I wrote about the Leica Q3 rumors on the 16th of the month. Here it is, the 25th of the month. The new camera has launched and it looks like most of my observations are right on.

 

Here's what a I wrote on the 16th: https://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-rumors-around-launch-of-leica-q3.html

Now for the confirmation blog. I woke up today and got to the pool before I opened up any social media, email or other spoilers and so I missed have the adrenaline hit of the initial announcement along with my coffee first thing. But by the time I got dried off and back home the web was all abuzz with stories and gushy paeans to the latest Leica camera; the Q3. 

The splash this time was much bigger than the splash provided for the Q2 back in 2019 and much, much bigger than the cautious launch of the original Q back in 2015. No wonder. The Q2 became, over the last four years, the best selling of all the Leica cameras on the market, trouncing sales of all the M cameras and, of course, all of the SL cameras. With the middle iteration being a profit magnet it seems prudent that Leica would see the point of making as many popular changes as they could because the price point provides an entry point into the Leica system that is the only way many frugal buyers can rationalize buying the brand. After all, the very good camera body coupled with a very, very good lens is less money to purchase than just about any of their other camera bodies alone. Although I have to point out that their SL2-S is currently about $400 less than the price of the Q3 --- but again, that's for a body without a lens. No dummies there at Leica's marketing department. 

What is fascinating to me is that the same web reviewers who were thrilled to be using the Leica Q2 and didn't really have many things they would have improved about that camera instantly realized (like, this morning) that now they couldn't possibly live without a flippy screen, or 61 megapixels, or USB or wireless charging. They had, one imagines, been horribly mislead about the nature of their own wants and needs. As Steve Jobs once said about market research (paraphrasing here...): "The consumer doesn't know what they want until we make it for them!" 

Several reviewers who were lukewarm in reviews of the last camera had done 108° turns and have now decided that the Leica Q3 is neither "Veblen Goods" or "Luxury Brand Merchandise" but now, at $6.000 for a fixed lens compact camera it represents a true bargain and a sought after "photographic tool." I chuckled. 

Good old Hugh Brownstone almost wet himself extolling the virtues of the Q3 as a video camera, only grudgingly adding that it was incomplete as the camera doesn't have a microphone or headphone jack... I can't imagine that one would rush to use the Q3 as a video camera given its limitations but the Leica marketers summoned up the magic words of the moment to fuel the fires of video desire: "It's got 8K!!!"

Now there are three ways to get your files out of a Q3. You can use the newly updated Fotos 4.0 app along with your iPhone, you can spool off those big files with a USB-C cable directly to your computer (no. you could not do that with the two previous models) or.....primitive man.....you could pluck the SD card out of the slot on the bottom of the camera an plunge it into an SD card reader. Options, options. 

Sidebar/Prediction: Leica will very soon launch a USB-C compatible dongle which will, like the one they came up with for the original SL, provide both a microphone port and a headphone port. It will be a simple device. They will charge $350 to $400 for this add-on.  

Speaking of economizing and cost savings there is one bit of news in all this that has me grinning at my good fortune. Leica have upgraded the battery in the Q3 to one that is about 20% more powerful but which can be used across the SL cameras and the Q2. Even better, the new battery is retailing here for about $170 USD instead of the gasping for air overpriced original SL and Q2 battery which was less powerful but cost $285.  Sadly, this "battery bargain" comes a bit late for me as I have, over the last three years, purchased about ten of the older batteries. Cumulatively about the price of an inexpensive new Leica lens for the SL cameras....

There have been improvements to the Q3 camera overall. I like the idea of being able to charge the battery in the camera. I like that the EVF has been upgraded from 3.68 million dots to nearly six million dots. 

Will I buy one of the new Q3s? Well, certainly not for their video capabilities. And not for the 61 megapixels imaging sensor (would love a Q2 with a 24 megapixel sensor, actually....). I'm pretty darn happy with the Q2. Which will continue to sell alongside the Q3 until current production units are depleted. I might wait for something new and different. It's almost time for Leica to refresh their SL2 and then, a year from now, the SL2-S. I'm thinking they're going to put those bodies on diets for the new revs. Something along the lines of what Panasonic did with the S5mk2. Lots of good tech but a much smaller and lighter footprint than that of the the S1, S1R and S1H. A trimmed down SL body with a sensor that is also optimized for rangefinder lenses would find, I think, a ready market among Leica users of all stripes.

I'm sure I'll break down and buy some sort of new camera this year. Maybe closer to my birthday. Given that I've spoiled myself in the past with impulsive Leica buying frenzies I'm coming to grips with the inevitable. Now I'm starting to buy store brand foods, I'm scanning for and clipping coupons for everything in an attempt to save every penny. We're keeping the air conditioning at 95°. The heating at 46°. If we dine out it's because we have in-app discount for Happy Meals at McDonalds. Instead of resoling shoes I just put on another layer of gaffer's tape. Anything I can do, budget-wise, to get closer to a cost that V-loggers assure me is now, suddenly, a bargain. 

As I'm sitting here browsing the rave reviews for the new product I can feel my own Q2 slowly turning to a goof ridden mush. An obsolete husk. How can I go on aimlessly photographing downtown buildings for the blog with "only" 47.5 megapixels of image resolution? My clients, seeing the old tech, will be so ashamed of me. 

Oh wait. Just a bad dream. My real plan? Buy a battery. Call it a day. 

Hey, thanks to a local reader I was able to meet up with a bright photography student who is passionate about photographing portraits. I gave her enough gear to get started out in the right direction. No strings attached. It was fun. It felt great to lighten my load and at the same time help out a person early on the path. The rest of the gear is currently in stasis and feels well balanced for my needs. Thanks for the advice and the direction.