The Leica Q is fast becoming my travel camera of choice. I know I keep harping on about it, but it is such a joy to handle and produces great results every time. As a travel camera it is proving is worth: Small and relatively light, the Q slips easily into a bag and super easy to use. The layout of the manual controls on the lens is second to none and all all important settings can be seen at a glance. The transition from the blindingly fast and accurate auto-focus system to the class-leading manual focus, is the work of an instant. And I still marvel over the quick transfer from normal to macro with the unique variable depth-of-field scale.
A couple of weeks ago I was out and about in the Swiss alps, revelling in the wide 28mm as a landscape optic. Now, in the narrow confines of an Aegean village, that same lens is winning me over further as it offers a new perspective on buildings that are difficult to capture with longer lenses. For general street photography I still prefer a fifty over, even, a thirty-five, but the wider lens of the Q impresses with its ability to cope with most situations. The resolution of the Q’s full frame sensor, coupled with the excellent optics, means that cropping modestly—even to an equivalent of 50mm—is a very satisfactory solution.
MacBook
As well as with the Q, I am travelling with a new computer, Apple’s heroic little MacBook. It’s the “fast” 1.3GHz version with the 512GB SSD, which I agonised over for months. I was on the point of buying the really fast tricked-out 13in MacBook Pro. Yet at the last moment, heart overruled head and my money went to the slimline computer with the mobile processor and that gorgeous 12in retina screen. I wasn’t phased by the single USB-C port, nor by the short-travel “virtual” keyboard; but I was worried about the operational speed, particularly when it comes to manipulating large RAW files.
I think I have been worrying unnecessarily. Import, even of the large 50MB DNG+JPG Leica Q combos, is not significantly slower than on my fast iMac 5K with its 32GB of memory. Import and initial adjustments ran at around 1GB per minute. Later I exported 28 large jpegs to the internal disk in 45 seconds. I suspect the ultra-fast solid-state disk of the MacBook has something to do with this. Before leaving the office I checked the iMac’s 1TB Fusion drive against the MacBook with some not-so-surprising results. The iMac’s mechanical disk managed read and write speeds of only 215/124 MB/s compared with the solidly superior 546/410 MB/s of the MacBook. While the MacBook makes do with only 8GB of RAM and a much slower processor, the impressive read/write speeds come to its rescue when copying files.
Truly, I can say that I have not noticed any real-world performance hits with the MacBook. Subjectively (for I have no facts) it is speedier than my old mid-2012 MacBook Air. And all this comes in such a tiny package, smaller than a sheet of A4, almost as thin and weighing only 920g, a couple of hundred more than the Leica Q in fully battle order.
Hi Mike.
Very interesting observations you make regarding the Macbook and Q. I’m a little surprised that the Macbook can handle the big Q-files so well.
May I ask about the workflow for editing and saving the images? Expect that you transfer your original files to an external drive.
Great pictures, by the way :-).
Best regards Tor.
Hi Tor,
Thanks for your nice comments again. I have to say I am greatly surprised that the MacBook slices through those Q files like a knife through butter. I have no technical explanation, other than to surmise that the very fast SSD must play a large part. The MB is certainly subjectively much faster than my 2012 MacBook Air and that was my main worry–I wouldn’t want to go backwards.
The method of file storage is obviously important. With the new MacBook, because of its 500GB disk, I am storing current pictures (for current travel purposes) on the computer, therefore in a fast location. Back at base I import all the files to an external 4TB Thunderbolt disk which contains my main database for the past five years, Writing to this disk is faster than it would be to write to the iMac’s internal Fusion drive. Naturally I have a robust backup strategy for this main photo database, including the cloning of the past two years to a 2TB USB-3 drive which I carry with me when travelling,
What is unusual, is that I keep all the Lightroom catalog files on Dropbox so that wherever I am I work from the same catalog. On returning to base I simply copy across the daily photo folders to the main database and "find" them in the catalog. It seems to work well.
As for workflow, the shots I am taking while in Greece are getting minimal attention. After importing the DNG files I make a quick selection of usable shots. The chosen ones I generally run through Nik’s Colour Efex Pro or (for black and white) Silver Efex Pro, using a mild preset to improve definition. I then perform detailed editing in Lightroom until I achieve the desired results. I found the new dehiring tool in Lightroom 2015 very useful with the Swiss shots the other week, by the way.
In general, I am very happy with the performance of the MacBook as a travel companion. I probably wouldn’t choose it as a sole computer, although it will satisfy the vast majority of computer users who never do anything that demands a fast processor.
Mike
Thanks for the great "in-depth" explanation of your workflow and how you deal with the big Q-files.
I really appreciate that you use some of your time shearing your experience. I will for sure consider elements of your workflow in the future :-).
Unfortunately the Q isn’t available in Norway yet but I’ve sold all my Nikon gear and I’m really looking forward to give the Q a closer look.
Take care and happy shooting!
Bad photos. Period.