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‹ Photo Notes · 28 září, 2016
I had one photo „sketched out“ on my phone and decided to shoot it with a camera. That same day two Leicas literally landed in my hands for a few minutes: the Leica Q and the medium format Leica S.
A week ago they were laughing at me again for still shooting with the veteran Fujifilm X-E1. It’s no longer sold or supported, but it works, great photos come out of it and I’m fond of it, so I still see no reason to swap it for another.
I come into contact with the „small“ Leicas quite often, but I had never held a medium format beast for a million* in my hands. Of course it occurred to me to shoot that photo with all three cameras.
*) price give or take at the time of purchase, so about two years ago
Before I get to the photos, the feelings, and the possibility that I might recklessly shout about the best Fuji in the world, I have to clear up one thing. The whole shoot took about 5 minutes. I prepared the scene, showed Viki on my phone how we had done it last time, she said „sure, this like this, that like that…“ and hopped into the pose and mood as if not several days but seconds had passed in between. A hard-core pro, hats off.
In that rush I behaved like an amateur. I had my own camera under control, but when you hold something that isn’t yours and just want to snap, you don’t bother much with settings. The full-frame Leica Q was fine, but the medium format Leica S was set completely nonsensically and I didn’t notice. It didn’t occur to me that someone with such an expensive camera can’t set it up. Needless ISO 800, aperture 11 and time 1/30 s, all of which of course showed in the quality. I repeat, it was my mistake, but in the confusion of swapping cards, looking for lens caps and so on, it didn’t click. Besides, it was cold and I felt sorry for the model in the window.
Impressions, pros, cons…
At web size (the photographs at the top): in the photograph from the Leica Q a moiré is slightly visible; otherwise all 3 photos are practically without difference. I’d see it similarly for print too, although the size and thus the fall and the resolution differ greatly.
Looking at the detail, clear differences are visible. The Fuji clearly has the lowest resolution. The Leica Q excels in the detail of the rendering, but on the other hand it is very prone to the moiré effect. The Leica S has no moiré, but it also has the softest rendering and a lot of noise. As I wrote, I believe that with proper settings the result would be markedly different, but for example the amount of noise at ISO 800 is shocking for such an expensive hi-end instrument.
Leica Q (type 116)
Shooting normal; I enjoy the contrast and colours typical of the Leica brand. Details are excellent, moiré nasty. Otherwise all fine. DNG file size over 40 MB.
Check the price of the Leica Q at FotoŠkoda
Leica S (type 006)
Here too I expected the typical colours and contrast. They didn’t show up. Medium format digital cameras are mostly not built for effect but for inconspicuous quality. I enjoyed the huge viewfinder. I didn’t enjoy the size and weight, the manual focusing, the file size of around 75 MB, and of course the price. That soft result (no, I won’t repeat it again 🙂 didn’t bother me that much; at the final size (web or print) at least it doesn’t look digitally oversharpened. I like a certain softness.
Check the price of the Leica S at FotoŠkoda
Fujifilm X-E1
I’ve already written enough about Fuji. Honestly, I thought the chosen photo would come from one Leica or the other. In the end I chose the one from the Fuji.
No, this is not a paid article 🙂