Managed to walk into — and out of — a Leica store and only bought a pin. I really wanted to get the used Q2 Monochrome that was ‘only’ 4750 euros.
Though I did buy the Leica Academy inspiration book, online and used, after leaving. But I refuse to count it because it’s a published-based purchase!
I’m an amateur Toronto-based documentary and street photographer, and have been making images on the street for over a decade. In the fall of 2023 I purchased a used Leica Q2. I’d wanted the camera for a while, but it wasn’t until late 2023 that I began running into situations where I’d benefit from a full-frame sensor. Since then I’ve been going out and making images with it at least once a week for hours at a time and have made tens of thousands of frames in all kinds of weather.
In this post I discuss my experiences using the Leica Q2 in a variety of weather conditions to make monochromatic JPG images. I tend to exclusively use either single-point autofocus or zone focusing, and either multi-field or highlight-weighted exposure modes, generally while using aperture priority at 1/500s to freeze action on the street. My edits to images have, previously, used Apple Photos and now rely on the Darkroom app on my iPad Pro. You can see the kinds of images that I’ve been making on my Glass profile.
For the past several years I’ve kept looking at the Leica Q2 as the next step in the camera I want to use. To be clear, I think I’m pretty proficient with the Fuji X100F but I’ve also been in situations where it hasn’t been able to perform, either due to weather or extreme low light. And as much as I like it there are things I find less than ideal about the Fuji, including the zone focusing system.
When I was in Quebec, recently, I held the Q2 for the first time, and got to play with it bit, and it convinced me that this was the next device I wanted to use to make photos. I don’t know that I’ll actually use it to make 28mm images and suspect I’ll crop to 35mm (equiv), but regardless I’m looking forward to using it when it arrives in the next week or so!
Excited Pixels