Leica Q3 43 Readers’ Report: Your chance to contribute to a Macfilos review of the new compact

The Leica Q3 43 has come into my life, and I am loving it. Now for the Readers’ Report. As a great advocate for the original Q and its 28mm successors, I was ready to espouse this new focal length. How it will pan out eventually is still unknown, but so far, the signs are good. In due course, we aim to post a user-review, and we’d like to enlist your help.

Readers’ Report experiment

Within the next couple of months we will be publishing our review of the Q3 43, and I’m working on the preparation at the moment. But this time we have decided to try something different: a readers’ report.

Get in touch

Here’s how it goes. If you have been lucky enough to lay hands on the new Q3 43, get in touch with us at info@macfilos.com. Let us have your initial thoughts and, if possible, add a couple of photographs that you are particularly proud of.

If we decide to use your experience and photographs as part of the review, we will ask for publishable versions of the images. There’s nothing to lose. Just write with your initial experiences. The more additional detail and unusual your comments, the more likely are they to be used.

Leica Q3 43

The Leica Q3 43 with its unique and super-sharp 43mm f/2 APO-Summicron ASPH has caused a stir in the Leica world. From the inception of the Q in 2015, many Leica users have been looking for a lens closer to the “standard” focal length popularised by Leica’s long tradition of 50mm M-Mount lenses.

While the Q, Q2, and Q3 with their wide-angle 28mm lens have all been extremely popular — far more successful than anyone could have imagined ten years ago — the pressure for a longer lens has been intense. I fully embraced the 28mm focal length and cherish it for its versatility, particularly in tight city surroundings, but I cannot deny the attractiveness of a longer focal length. It opens up possibilities in portraiture, for instance, that are just not there with a wide-angle lens.

But it was Ricoh that led the way with a fixed 28mm focal length, and the GR became surprisingly popular. Not only does the sharp little f/2.8 28mm lens and APS-C sensor produce outstanding results, the GRIII (latest model) is even more compact and easily fits in a pocket. Perhaps it influenced Leica’s decision to launch the Q with a 28mm lens, instead of the more common 35mm optic favoured by Fujifilm with the X100 series, and Sony with the RX1. It certainly hasn’t been a disastrous decision.

Ricoh example

Notwithstanding, a longer lens has its advantages, and Ricoh felt the pressure for change in designing the 40mm GRIIIx version of the popular fixed-lens compact. From all accounts, the 40mm model has been a great success, and it is likely that Leica has been influenced by this in the design of the Q3 43 lens.

We have previously answered the “Why 43mm?” question, but perhaps there is another excellent reason to go with 43mm and not follow convention with a 40mm lens. Leica has a precedent for 40mm in the 1970s CL camera, which had a 40mm lens and 40mm frame lines. It was so popular that it almost did for the futuristic M5. The reason is simply to be different. Justifying 43mm with the “human eye” argument is good marketing. And the unusual focal length has certainly been a talking point, with far more interest and coverage than if the lens had been a boring old forty.

Whatever the reasons, the camera has gone down well. I suspect that it will soon start to outsell the original 28mm model. But what do you think?

Readers’ Report

Our Readers’ Report on the Q3 43 gives you the opportunity to have your say in the debate. Let’s have your list of pros and cons, your reason for buying the camera, and your decision concerning 28 or 43. And did you sell or trade in your Q3 28? Or, perhaps, you have both cameras and use them for different purposes. Readers will be interested in your reasoning, and will be anxious to see one or two examples of your initial results from the Leica Q3 43.



8 COMMENTS

  1. I see that the same team that designed the faulty case must also have designed the hood/filter arrangement!
    Even in the manual it states that you need to buy an alternative round hood to fit a filter, the hood supplied tapers too much and means it does not do up properly with a standard filter and even a slim filter doesn’t work in macro mode.
    I have more Leicas than I care to admit to, but the recent hardware design and software bungles are making me very wary of ever buying another new Leica.

  2. It intrigues me that this has turned out to be a Panasonic lens and according to Cris Reid has a lot of correction for barrel distortion, yet the results look wonderful.
    I wish Panasonic would release this lens in L-mount.

    • dpreview did an article on the Q3/43; they always do a ‘studio scene’ shot of all kinds of materials and colors. You can download the DNG and examine the original.

      My software automatically removes some IC corrections and yes, there’s barrel distortion. Not as bad as on, say, a D-Lux Typ 109. But very obvious.

      The question I ask myself is: do I want to pay for an M11 with a Summicron 50mm APO? It’d be bigger, heavier, no autofocus, no macro . . .

      Or am I willing to live with some in camera correction?

      (honesty in posting: I don’t want to spend those kinds of money on either. Those cameras won’t improve my photography one bit; it’d take something entirely different than equipment!)

    • We have seen the Leica Rumors piece about Panasonic having registered the lens, and it is quite likely it is manufactured by Panasonic. I don’t know for sure. The 28mm f/1.7 also incorporated significant correction and I don’t think the new lens is any different. It will be interesting to see further reports on this.

  3. Given the advances in high ISO sensor technology enabling usable ‘slower’ aperture lenses, I’m wondering if a “Q ZOOM”, with a Leica 28-70mm compact zoom lens could be a feasible Q variant? Yes it’s an X-Vario on steroids – but with a very useful high ISO capability. And the compact zoom lens’ close-up capability could be enhanced with a dedicated Elpro used at the 70mm focal length. The zoom lens could in fact utilise any Leica ‘badge engineered’ c/u achromats – including ancient ‘Leitz’ 55mm thread Elpros. This really useful FF close-focus Leica compact zoom camera would require suitable and sensible marketing – no gimmicky pre-release nicknames. Marketing using ‘box office’ QZ generated portraits – together with some QZ composed close-up pix of e.g., Leica accessories – might convince potential buyers just how useful the FF, close-focus, compact QZ camera could be.

    • I had long wished that Fujifilm would produce a zoom version of the X100. Like you imply, it would not have to be a long zoom range to be desirable in this style of camera. If it was of the collapsible type Fuji’s compact design of the camera could be maintained. Similar to the 16-50mm kit lens Nikon makes for the Z fc, like the X100 series, an APS-C camera.

      Except that lens tops out at f6.3 at 50mm, which I doubt Fuji would find acceptable. Maybe an 18-45mm (27-68mm equiv.) f3.5-4.5 would do the trick.

  4. I cannot wait to read your article on this camera. I believe this camera will sell like hot cakes. I may eventually cave in but a monochrom version would definitely be a delightful companion to my Fujifilm X100 VI. They would make a lovely couple.

    • In fact, Leica should market the Q3 monochrom version if it comes out as the mini view camera. I always wanted a view camera but compromised on 6×7 medium format system.

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