The Leica Q (Typ 116) ($4,250) is the rare camera that somehow manages to be both old-school and forward-thinking at the same time. It does so through a mix of minimalist, classic controls, an understated design, and the most polished firmware and advanced tech that Leica has put into a camera. It succeeds where the Leica T fell short in that it doesn't put its form ahead of its function, and while it carries with it a premium price tag, it delivers a product that's purpose isn't replicated by many other, less-expensive alternatives. The Q is most certainly a niche camera; its fixed 28mm wide-angle lens and full-frame image sensor cement that. But for those photographers in that niche, it's a treat. It doesn't have many peers in the realm of fixed-lens cameras with full-frame image sensors—just the Sony RX1 the and RX1R—but that doesn't make the Q any less worthy of being named Editors' Choice.

Design and Features

The Q is a little on the bulky side when compared with other fixed-lens cameras with large image sensors. It measures 3.2 by 5.1 by 3.7 inches (HWD) and weighs 1.4 pounds. The RX1 is slim in comparison (2.6 by 4.6 by 2.75 inches, 1.1 pound), but it doesn't include an integrated electronic viewfinder and its 35mm f/2 lens doesn't capture as much light or cover as wide of a field of view as the Q's 28mm f/1.7 Summilux.

The camera is heavy for its size, but that's due to its construction. The body is anodized aluminum—the Q is only available in black—and there's certainly a good amount of glass housed in the barrel of the optically stabilized Summilux lens. Cosmetic issues may be a concern with the anodized aluminum body; our test unit picked up a few scuffs during normal use, which caused the silver aluminum to shine through the black finish. That's not atypical for Leica; the Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 ASPH. ($4,395.00 at Amazon) that I've been shooting with for several years has developed a similar patina, but it can be a surprise to Leica photographers used to black chrome or paint over brass.

Leica has put some thought into its ergonomics; the Q is comfortable to hold, in no small part due to a unique thumb rest on the rear. The cylindrical indentation provides a natural resting spot for your thumb when shooting with the Q, and a guide for you to slide it straight down to access the four-way directional controller that sits underneath it. The controller is used to move the active focus point around when shooting, and also to navigate menus.

Leica's control scheme is refreshingly minimal. The aperture is controlled with a ring around the lens, and can be set from f/1.7 through f/16 in third-stop increments, or set to an automatic mode. You have your choice of autofocus or manual focus; you'll need to hold in a small button on the lens focus tab to move from the AF to MF position. It's one of the few issues I had with the Q; the button is a little small, and in an awkward place to reach, so it makes changing focus modes a chore. It's a little bit of a shame, as the manual focus experience is excellent. The EVF is crisp, and you can enable focus peaking (which highlights the areas of the frame that are in focus in red) and magnification (which blows up the center of the frame by three or six times for a larger view).

The top plate houses the integrated stereo microphone, a standard hot shoe for an external flash or PocketWizard ($87.22 at Amazon) (there's no built-in flash), a shutter speed dial, the power switch and shutter release, the video Record button, and a dedicated dial to adjust exposure compensation.

The rear controls include the aforementioned directional control pad, and a column of buttons that runs along the left side of the rear LCD. They are Play, Delete, Fn, ISO, and Menu, and they're pretty self-explanatory. Fn is the outlier. Its function is programmable; by default it adjusts White Balance, but I reprogrammed it to activate the in-camera Wi-Fi. There's another button, directly to the left of the thumb rest, but it's not labeled. In the menu it's called the Zoom/Lock button, and by default it toggles the in-camera digital crop mode, but it can also be set to lock both focus and exposure, to lock focus only, or to lock exposure only when held down.

One of the reasons that I look at the Q as a niche camera—aside from its asking price—is its lens. Shooting at 28mm isn't for everyone. Many photographers prefer a slightly tighter 35mm as a prime, although I'm not one of them. I always found that field of view to be a little indecisive; not quite wide enough to be a true wide angle, and not quite tight enough to be a standard lens like a 50mm. But that opinion doesn't put me in the majority, given the popularity of the Fujifilm X100T (which marries a 23mm lens to an APS-C image sensor to mimic the field of view of a full-frame 35mm), and other similar cameras like Leica's own X (Typ 113), and of course the Sony RX1. That's not to say the Q is the only camera of this type to cover a 28mm angle of view—the Ricoh GR, the Sigma dp1 Quattro, and the Nikon Coolpix A do as well, but those cameras use smaller APS-C image sensors and their lenses feature a maximum f/2.8 aperture.

The Q's full-frame sensor sets it apart from that crowd. The longer focal length and wider aperture both allow for a shallower depth of field than an APS-C camera with the same angle of view. You don't always associate smooth, out of focus bokeh with a 28mm lens, but at f/1.7 it's pretty easy to create a shallow depth of field. Working close to your subject can still exaggerate features, so don't expect it to produce flattering, tightly framed portraits like an 85mm f/1.8 prime can. But even at distances where you're framing the entirety of your subject's body, you can still separate the subject from the background.

If you think 28mm is too wide for you, the Q has a trick up its sleeve. It can shoot in 35mm or 50mm crop modes, but you'll sacrifice some resolution in doing so. It drops to about 15 megapixels when shooting at 35mm and all the way down to 7.5 megapixels at 50mm. So why not shoot at 28mm and crop? That's certainly a feasible way to do things, but the Q handles its crop mode a bit differently than other cameras. Instead of simply magnifying the images in the viewfinder or rear LCD to show the tighter field of view, it projects a set of frame lines—like the ones in an M rangefinder—so that you can see what you'll be taking a photograph of and what lies outside the active frame. It's one of the things that rangefinder photographers love about a fixed optical viewfinder, as it allows you to better anticipate action in the frame before it happens.

If you're concerned about having the crop mode activated and wanting to go wider later, fear not; as long as you shoot in Raw+JPG mode the full uncropped frame will be saved in Raw format. One issue with shooting at the 50mm crop mode is that the area of the frame that you're capturing is quite small, especially when viewed inside the entirety of the 28mm frame. I wish there was some sight magnification of the frame when cropping that tight, so that you could still see outside the capture area, but so that the center was a bit larger to your eye. That's an option that Leica could add via a firmware update if there was a demand for it.

The lens can focus down to 0.3-meter (11.8 inches) in its standard focusing range, which is a lot closer than the 0.7-meter (27.6 inches) supported by most Leica rangefinder lenses, including the standalone Summilux-M 28mm f/1.4 ASPH. ($5,950). And, if you want to lock in closer, a twist of the Macro ring that sits at the base of the Q's lens changes its focus range from 0.3-meter to 0.17-meter (6.7 inches). The wide field of view doesn't make it a true macro lens, but it gets you tighter in on your subject than most 28mm lenses for full-frame SLRs; the Nikon AF-S Nikkor 28mm f/1.8G ($626.95 at Amazon) is limited to 9.8-inch close focus. The Ricoh GR ($970.95 at Amazon UK) does get a little bit closer, about 4 inches in its macro mode, but its image sesnor is smaller. It should be noted that the Q has a maximum f/2.8 aperture in its close focus mode; but you'll probably find yourself stopping the lens down to a narrower f-stop to increase the very shallow depth of field that you deal with when focusing that close.

The rear LCD is a 3-inch touch screen with a crisp 1,040k-dot resolution. It's bright and sharp, and the touch controls work quite well when enabled. But there's a caveat to that—I love the ability to tap on part of the frame to focus, but I also love to be able to move my focus point around using the directional pad. With the Q you can do one or the other. You'll need to dive into the menu and change the focus mode to switch back and forth. The camera really should let you tap to select a focus point and then move it around using the directional pad, or vice versa, without having to dive into a menu.

The EVF is one of the best you'll find in any camera. It's large and sharp to my eye—its 3.68-million-dot resolution certainly helps. A diopter adjustment allows you to focus it to match your eyesight, and you you can opt to view an image without distraction or activate an overlay with a gridline, live histogram, blown highlight warnings, and digital level gauge. Each of these options can be enabled individually, and they'll also be visible in the rear LCD. Having an integrated EVF certainly takes some sting out of the Q's asking price, especially when you consider that the EVF add-on for the $2,800 Sony RX1 is $500 on its own.

Wi-Fi is also a strongpoint, which is a bit surprising as Leica has stumbled in that area in the past. The Q works with the free Leica Q app (available for iOS and Android devices) to copy images to a smartphone or tablet, or to use your handheld device as a remote control for the camera. It pairs via a QR code or NFC depending on the capabilities of your device, and has two main modes—Remote Control and Backup. Backup copies JPG images to your phone as images are taken, but curiously does not let you copy photos manually.

Remote Control is a bit more functional. It allows you to browse and copy any images or videos on the memory card over to your phone, and also—as you would expect—turns your phone or tablet into a remote control. You see a Live View feed from the lens on your phone's screen, and you have access to full manual shooting controls. It's helpful if you're setting up a shot on a tripod and want to absolutely avoid camera shake, or for setting up a group portrait without having to run in and beat the self-timer. Because it offers full manual controls, and works very well overall, it's one of the better remote control interfaces I've seen in a digital camera to date.

Performance

The Q is a bit of a speed demon. It isn't the fastest to start and shoot, requiring about 1.4 seconds to do so, but it focuses very quickly and has a maximum 10fps burst shooting mode (5fps and 3fps rates are available and can be set in the menu). In bright light it locks focus and fires in just about 0.02-second, and slows to just 0.4-second in very dim lighting. Burst shooting is limited to 12 Raw+JPG shots or 22 JPG images before slowing down when working at 10fps, but the camera can go for longer durations when shooting at a slower rate. It does take quite a long time to write a full Raw+JPG burst to a memory card—about 35 seconds when using a SanDisk 95MBps SDHC card—but you can keep shooting at a slower pace and adjust settings during that duration. Like Leica X cameras, there's no way to shoot in Raw format by itself; your options are limited to Raw+JPG or JPG only.

The Q also supports continuous autofocus, albeit at a slower burst shooting rate. Our lab tests showed that the camera slows down to a very respectable 5.4fps when shooting in AF-C mode, and our moving-target stopwatch test showed that each photo in a 72-shot burst was in crisp focus.

There are a few different focus modes from which to choose. There's tracking, which can be useful when shooting in AF-C mode, as well as a multi-point mode and a face detection mode. I spent most of the time with the camera set to single-point mode, which allows you to select any one of 169 areas of the frame on which to focus. The Q's focus points go right up to the very edge of the frame, which isn't always the case with on-sensor focus systems. As I mentioned before, the touch-based AF needs some work. In addition to not being able to easily move the point around after tapping to focus, you can't refocus on the same point using a half-press of the shutter button—instead you need to tap the screen again.

See How We Test Digital Cameras

Ergonomics and focus speed aren't the only things that matter. I used Imatest to check the sharpness of the stabilized 28mm Summilux lens, and am happy to report that it's a good one. At f/1.7 it scores 2,318 lines per picture height on a center-weighted sharpness test. That's better than the 1,800 lines we look for in an image, and the crispness carries through most of the frame. Edges do dip a bit—the outer third shows about 1,779 lines—but that's still an acceptable result for the periphery. Performance is about dead even at f/2. Distortion isn't an issue in photos. There has been some discussion as to whether the Q applies in-camera distortion correction; if it does, it's invisible to the end user and inconsequential to practical photography.

At f/2.8, the center-weighted score improves to 2,556 lines, and edges approach 1,900 lines. At f/4 the lens hits it peak—2,654 lines—and edges near 2,100 lines. Performance is just about dead even at f/5.6. Diffraction sets in at f/8, dropping the overall score to 2,554 lines, but even at f/11 the lens is still very sharp (2,343 lines). I'd avoid f/16, as diffraction robs some detail and drops the score down to 2,038 lines. You shouldn't have to shoot at such a narrow aperture, even on the brightest day, as the electronic shutter can fire at speeds of up to 1/16,000-second and will allow you keep the iris wide. The mechanical leaf shutter fires at speeds of up to 1/2,000-second.

Imatest also checks photos for noise. When shooting JPGs the Q keeps noise under 1.5 percent through ISO 1600, and shows about 1.9 percent at ISO 3200. Those are both a bit underwhelming for a full-frame image sensor, but the Q is taking a very light approach to in-camera noise reduction. JPG detail stays strong through ISO 6400, and while noise becomes a more serious issue at ISO 12500 and 25000, there's very little evidence of smudging, a tell-tale sign of in-camera noise reduction. Pushing the camera to its top setting, ISO 50000, should be avoided when shooting JPGs, as image quality leaves a lot to be desired there.

The Q also shoots Raw images in the Adobe standard DNG format. (Lightroom 6 is included as a Raw converter.) I converted our ISO test images using Lightroom's default develop settings and took a close look at them on a calibrated NEC MultiSync PA271W display. To my eye, Raw images are strong through ISO 25000, and still useable at ISO 50000 if you don't mind some grain. You can judge for yourself; pixel-level crops of both Raw and out-of-camera JPGs are included in the slideshow that accompanies this review.

The Q records video in MP4 format at 1080p60, 1080p30, or 720p30 quality—there's no option for 24fps recording. The footage is very sharp, and the Q's stabilization system does a good job at steadying handheld footage. The Q controls ISO, aperture, and shutter speed for video, but you can manually dial in exposure compensation using the top dial. The autofocus system does a very good job automatically adjusting to changes in the scene, and you can even record video when the lens is set to its macro position—but switching from macro to normal focus range or vice versa while rolling video footage stops the clip. There is a built-in stereo mic and a gain control to adjust its sensitivity via the menu, but there's no way to connect an external microphone. That limits the Q's abilities for more serious videographers, but it's a fine option for recording casual video clips or for projects where audio isn't a major concern.

A flap at the right side of the camera houses standard micro USB and micro HDMI ports. The memory card is accessed via the bottom compartment, which also holds the battery. As you'd expect, SD, SDHC, and SDXC memory cards are supported. Leica ships a single battery with the camera—I couldn't find a CIPA rating for the Q, but I was fairly happy with the battery life during testing. If I was taking it on a trip, or using it very heavily throughout the day, though, I'd want to invest in a spare battery. Leica charges $125 for a spare, but you can use batteries for the Panasonic FZ1000 ($597.99 at Amazon) or the Sigma dp Quattro series without issue; the Panasonic battery sells for around $45 and the Sigma battery for about $30. There are also third-party batteries available for around $20, but if you're going to use a non-Leica battery, it's probably best to stick to Panasonic or Sigma.

Conclusions

I've heard more than a few people ask the same question about the Q: Can it be my only camera? Given its cost, that's not an unreasonable query. I'm going to say yes, it can, but probably not if you're asking that question. Photographers who are comfortable with shooting with only a wide-angle prime know it. Yes, there are certainly times when I leave the house armed only with a Ricoh GR, simply due to its size, but there are other times when I feel like a full-frame camera with a few different lenses, or a quality zoom like the Sony RX10 are better options. On the other hand, there are a good number of young photographers who learned to shoot using a smartphone, most of which sport fixed lenses with a field of view that closely matches the Q.

And there's the price. Leica shooters tend to be a bit less sensitive to seeing a price tag with a comma in it. And, when compared with its closest competitor, the Sony RX1, the Q doesn't carry an obscene premium, especially when you consider that the RX1 omits an in-camera EVF, and just how great the overall quality of the Q's lens and sensor are. (And don't forget that Leica's Summilux-M 28mm f/1.4 ASPH. lens is $5,950 on its own, not to mention the cost of a digital M rangefinder.) But there are more economical options available if you're willing to live with an APS-C image sensor and a narrower aperture, including the aforementioned Ricoh GR and its forthcoming replacement GR II for 28mm, as well as the Fujifilm X100T for 35mm.

But if the Q speaks to you, and it's within your means, rest assured that it will make you very happy. It's an easy camera to fall in love with, and I certainly became enamored with it during my fortnight test drive. It's one of those cameras that, to me, just feels right in the hand, and while there were times where I actually wished Leica had gone a little bit wider and used a 24mm or 25mm lens design, for the most part the Q made me very happy as a dedicated wide-angle camera. Its instantaneous autofocus, close-focus versatility, and high quality EVF certainly played a big part in that. I had a few quibbles with some of the finer points of its interface (notably in the way the tap-to-focus system is implemented), but they're just that, quibbles about an otherwise excellent camera. For the right photographer, the Leica Q can be the perfect tool for capturing wide-angle images, and as such it earns our Editors' Choice recommendation.

Best Camera Picks

Camera Product Comparisons

Further Reading