Leica is the camera brand that everyone desires, but few can afford. Premium is the word that best describes Leica. Crème de la crème, or perhaps Beste der Besten. If you can afford a Leica you buy a Leica, because every real photographer wants a Leica. It’s a status symbol, and it shows that you’ve arrived.
All of that is hyperbole, of course; however, there’s a good chance you’ve heard the sentiment before. An alternative yet similar statement is that Fujifilm is the poor man’s Leica. You only own a Fujifilm camera because you cannot afford a Leica model; if you could, you’d own a Leica instead.
I’ve wanted to try a Leica for some time now. The cameras are beautiful, there’s no question about it. But is it beauty over brawn? Are Leica cameras actually so good that the cost is justifiable? Would I—a long-time Fujifilm photographer—like a Leica enough to purchase one? Are Fujifilm cameras just cheap Leica knockoffs for those who cannot afford the real deal? Those are questions that I wanted to answer.
MPB is the sponsor of this article. They loaned me a Leica Q2 to try out for a couple of weeks. For those who don’t know, MPB is an online platform where you can buy, sell, or trade used photo and video gear. “At MPB, there’s something for everyone who wants to try something new, hone their skills, or pursue their passion—and it won’t cost the earth.” If you’re in the market for used camera gear, be sure to check out their platform—you can learn more about MPB here. Thank you, MPB, for making this article possible!
For those who don’t know, the Leica Q2 is a premium compact fixed-lens 47mp full-frame camera. It is simultaneously somewhat similar to the Fujifilm X100VI, Fujifilm X-E4, and Fujifilm X70, yet significantly divergent from all of those models in several aspects. It has a 28mm f/1.7 lens that is fast and sharp. The camera was released in 2019, and discontinued last year when it was succeeded by the Q3. The original MSRP of the Q2 was $5,800; the current used price is roughly $4,500 to $3,800, depending on the condition. The specific Leica Q2 that I picked from the MPB platform was exactly as described: the camera functioned like it was brand-new; the body had only extremely minor signs of wear, which I was well aware of due to the gear-specific ‘cosmetic condition’ rating (“Excellent” in this case) displayed on the platform.
Something that I was unexpectedly impressed with was the Leica box. I know this sounds strange, but Leica is head and shoulders above the other brands when it comes to packaging. I’d pay a little more to have my Fujifilm cameras come in functional boxes similar to what the Q2 came in. Sometimes the little things can be big things.
I didn’t know a whole lot about the Leica Q2 before this project. I was quite surprised by just how minimalistic the Q2 is. In this regard it is more like the Fujifilm X-E4, which is Fujifilm’s most minimalistic model in recent years, but even more so. There are not very many buttons and controls on the body. For a camera that begs to be used fully manually, it is incomprehensibly missing an ISO dial; however, it is possible to use the unmarked knob on the top plate as an ISO dial by programming the button on top of it to activate ISO. That’s not ideal, but it is certainly better than digging through the menu. On one hand I do like the clean approach, but on the other hand I found it to be a bit too minimalistic for my liking.
There’s no doubt that the Leica Q2 is a beautifully designed camera that is solidly built. While the body is just a tad larger than the Fujifilm X100VI, the lens is significantly larger, and the whole thing is definitely heavier. It’s easy to understand why it would be compared to the X100VI, but the Q2 is a little more similar to the X-E4 (just with a fixed lens instead of interchangeable, and more ruggedly built). The Q2’s 28mm lens is roughly equivalent to 18mm on Fujifilm X cameras, so that’s where a comparison to the long-discontinued X70 comes in. Probably the closest lens in the Fujifilm lineup to that of the Q2 is the Fujinon 18mm f/1.4. Overall, I think the Leica Q2 is dissimilar enough to any Fujifilm model that it’s really apples-to-oranges, yet similar enough that the correlations are understandable.
The Leica Q2 is best when used with a RAW workflow. It’s ok for straight-out-of-camera photography, but definitely much more limited in that regard than Fujifilm. The JPEG image quality is good-but-not-great. There are five profiles—three color and two B&W—which can only be customized to a small extent. For color, Standard is somewhat reminiscent of the Provia film simulation, Vivid can be made to fairly closely resemble factory-default Velvia, and Natural is like a cross between Eterna and PRO Neg. Std. I didn’t care much for Standard, and opted for Vivid the most, and Natural a distant second. For B&W, the two profiles are quite similar to each other, and are much more reminiscent of Monochrome than Acros (on Fujifilm). The High Contrast option has stronger shadows, but is otherwise similar to the standard B&W profile; it can be hard to tell the two apart sometimes. Since I stopped editing RAW files years ago, I only used the camera-made JPEGs.
Two notable issues for using the camera for JPEG photography is that it quite obviously struggles with color banding, such as with clear blue sky, and there is some pronounced distortion from the wide-angle lens that the camera doesn’t fix for you. In some situations, simply adding faux grain might be enough to cover up the banding, but other times that won’t likely be enough. For the distortion, either you have to be ok with it, or you have to adjust it in-post, and, if you are doing that, you might as well just shoot RAW.
It was definitely fun to try out the Leica Q2. I can understand why people desire it, since the camera has a lovely retro design and a minimalism philosophy, two things that I personally appreciate. I think you have to know going into it that RAW editing is more-or-less essential. I’d love to see Fujifilm create a camera that could be more of an apples-to-apples comparison to the Q2, so that you could have a similar experience but paired with Fujifilm’s wonderful JPEG output; currently, no such camera exists.
The Leica Q2 is both beauty and brawn, but not nearly as much JPEG brawn as I had hoped for. I do find the price to be very difficult to justify; however, if it’s a camera that you really want—and you buy it used—it can probably be a worthwhile expenditure. I don’t intend to purchase one, personally, particularly since the JPEG output isn’t nearly as good as Fujifilm’s. While there are certainly some similarities between Leica and Fujifilm cameras, there are plenty of differences that produce notably divergent experiences. If the Leica Q2 experience is what you are after, you’ll just have to get the Q2.
Example photographs, all camera-made JPEGs captured with a Leica Q2:
Previously in this series:
Fujifilm X-Pro2 — The camera that got away (again)
Fujifilm X-T50 + Fujinon 23mm F/2 = Interchangeable-Lens Fujifilm X100VI??
Up next: Fujifilm X30 — Fujifilm’s Forgotten Retro Compact Zoom