Looking to shoot street with the Q? Here’s my Leica Q street photography review with everything you need to know, sample images, settings and more. Let’s jump right in.
Introduction
The Leica Q is a full frame, fixed 28mm f1.7 compact camera from Leica. How is the Leica Q for street photography? Pretty great actually, it’s one of the best cameras you can get for that specific purpose. And the good news is, it has a few tricks up it’s sleeves.
Leica Q street photography
Let’s get into the pros and cons of using the Q for street:
One of the cleanest street photography cameras
If you like your images clean, that means with minimal grit to them, this camera really shines. Leica Q street photography produces some of the cleanest looking images you can get. And with a little Bokeh here and there the subjects really pop out of the frame, something you can only get on full frame.
Plus there’s very little distortion in the corners, even when you shoot close. If you want your images clean, there’s no better then the Q. If you like your grit, you might want to add some presets on them.
The best way to describe the street photography coming out of the Q is that it’s “HD”, forgive the term but you get what I mean.
It’s secretly a Tri-Elmar
Due to how rangefinders work, there are no Leica zoom lenses (except for the modern autofocus ones), so the closes thing to zooms have been the Leica Tri Elmars that have 3 focal lengths in one.
The Leica Q is a fixed lens camera, so what am I talking about? Digital zoom. There’s plenty of megapixels in the Leica Q to crop away an still have a very usable image. You can set it to 35mm and 50mm depending on your favorite focal length.
| Focal Length | Megapixels | Eq aperture |
|---|---|---|
| 28mm | 24 megapixels | f1.7 |
| 35mm | 15 megapixels | f2 |
| 50mm | 8 megapixels | f2.8 |
If it is the 28mm that put you off from Leica Q street photography, with the push of a button you can shoot 35mm and 50mm and still have a fat set of megapixels to print large.
But that’s not all, when you crop the image at 50mm you have Bokeh that resembles an f2.8 Bokeh, pretty sweet if you ask me.
It’s really good for street photography portraits
If your idea of Leica Q street photography is portraits, it is really great. It is a great camera for portraits that produces tack sharp images (some of them glow and pop out under the right conditions) and while the 28mm might sound limiting in terms of Bokeh, it is also a full frame camera that can shoot pretty close.
So yes it can Bokeh pretty nice, but what’s special about it is the feeling you get from shooting the portraits. If you look at the Leica Q portraits below, there’s a certain thing to them that you can’t really put your finger on that you can only get from a Q or M camera.
It’s the magical combination of full frame, sharp lens and Maestro processor at work that gives things a look that is hard not to like.
Leica Q street photography settings
Here are recommended Leica Q street photography settings:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Aperture | f8 |
| Shutter Speed | No less 1/125 |
| Distance (see lens) | 2 meters |
| ISO | 100, Adjust as needed |
| IQ | RAW |
With these settings everything from 1.25 meters to about 5 meters will be in focus. Because you and your subjects are moving I wouldn’t go below 1/125th as shutter speed and for the ISO it is as low as you can go.
Manipulation station
The RAW files coming out of the Q are pretty great. There’s more then enough wiggle room to recover shadows and highlights from tricky lighting situations. And the Q can do both black and white and color street photography VERY well.
Plenty of focusing modes
On of the biggest advantages of the Leica Q is the fact that it is easy to pick up, no learning curve like the M cameras. If you want to do Leica Q street photography you can simply leave it on autofocus and the lens is fast enough for walk-by street photography, long gone are the terrible slow AF of the X cameras.
If that is not your fancy, you can simply put the camera on manual and either have the lens to guide you on your focus zones or rely on the focus peaking and magnigication to have an idea of what is in focus at all times.
A zen like approach
Cameras nowadays can be as complicated as an airplane cockpit. The strength of Leica Q strret photography is that it takes the same approach as the M cameras and offers one of the most zen-ike experiences you can get, it’s just you and your images.
The interface is simple and the most used controls are on your lens and the top dial. All of this without compromising image quality. If you like simplicity, this can really bring it back in your street photography.
Conclusion
I hope you have enjoyed this article about Leica Q street photography. It is one of the best cameras you can get to shoot streets and offers stunning image quality where your subjects pop out of the frame and a simplified approach that makes it a joy to shoot. Due to the large megapixel count you have 3 focal lengths in one, with really great Bokeh even if you crop to 50mm equivalent. It’s well recommended for street photography. Click here to run a price check.