Back in November, I spent 6,000 (about $8,100) of my own money on a Leica Q3 43. Over the last six months, it’s been with me on multiple travels across Europe, and I’ve shot over 25,000 photos with it, including everything from street photography, travel, landscapes and even major editorial features. I’ve got some thoughts on these kinds of premium compacts and hopefully some solid shopping advice for any of you, whether you’re considering this camera or another compact like the ever-popular Fuji X100VI.
Let’s dive in.
I bought the Leica Q3 43 with my own money at full retail value, which at the time was just shy of 6,000 — well, just over, including the second battery I also ordered. That’s a huge amount of money, especially at a time when the purse strings are tightening and making big purchases — especially non-essential ones like this — are difficult to justify.
So, why did I want it?
Well, a number of reasons, and I’m hoping that any photographers out there will understand these, Leica fans or not. In recent years, I’ve found myself being a bit over-encumbered with gear that I’ve acquired in my 13 years taking photos professionally. Too many bags, tripods, lenses, lens adapters — whatever — and I increasingly wanted to take a more stripped-back approach to much of my photography.
For years, I’ve used the Sony RX1R as a compact, «take anywhere» camera when I don’t want to take a bag full of kit. It’s a stunning little full-frame premium compact that takes beautiful photos with its fixed 35mm lens. But it’s 12 years old now, and it’s showing its age, with slow, unreliable autofocus, relatively low resolution, and crucially, there’s no viewfinder, so you have to shoot using the main screen and you look like a tourist. I’ve spent years fruitlessly hoping that Sony would replace it, but where Sony left a gap, Leica filled it.
The Q3 43 is, in some ways, its spiritual successor. It has a gorgeous full-frame sensor with an extremely high-quality fixed lens. It takes stunning images, and I can carry it with me pretty much all the time, keeping it slung around my neck, ready to shoot whenever I see an opportunity.
It has a fixed 43mm lens, which may not suit everyone, but it’s ideal for most of my work. I usually flit between 35mm and 50mm focal lengths, so 43mm is an ideal sweet spot between the two that I’ve never found limiting in the many photos I’ve captured with it. I tried the 28mm version of the camera and didn’t get on with its wide-angle view.
I wrote recently about the three types of cameras photographers need to have, which include a workhorse, an everyday carry and a more artistic option, and while the Q3 43 has absolutely been all three for me, it’s the second point where I feel it’s had the biggest impact for me. It’s not a camera that I have had to make any allowances for when carrying it around. I don’t need a big photography backpack, just a small sling or messenger bag. Sometimes I’ve even gone out with it slung around my neck with no bag at all.
I absolutely love having a camera with me always. It’s true that the best camera is the one you have with you, but it’s doubly the case if the camera that’s always with you is actually the best camera. Fine, it’s not as small as my Sony RX1R, but it’s smaller than my Canon R5, and it’s been a great companion on photowalks around Stockholm, Edinburgh and Barcelona. It’s a joy being able to quickly lift it up and fire away.
It helps that it’s simple to operate. I shoot mostly in aperture priority, twisting the dedicated aperture ring on the lens when I want to adjust the depth of field. I keep it mostly at ISO 400, and the camera is always pretty good at giving me the correct shutter speed for whatever scene I’m capturing.
At night, I have to crank that ISO hard, especially since the camera doesn’t have a stabilized image sensor like my R5. In fact, on a technical level, the Q3 43 doesn’t shape up super well, with both its burst rate and autofocus system being slower than rivals. Its subject detection is also best described as «hit or miss.»
But that’s why I like this camera. I don’t have to dive into the infinite abyss of the settings menu to figure out different autofocus options. I just keep this camera at single-point focusing, half-press the shutter to focus on whatever I want and then recompose to take the shot. Or I’ll focus manually. It’s a more basic shooting experience that encourages me to think more about the shot I’m taking and less about the settings I’m using to get it.
Then there are the built-in color profiles Leica offers, which I absolutely adore. I shoot almost everything using Leica’s Chrome look, which does things to colors and contrast that I’m obsessed with. I mostly pair this with a warm white balance and, more recently, a PolarPro Gold Mist filter, which gives my images a warm, filmic vibe that I love. This filter almost never leaves my camera and is, for me, a must-have.
In fact, I now shoot most of my photos in JPEG and use them with almost no post-processing. That’s in stark contrast to my way of working with the R5 — I only ever shoot in raw on that camera, and all my images go through some level of work in Lightroom. Do I wish Leica offered options to tailor these profiles further in camera? Absolutely.
I treat the Q3 43 as a classic point-and-shoot compact camera. I use basic settings to shoot quickly and creatively, leaning on in-camera colors to minimize my time stuck editing. It’s offered me a different way of working, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every moment I’ve spent with this camera so far.
To be fair, it’s not just the Leica Q3 43 that could give you this. Fujifilm’s X100VI remains a social media darling thanks to its compact size and customizable film emulation modes, while the Ricoh GRIII is lauded by street and travel photographers for its blend of quality and pocketable size. I did consider buying the X100VI instead of the Leica, but I’ll be honest, there is another element I’m perhaps less proud of admitting.
I wanted a Leica.
I don’t like to think of myself as a status symbol sort of person, and while I have no desire for a Rolex, a yacht or a Lambo in my drive (OK, maybe a bit), I have always daydreamed about finally owning a camera that sports that iconic red dot on the front. I worried that it’d be a novelty that would quickly wear off, but it hasn’t — I still find myself excited to pick it up and take it somewhere. It also helps that the solid metal construction of the Q3 43 makes it feel infinitely more premium than the lightweight, arguably quite plasticky feel of the X100VI.
It gives me a creative buzz that I don’t really get from my Canon R5. To lean on an analogy I’ve used before, the R5 is a worker’s van; practical, it ticks the boxes for what they need to do a job. A professional tool for getting things done. But it’s not the vehicle they fantasize about driving down the coast. The Leica is the fantasy car. A classic Ferrari, perhaps. It technically does most of the same things, but it does it in a very different way that makes you feel notably different when you use it.
It may have been a lot of money to spend on a camera, especially one that I strictly speaking didn’t need. It helped that Leica in the UK offers interest-free credit, so I actually spread the cost over 12 months, rather than dropping the cash all at once. But it’s money I was — and still am — happy to spend.
It’s given my photography a boost I didn’t even know I needed. In the six months I’ve had it, I feel I’ve evolved more as a photographer, and I’ve taken images I’m incredibly proud of. I can’t wait to see what the next six months with it will bring.
