Don Morley's Enthusiasm for The Leica Q
19th April 2024
In: News, Members' Articles
Don has written the following article on using the Leica Q and you can see how highly he regards this camera series from his article and the quality of the photographs attached:
2015 Was a momentously successful year for Leica, although at the time even they had no idea just how massively successful in financial terms it would prove to be, and this latest success was due almost entirely to the release of a new and most un Leica like camera called the Q.
The back story goes someone at the factory who normally would never warrant a public mention came up with a idea for a radical fully auto or fully manual fixed length 28mm f1.7 lens digital camera which it is understood Leica's main management were not entirely sold on, but fortunately did decide to manufacture what was then to be just one short production run.
This wonderfully engineered 24 mega pixel however literally took off with the factory finding themselves inundated with so many orders for the new Q they were long unable even to begin to supply a seemingly insatiable demand. Yet amid all of this many of Leica's more traditional 'M' Camera users including myself remained far from impressed.
After all I had been using Leica's traditional interchangeable lens and rangefinder focusing type cameras as a Pro Photographer ever since C1952 and by 2015 was exclusively using the so versatile Digital 'M' Models, so quite frankly I thought Leica in then introducing producing what seemed to be a massively expensive, fixed 28mm lens Wide Angle camera was just plain daft.
That remained my view until about 2017 when I was handed one to try whilst on a Leica Fellowship visit to Leica UK. Not that I was totally won over but I could not ignore the fact this was a superbly made and designed camera, it was chunky a lovely to hold yet much lighter than it's bulk suggested.
Best of all for me this new potentially fully automatic everything camera also still had the likes of a traditional manual shutter speed dial, likewise the option of a fully manual or auto aperture ring, with either also being lockable into manual or fully auto everything mode. Likewise such as the ISO values could be fixed rate or floating and even the focusing could be fully automatic, manual, or even Macro.
To cut a long story short, eventually I bought a second-hand one, then later that evening took my new to me Q for a stroll through my local public park. As the light gradually fell I eventually took just five pictures, but one of them later won me several awards, and another taken at The Bluebell Railway next day won another, and by then I was fully hooked on the Q.
Since then it has accompanied me almost everywhere, not least as I am 87 now with increasingly poor mobility so am no longer able to carry or manage anything heavier or more complex, but no matter for what I have learned about the Q is this rather understated camera is in fact THE most versatile I have ever had the pleasure of using.
The lens and sensor combination for instance are so good I can regard that truly brilliant fixed 28mm lens as being more than capable of giving me images which are so sharp I can easily crop, hence I can blow up just a 35mm, 50mm or even a 75mm focal length area, and still have top quality images.
Many many for me memorable pictures later, with lots of them taken during such as The Leica Fellowship's wonderful long Weekend outings I am still very much of the view the Leica Q is one of the World's very best cameras and indeed I have since added a Q2 with its 47 rather than 24 mp sensor so if I have to I can crop my resulting images even more.
My son Peter incidentally uses a Leica M10R with a range of fixed length lenses just like I used to do, and he reckons he so uses because that is how his hero Henri Cartier-Bresson worked, whereas I reckon Peter is wrong, and Bresson as a Pro would not only have welcomed every technical advance available to him, but had he still been alive, would most probably have been using a Leica Q, Q2 or Q3 by now.
Don Morley
Don Morley - Waiting for Tea - Leica Q2
Don Morley - Just Jane - Avro Lancaster - Leica Q
Don Morley - The Copyist - Leica Q
2015 Was a momentously successful year for Leica, although at the time even they had no idea just how massively successful in financial terms it would prove to be, and this latest success was due almost entirely to the release of a new and most un Leica like camera called the Q.
The back story goes someone at the factory who normally would never warrant a public mention came up with a idea for a radical fully auto or fully manual fixed length 28mm f1.7 lens digital camera which it is understood Leica's main management were not entirely sold on, but fortunately did decide to manufacture what was then to be just one short production run.
This wonderfully engineered 24 mega pixel however literally took off with the factory finding themselves inundated with so many orders for the new Q they were long unable even to begin to supply a seemingly insatiable demand. Yet amid all of this many of Leica's more traditional 'M' Camera users including myself remained far from impressed.
After all I had been using Leica's traditional interchangeable lens and rangefinder focusing type cameras as a Pro Photographer ever since C1952 and by 2015 was exclusively using the so versatile Digital 'M' Models, so quite frankly I thought Leica in then introducing producing what seemed to be a massively expensive, fixed 28mm lens Wide Angle camera was just plain daft.
That remained my view until about 2017 when I was handed one to try whilst on a Leica Fellowship visit to Leica UK. Not that I was totally won over but I could not ignore the fact this was a superbly made and designed camera, it was chunky a lovely to hold yet much lighter than it's bulk suggested.
Best of all for me this new potentially fully automatic everything camera also still had the likes of a traditional manual shutter speed dial, likewise the option of a fully manual or auto aperture ring, with either also being lockable into manual or fully auto everything mode. Likewise such as the ISO values could be fixed rate or floating and even the focusing could be fully automatic, manual, or even Macro.
To cut a long story short, eventually I bought a second-hand one, then later that evening took my new to me Q for a stroll through my local public park. As the light gradually fell I eventually took just five pictures, but one of them later won me several awards, and another taken at The Bluebell Railway next day won another, and by then I was fully hooked on the Q.
Since then it has accompanied me almost everywhere, not least as I am 87 now with increasingly poor mobility so am no longer able to carry or manage anything heavier or more complex, but no matter for what I have learned about the Q is this rather understated camera is in fact THE most versatile I have ever had the pleasure of using.
The lens and sensor combination for instance are so good I can regard that truly brilliant fixed 28mm lens as being more than capable of giving me images which are so sharp I can easily crop, hence I can blow up just a 35mm, 50mm or even a 75mm focal length area, and still have top quality images.
Many many for me memorable pictures later, with lots of them taken during such as The Leica Fellowship's wonderful long Weekend outings I am still very much of the view the Leica Q is one of the World's very best cameras and indeed I have since added a Q2 with its 47 rather than 24 mp sensor so if I have to I can crop my resulting images even more.
My son Peter incidentally uses a Leica M10R with a range of fixed length lenses just like I used to do, and he reckons he so uses because that is how his hero Henri Cartier-Bresson worked, whereas I reckon Peter is wrong, and Bresson as a Pro would not only have welcomed every technical advance available to him, but had he still been alive, would most probably have been using a Leica Q, Q2 or Q3 by now.
Don Morley
Don Morley - Waiting for Tea - Leica Q2
Don Morley - Just Jane - Avro Lancaster - Leica Q
Don Morley - The Copyist - Leica Q
Comments
By Ken Davis: Don, you show both the quality of the cameras and your skill as a photographer in these photographs By Cled Lewis: Hello Don, the three pictures selected by you show the variety of subjects suited to the Q perfectly. They are so much like the subjects for which the M is famous. The quality is difficult to judge on an iPhone but your appraisal is testament to what is obviously a beautiful piece of kit.
The frames covered from 28 to 75 satisfy the M users in the majority of situations and in a small compact package.
You may well have influenced a number of people.
Regards,
Cled By Alan Humphries: An interesting article Don with superb accompanying images which has been said in an earlier comment demonstrate your skill as a photographer and the quality
of the lens.
Like you I invested in a used Q with which I have had a love hate relationship, it having to be sent back to Leica with focusing issues.
To try to overcome the jinx I have the Q with on a trip to the Netherlands. All going well it will finally gel! Any resulting “master pieces” will be sent to Ken for the website.