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for a variety of reasons I've never been
a big like a fan I only put that out
there so that you have context when I
say that the Leica q is the first like I
have ever wanted at $4,300 I'll never
own one but this full-frame fixed lens
compact incorporates all of likers
traditional quality and aesthetics but
doesn't leave out the modern features
that many of us want like contrast
autofocus optical image stabilization a
touchscreen and Wi-Fi I'm Laurie
grinning for CNET and this is the like a
Q the Q combines alike the 24 megapixel
full-frame CMOS sensor and a 28
millimeter f17 lens in a mid-sized body
the way is almost a pound and a half
thanks to its aluminum top and magnesium
alloy housing the lens's aperture and
focus rings as well as a macro focus
ring which changes the distance scale
there's a switch to rotate the focus
ring to the autofocus position you can
put the camera in auto shutter or
aperture priority mode by rotating the
relevant dials to a the lens rings feel
great not too loose not too tight the
electronic viewfinder and LCD auto
switch and the EVF is big and bright
like a created an indentation rather
than a protrusion for the thumb rest
which is just right for one-handed
shooting the touchscreen has limited
uses on the Q you can only use it for
touch focus touch shutter and scrolling
through photos aside from the lack of a
grip my only big complaints about the
design the location of the SD card slot
in the battery compartment and that it's
not dust in weather sealed I'm not crazy
about the back navigation switch given
the amount of space it seems awfully
small the Q comes with lens hood and a
lens cap that can fit over it note that
it doesn't have a flash the camera
doesn't have a huge shooting feature set
but it has what it needs
there's manual focus peaking autofocus
during video and 35 millimeter and 50
millimeter crop modes with the full
frame information preserved in the DNG
file there even seen program exposure
modes if you want them it can shoot 1086
TP and 30 p video but not 24 p photo
quality is lovely with accurate but
saturated color and an
excellent tonal range images are
insanely sharp with beautiful
out-of-focus areas and great edge to
edge sharpness the video looks really
nice as well like us chosen to perform
only color noise reduction in JPEG
processing and there's absolutely no
luminance processing there are a couple
potential issues though first the photos
above ISO 12500 have noticeable
horizontal striations and the images
that I couldn't retouch out second it's
quite prone to moiré a the performance
is quite good for both single shot and
continuous shooting it can burst
unlimited JPEGs at 4.7 frames per second
with autofocus though the tracking
autofocus doesn't work terribly well and
the continuous autofocus is far too
easily distracted when shooting video
and it pulses when it's not distracted
the like a queue is a pleasure to shoot
with and provides equal delight when you
get home and look at your photos and
videos
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