Leica Q (typ 116) Review - 2025
In October of 2023 I bought a Leica Q on an impulse. I thought I was going to sell my Leica M which I only use for street and some travel stuff and replace it with the Q which would also serve as a camera to photograph my child with and to bring to weddings as a backup camera. It would also be a lowlight upgrade around the house from the Ricoh GR and I would no longer need to keep a Canon R6 around at home so I could just keep that camera for work. So that’s a lot of pressure to put on one camera and I was naive to think it would do each job in the way I wanted.
I’m going to go through some points about the Leica Q and tell you what I like and dislike purely from a personal user perspective. I’ll touch on technical details but I am not a super technical reviewer. There are many great technical reviews out there. I like Ken Rockwell.
Size
One of the main draws of the Leica Q is the relatively small form factor. It can make a great EDC camera especially if you do a lot of walking. That being said it’s not so small you could put it in your pocket so you’re probably shoulder carrying or putting it in a bag.
In general, I like smaller cameras for street photography, traveling or if I’m doing something with the family. In particular I like the layout with the viewfinder to the side. Psychologically I feel less “pro” like this and that helps me to relax.
The lens is quite big compared to the body. In practice it feels surprisingly normal but in photos I think it looks oversized. It is obviously front heavy as a result. The hood adds a bit of size but I love the design of it.
Weight
The Leica Q is a fairly light camera compared with he larger cameras I use for work but if you are coming from entry level to intermediate cameras you might find it heavy at first. It is only about 1.4 lbs or 640g though which means it is easy to carry over your shoulder all day long. Which is another reason I was drawn to the Q.
Cost
I’m not going to sugar coat it. Leica Q’s are pricey. While less expensive than the M system this used camera in 2023 was $2000. That was a bargain compared to more lightly used copies I could find online. Yet, the Leica Q is often seen as the more affordable way into the Leica ecosystem and it does seem to have been a very popular addition to their line.
The Q was released in 2015 and for $2000 you can get far superior camera bodies still with excellent glass on them. But the 28mm summilux lens still holds up to the competition even 10 years later so it may depend on where your priorities/needs are.
Sensor
24mp sensor. These days people want 40mp or more but I will be happy with 24mp forever. Despite popular belief you can print even a 12mp file HUGE and it can still look great. I always reference this Chris Hau video and I recently saw a Jared Polin video where he printed a 12mp file at 4 or 5 feet.
It’s a different story if you are into heavy cropping. More megapixels make sense then.
But personally and professionally, I’m good at 24.
This being an older sensor you can expect less low light performance than newer cameras. I’m still fine with how it looks at 6400 as long as I get the exposure right. At lower ISO you’ll probably find you can recover shadows quite well. I don’t tend to need tons of dynamic range though as I tend to leave shadows dark.
Lens
This lens is what sold so many people on the Leica Q. I often heard people say you are basically getting a great deal on a 28mm summilux lens and it’s coming with a free body attached.
It is one of the most beautiful lenses I have ever used. I really don’t have any criticisms of the image quality. It looks sharp corner to corner even at f1.7. The bokeh is soft and beautiful. Images are contrasty and colors are lovely.
Another issue I had is that it is wider than 28mm. Some people like that. I wasn’t into it.
And less of an issue, but still a bit disappointing is it has quite a bit of distortion correction built into it. Some lenses have really nice distortion but not this one.
Another plus is the built in IS. I rarely use this but it is fun to play with some slow shutter effects once in a while and great if your shooting any video.
AF/MF
The AF is absolutely fine for most things, even photographing fast moving children at home. However, coming from the Canon R6 I always knew I could grab that and have a far easier time using tracking AF while paying with my son and I’d be able to remain more present at the same time. So after a while, I found I didn’t use the Leica Q for family photography and more and more it sat on the sidelines.
It has face detect which works ok if the subject is facing towards you. The tracking AF sort of works but it looks insane and jittery. I find myself using the center point one shot type af most of the time.
I also have an issue with the MF on the Leica Q. I had hoped it would come close enough to the M that I would be happy to use it instead. But I did not like thew tightness of the manual focusing and how little you need to move it to move through the focus range. If you’re using the zone focus system as I like to do much of the time, you move through the distance in far too short of a movement compared to a 28mm m mount. So for that reason the Q never became the street photography camera I wanted it to feel like. Even though I could just look down and set it, it never felt as natural as the M.
Another MF point. On the M lenses there is a hard stop at infinity but the Q will go past infinity before the hard stop so that you can engage AF. I also hate that bacause it spoils the feeling of knowing where your focus is in manual mode without having to look.
To be fair I don’t think 99% of people will care about that and it’s just my idiosyncratic way of working.
Handling
The Leica Q feels great in my hands. I am sure many people will miss having a grip. I do sometimes feel the need for a thumb rest especially if I carry it while walking the dog. But I like to hold the camera tucked sideways when I’m shooting street and as I said before the smaller form factor helps me feel more relaxed so I’m fine with less grip.
There are a limited number of buttons or customizations. The camera is best used in a fairly simple manner. The menu system feels a bit clunky so it encourages you to stay out of there anyways. I set up the back button to change the digital crop, this FN button changes the view mode. That’s it.
The on off button can be a bit fiddly, if you’re not careful you’ll skip past single shot more and into continuous. Continuous would be fine if the camera didn’t crap its pants and freeze up in that mode all the time. This is apparently a common widespread issue with the original Leica Q.
Build Quality
Leica make nice solid feeling cameras with excellent build quality and the Q is no different. Although it has no weather sealing it still feels like a premium camera.
When I bought the Q from a friend he had tape over the microphone holes because there is apparently some issues with dust getting in there so maybe that is a minus on build quality.
Video
I am not particularly interested in video and I did not buy this camera to ever put it in video mode but one thing it turns out I do like is that I can press the dedicated record button and the camera will start filming. I assume at whatever shutter speed I already have it at so I’m not expecting amazing video but I could take nice little video clips of my kid in the moment and flip right back to photos. The IS is a big plus in this regard.
Screen/EVF
The EVF is crap. It’s not even good to judge your exposure. It will look overexposed compared to what you are getting all the time and you cannot adjust that. So I often feel I need to check the histogram. It is also laggy when bringing it up to your eye. I end up leaving it on all the time so it will be ready if I’m suddenly lifting the camera up. I have missed shots because the EVF was too slow.
The LCD does not have the weird overexposure problem. Images look better there and you can get a better idea of your exposure. I don’t really have any issues with the LCD. Maybe the touch function actually. It works for touch to focus/shoot but it doesn’t work in the menu system… To be honest I stopped trying to use it.
Will I keep it?
Despite all my gripes about the Q and it not really being exactly right for anything I do. I still found a joy in the use of it. It has a certain charm to it. My guess its the Leica effect. It feels great in my hand, it is easy to sling over my shoulder and it has utterly beautiful IQ even though I find it to be a bit of a let down in general use.
It’s sat on my shelf for long enough now that I am going to sell it. I think someone else out there could get much more use out of it. Even right after I bought it I found out the previous owner missed it and went and bought another one. So it may be right for a lot of people, but it’s not for me.
