrade to Leica Q2 from Q

I have been using Leica Q for the past three years. Compared to the other full-frame and APS-C DSLRs that I have owned, Leica Q no doubt has the best performance-cost ratio. I would like to share my throughs on why I upgrade to Q2 from Q.

What performance means:

• The amount of time that I can carry it around
• The number of shots and moments that I can take it with
• The energy I need to spend on it.

I used to travel with the bulky DSLRs. It is challenging to carry a DSLR body with multiple lenses around all the time. In the end, I just left them in the car or the hotels most of the time. I am not a big fan of taking photos with a smartphone either. It doesn’t mean a smartphone can’t take good photos. It is just missing the actual photo-taking experience that I would love to enjoy.

At one moment, I started bringing two cameras while traveling. One is a DSLR plus multiple lenses. The other one is a compact size one. I borrowed a Fujifilm X100F from a friend as a tryout. Of course, there is a big difference between DSLR and fixed-lens cameras. The reaction time and speed of a DSLR are not what a compact camera can compare to. Even though I quickly realized that bringing a compact camera is very convenient that I could carry it around all the time and capture the moments that I want.

However, I still care about the quality of the images. After doing some research, I decided to get a Leica Q at the end. I was considering Fujifilm X100V, Sony DSC-RX1 RII, and Leica Q. I am not going to focus on why I picked Leica Q here, but rather on the difference between Q and the recently released Q2.

Leica Q2 was announced on March 7th, 2019, and I ordered mine around March 20th, received the camera around early July. It was about three and a half months of wait time.

I used it immediately during my two-week trip to Europe which includes a Disney Cruise and a one-week getaway in London. It is mostly indoor on the cruise which gives me a very good chance to test it out in a low lighting environment.

I quickly learned the pros and cons of Q2 compared to the original Q.

Q2 is with 47.3 effective megapixels. The raw DNG file is around 80 megabytes per photo. If you are planning to do post-production with tools like Lightroom or Photoshop, you should always take your pictures in DNG format + medium JPEG. The medium JPEG is around 10 megabytes per photo. I got a SanDisk 512GB Extreme Pro UHS-II SDXC to work with the new Q2.

The autofocusing is significantly more accurate and quicker with Q2. I use field autofocus mode with manual field selection. The success rate of taking sharp photos is much higher with Q2 compared to Q. I am pleased with this improvement even though the original Q was already good.

Thanks to the upgrade on the new sensor, the noise with high ISO inside a low lighting environment is also much more acceptable. With a little bit of noise reduction helped by Lightroom, indoor photos turned out very decent with natural light. I am not a big fan of using flash.

Taking video with Q was not usable, and I rarely used it. In Q2, the aperture is auto-adjusted based on the light, and refocusing is much smoother. After a few good tryouts. I started also taking some short videos with Q2, which is something I never used to do with Q. However, I don’t like the new user experience of switching between photo shooting and video shooting mode in Q2. Q2 removed the video button and have to use the “OK” button to switch between modes. I often forgot to switch back to photo mode after taking a video and accidentally took videos in the subsequent events.

Q2 is claimed weatherproof. I had sent my Q back for sensor cleaning due to dust. I believe Q2 would avoid those kinds of hassles.

Is it worth upgrading from Q to Q2? I would say 50-50. If you are a travel photographer, you will also need to upgrade your laptop if you are doing post-production with the photos. If you do more indoor photo shootings, it will help a lot with its newer sensor. If you are just doing direct JPEG output, I don’t see much benefit that you will be getting from Q2. If you can find a well-maintained second-hand Q, it may be a good investment. I am very happy with both Q and Q2. As I mentioned at the beginning, Leica Q/Q2 has the best value for money compared to other DSLs I have gotten.