Gareth Lewis - How To Acquire a Leica Q3 43 And Have Fun
31st July 2026
In: News, Members' Articles
My Q3 43 Story - Gareth Lewis
Life has a strange way of doing things, often very unexpectedly. As a “for instance”, several years ago, Caroline and her sister bought a sports car together. They drove it a lot at first and the less and less, so that it sat in the garage (an important factor) and was run occasionally and only in the dry weather. Roll on Christmas 2025 and several people now had Q3 43’s and were loving them and I was a little curious of how the camera worked, felt and delivered results. Come the spring meeting of 2026, I was allowed to borrow one temporarily to give it a try and, wow, what a lovely thing. Still, I couldn’t afford to think about getting one and still happy with the X-Vario, so why bother? This is when things got exciting.
You see, at some point in the preceding few months, the girls decided that they weren’t using the sports car enough to justify keeping it, even garaged and well cared for - so why not sell it? Of course, it doesn’t do to sell a soft top in the winter, so they decided to wait until the spring. While waiting for the opportune moment, the prospect of selling was discussed with several friends and one suggested to me (possibly in jest) “why don’t you swap it for my Q3 43?” Lovely idea, not my car, not going to happen, but thanks for the thought. I then forgot about it - no point in worrying over what I can’t have.
Then that fairy godmother moment happened. I was told that when the girls sold the car, the camera could be part of the deal (more complicated, but that’s the simple explanation) and so the deed was done and when we dropped the sports car at its new owner, we came away with a Q3 43 as well. Marvellous and unexpected but very welcome, thank you Caroline!
What to do now though? Well, try it out first, see what the buttons do and how to program them (a short class from the previous owner before we left also helped) and then download the Fotos App and connect the camera to it. If you haven’t used it, Fotos is a clever application on your phone that allows you to update firmware, download photos and edit them, then share them with anyone you like, so long as they are connected in some way. Two firmware updates later, the camera is at version 4.0.0 (now three updates and 4.1.0) and things are going rather well - faster functionality, easier to use and all round wonderful.
The lens hood does limit the use of filters a little, but a slim-line UV filter from JJC fits within the mount and the hood and allows full Macro functionality at very reasonable cost. The supplied handgrip makes handling easy and although the camera came with a wrist strap which is easy to use and functional, I couldn’t get used to it, so I fitted a broad, branded neck/shoulder strap and away I went.
The first thing I noticed is the weight. The Q3 43 is heavier than the X-Vario, but that doesn’t seem to matter. It also has about 4x the resolution, is at least twice as fast (aperture wise) than the X-Vario and has a built-in viewfinder and, perhaps counter-intuitively, the fixed focal length has a way of liberating my creativity (if that is the correct term) by making me forget zooming as a function and use my mind/legs to find the required picture. Of course, the very large resolution files (up to 60 Mega-pixels are usable) means that it is possible to crop the image and still get a terrific shot, in-camera or afterwards in the photo-editing package of your choice. So far I have only used Photos, because it seems to do what I need/want and I have learned to use it enough to achieve my aims.
So, I hear you ask (or not), what have I achieved with the Q3 43 since I acquired it? I received the camera on 6 May 2026 and immediately downloaded the user manual, but being a man, only gave it the most perfunctory read. I then carried out the updates (see above) and programmed the three function buttons to suit me, although those settings may change with familiarity, who is to say? The first photos I took (apart from the few when I collected it) were made at Tyntesfield, a National Trust (NT) property very near to home. This site has a house, lovely kitchen gardens and tree filled grounds and as such has plenty to see and to photograph. There was also a food festival in Nailsea and I had to try some photos there, it was too colourful to miss.
We went away for the weekend shortly afterwards to visit friends in West Sussex and visited another NT site, Petworth House and the nature reserve at Arne and in both places took photos, still just getting a feel for the camera. I was successful in some subjects, less so in others, but at least got to use a wide range of aperture and ISO settings, inside and outside in varying conditions. We attended the “Dig for Victory” show at the North Somerset Show Ground and then we had a holiday near Weymouth at what turned out to be the start of a heatwave (one that continued well into July and beyond). After Weymouth and a week at home, we went off to Dorchester for a few days too, still in the same high temperatures. In all these trips and events, I only used the Q3 43, so continued to build up my confidence and competence (if that is what it is). We have also visited South Wales and taken photos at another NT site, Dyffryn House and Gardens, plus other locations offering good photo opportunities. Whether I have made the most of those opportunities remains to be seen and I include a small selection here, simply because I like them. If you do to, that’s an added bonus for me.
Gareth Lewis
Life has a strange way of doing things, often very unexpectedly. As a “for instance”, several years ago, Caroline and her sister bought a sports car together. They drove it a lot at first and the less and less, so that it sat in the garage (an important factor) and was run occasionally and only in the dry weather. Roll on Christmas 2025 and several people now had Q3 43’s and were loving them and I was a little curious of how the camera worked, felt and delivered results. Come the spring meeting of 2026, I was allowed to borrow one temporarily to give it a try and, wow, what a lovely thing. Still, I couldn’t afford to think about getting one and still happy with the X-Vario, so why bother? This is when things got exciting.
You see, at some point in the preceding few months, the girls decided that they weren’t using the sports car enough to justify keeping it, even garaged and well cared for - so why not sell it? Of course, it doesn’t do to sell a soft top in the winter, so they decided to wait until the spring. While waiting for the opportune moment, the prospect of selling was discussed with several friends and one suggested to me (possibly in jest) “why don’t you swap it for my Q3 43?” Lovely idea, not my car, not going to happen, but thanks for the thought. I then forgot about it - no point in worrying over what I can’t have.
Then that fairy godmother moment happened. I was told that when the girls sold the car, the camera could be part of the deal (more complicated, but that’s the simple explanation) and so the deed was done and when we dropped the sports car at its new owner, we came away with a Q3 43 as well. Marvellous and unexpected but very welcome, thank you Caroline!
What to do now though? Well, try it out first, see what the buttons do and how to program them (a short class from the previous owner before we left also helped) and then download the Fotos App and connect the camera to it. If you haven’t used it, Fotos is a clever application on your phone that allows you to update firmware, download photos and edit them, then share them with anyone you like, so long as they are connected in some way. Two firmware updates later, the camera is at version 4.0.0 (now three updates and 4.1.0) and things are going rather well - faster functionality, easier to use and all round wonderful.
The lens hood does limit the use of filters a little, but a slim-line UV filter from JJC fits within the mount and the hood and allows full Macro functionality at very reasonable cost. The supplied handgrip makes handling easy and although the camera came with a wrist strap which is easy to use and functional, I couldn’t get used to it, so I fitted a broad, branded neck/shoulder strap and away I went.
The first thing I noticed is the weight. The Q3 43 is heavier than the X-Vario, but that doesn’t seem to matter. It also has about 4x the resolution, is at least twice as fast (aperture wise) than the X-Vario and has a built-in viewfinder and, perhaps counter-intuitively, the fixed focal length has a way of liberating my creativity (if that is the correct term) by making me forget zooming as a function and use my mind/legs to find the required picture. Of course, the very large resolution files (up to 60 Mega-pixels are usable) means that it is possible to crop the image and still get a terrific shot, in-camera or afterwards in the photo-editing package of your choice. So far I have only used Photos, because it seems to do what I need/want and I have learned to use it enough to achieve my aims.
So, I hear you ask (or not), what have I achieved with the Q3 43 since I acquired it? I received the camera on 6 May 2026 and immediately downloaded the user manual, but being a man, only gave it the most perfunctory read. I then carried out the updates (see above) and programmed the three function buttons to suit me, although those settings may change with familiarity, who is to say? The first photos I took (apart from the few when I collected it) were made at Tyntesfield, a National Trust (NT) property very near to home. This site has a house, lovely kitchen gardens and tree filled grounds and as such has plenty to see and to photograph. There was also a food festival in Nailsea and I had to try some photos there, it was too colourful to miss.
We went away for the weekend shortly afterwards to visit friends in West Sussex and visited another NT site, Petworth House and the nature reserve at Arne and in both places took photos, still just getting a feel for the camera. I was successful in some subjects, less so in others, but at least got to use a wide range of aperture and ISO settings, inside and outside in varying conditions. We attended the “Dig for Victory” show at the North Somerset Show Ground and then we had a holiday near Weymouth at what turned out to be the start of a heatwave (one that continued well into July and beyond). After Weymouth and a week at home, we went off to Dorchester for a few days too, still in the same high temperatures. In all these trips and events, I only used the Q3 43, so continued to build up my confidence and competence (if that is what it is). We have also visited South Wales and taken photos at another NT site, Dyffryn House and Gardens, plus other locations offering good photo opportunities. Whether I have made the most of those opportunities remains to be seen and I include a small selection here, simply because I like them. If you do to, that’s an added bonus for me.
Gareth Lewis