The Question Of A Q With A Red Dot

Their first AF enabled full frame compact with an EVF, the Leica Q breaks new ground. And K Madhavan Pillai comes away with a heartache.

- K Madhavan Pillai

Nobody speaks red dot like Leica. The traditionalist feel of the rounded sides, and the flat top and bottom of the Leica Q, (Typ 116) goes all the way back to the original prototypes in 1913 and the first Leica 1 in 1927. The full frame, fixed lens, AF enabled Typ 116 is a veritable leap of faith for Leica, and the first of its kind. Though its lines borrow heavily from the classical M series, it is philosophically very different. Conservatives may rue the loss of the optical rangefinder in favour of an EVF, and the less weighty hybrid aluminium magnesium (non-brass) architecture, but the additions are quite state-of-the-art, well-implemented, and possibly, a sign of things to come.

Features

The Q is equipped with a 24.2MP full frame CMOS sensor (with no AA filter) married to an optically stabilised Leica 28mm f/1.7 Aspherical Summilux lens. While some would debate on the merits of the more classic 35mm over 28mm, I personally quite like the idea of a slightly wider and more dramatic field of view.

The lens of the Q is marvelous in its design and engineering. For a large aperture 28mm lens, it is quite small (a filter diameter of a nicely standard 49mm), and the front facing lens element is concave rather than convex. Theoretically, this allows better flare control. A very intelligently designed, compact, rectangular metal hood that slopes inwards at the outer edges, rather than outwards, helps with this as well. Manual focus, a mainstay of the M series, has not been ignored in the Q. The focus is mechanical, and far more enjoyably tactile than fly-bywire. The minimum focus distance is down to an excellent 0.3m. There’s a macro setting available as a switch near the lens. It aligns the optics to enable rather effective close focusing between 0.17m to 0.3m.