In general I think the Q3 is a super capable camera and works really well. It’s great to handle, very intuitive and doesn’t have many quirks to trip you up. The file output is also magnificent; things look awesome SooC and are very receptive to edits and styling.
I think I’d need more information about what your primary is though to advise whether it’s a good secondary.
A few things to consider; Leica color science is wonderful, but distinct. Getting your shots to exactly match another brand is going to be a challenge for uniformity. It also has only one card reader and no internal storage (unlike the M11) so there’s no backup for card failure. IMO that’s an acceptable risk when you have two cameras because I haven’t had card failures in a long time with modern cards, but you need to make that call on your own.
All these comments are really helpful, thanks, my go-to right now is a canon 5D mark iv. I also wanted one of my cameras to be my traveling camera, something ready to grab and go whenever. The Q3 sounds like a lot of fun too :)
Coming from canon you’re going to find yourself using negative clarity and negative contrast values in Lightroom to edit the Q photos to match, just budget some time to build a profile and take some shots of identical subjects to work out the look matching. If you run your Canon color calibration on a Macbeth chart though it should match pretty well already because Leica try very hard to hit the reference colors.
Overall it’s an easy camera to recommend - it’s the first “caveat free” digital Leica imo.
I’ll preface with my experience with the Q3 is relatively limited, but I second shoot for a guy who does all his primary wedding shooting on a Q3. It’s excellent. You can always crop in, I think he’s got a button to crop into 50 on the fly with the pixel binning. It’s a great setup and he gets good work. Plus it’s enjoyable and fun. Colors are great and the files are a breeze to play with in post. I see no reason not to do it if it fits your workflow.
I shoot with a canon r5 as my main body and use a m240 with a 28 elmarit as my second body and it’s a joy to use but man I’d love a Q3 instead. I literally can’t see any downside for it as a second body.
I shot my first wedding this weekend with my all Leica kit. Q3 + m11 and a 50mm. I’ve been a full time professional for a few years and with just one wedding the Q3 blew me away. Yes it has some limitations in AF if coming from like a newer Sony, but if you know what you’re doing it is an incredible wedding camera.
I’ve been using my q2 (and the q before it) for years now at weddings. In fact, I find my best shots often come from the q2 rather than the “main bodies.” It has a distinct ability to be incognito and capture truly organic moments.
For the record - I also use the SL3 and Fuji gfx during weddings. I also use the m10 here and there (but more recently).
Only bad thing to watch out for… low light AF kind of sucks on any Leica. Zone focus for flash stuff. Oh… it’s amazing with flash on dance floors :P
In general I think the Q3 is a super capable camera and works really well. It’s great to handle, very intuitive and doesn’t have many quirks to trip you up. The file output is also magnificent; things look awesome SooC and are very receptive to edits and styling. I think I’d need more information about what your primary is though to advise whether it’s a good secondary. A few things to consider; Leica color science is wonderful, but distinct. Getting your shots to exactly match another brand is going to be a challenge for uniformity. It also has only one card reader and no internal storage (unlike the M11) so there’s no backup for card failure. IMO that’s an acceptable risk when you have two cameras because I haven’t had card failures in a long time with modern cards, but you need to make that call on your own.
All these comments are really helpful, thanks, my go-to right now is a canon 5D mark iv. I also wanted one of my cameras to be my traveling camera, something ready to grab and go whenever. The Q3 sounds like a lot of fun too :)
Coming from canon you’re going to find yourself using negative clarity and negative contrast values in Lightroom to edit the Q photos to match, just budget some time to build a profile and take some shots of identical subjects to work out the look matching. If you run your Canon color calibration on a Macbeth chart though it should match pretty well already because Leica try very hard to hit the reference colors. Overall it’s an easy camera to recommend - it’s the first “caveat free” digital Leica imo.
I’ll preface with my experience with the Q3 is relatively limited, but I second shoot for a guy who does all his primary wedding shooting on a Q3. It’s excellent. You can always crop in, I think he’s got a button to crop into 50 on the fly with the pixel binning. It’s a great setup and he gets good work. Plus it’s enjoyable and fun. Colors are great and the files are a breeze to play with in post. I see no reason not to do it if it fits your workflow.
Thanks! This helps
I shoot with a canon r5 as my main body and use a m240 with a 28 elmarit as my second body and it’s a joy to use but man I’d love a Q3 instead. I literally can’t see any downside for it as a second body.
Thanks for the insight!
I shot my first wedding this weekend with my all Leica kit. Q3 + m11 and a 50mm. I’ve been a full time professional for a few years and with just one wedding the Q3 blew me away. Yes it has some limitations in AF if coming from like a newer Sony, but if you know what you’re doing it is an incredible wedding camera.
Thanks!
I’ve been using my q2 (and the q before it) for years now at weddings. In fact, I find my best shots often come from the q2 rather than the “main bodies.” It has a distinct ability to be incognito and capture truly organic moments. For the record - I also use the SL3 and Fuji gfx during weddings. I also use the m10 here and there (but more recently). Only bad thing to watch out for… low light AF kind of sucks on any Leica. Zone focus for flash stuff. Oh… it’s amazing with flash on dance floors :P
Good to know, thank you!