Moving from a Sony A7r to a Leica Q

I’ve now owned a Sony A7r for 6 years, and over that time I’ve had enormous fun with it and taken some very beautiful photos — yet I’m moving to a Leica Q .

You can find the review I did of my A7r a while back here .

Back then I had a Sony A77, and I wanted a full-frame camera — but more than that, I wanted a body I could take with me almost everywhere. The Sony A7r was ideal for me: compact and light, just screw on a compact lens and you’re sorted.

With the arrival of my kids, and especially now that they’re at an age where they run everywhere and refuse to be photographed, the Sony A7r was clearly showing its limits. It was never a speed demon when it came to autofocus, and God knows how essential that is when you want to photograph your little monsters.

The sluggish autofocus was becoming a real handicap, so I started looking for a new body. The logical choice, given the lenses I owned, would have been to upgrade the A7r to version II or version III — yet I went for a Leica Q and I have absolutely no regrets!

To understand that decision, you need to know that I like to travel light and I hate changing lenses. Generally the Zeiss Loxia 50mm f2 is permanently screwed onto my A7r . For events and indoor shooting, I bring the Mitakon Speedmaster which opens at f0.95 — I’m a fan, but it’s extremely heavy!

You’re probably wondering why I’m talking about the A7r ’s weak autofocus when my two favourite lenses are manual. I’m a fan of manual focus — I genuinely feel more focused when I shoot in manual. But there are times when I need autofocus: have you ever tried to photograph a child on a trampoline? Then you know exactly what I mean. I’ll admit a Loxia with disengageable autofocus would be perfect, if and only if the A7r’s AF could keep up.

But shooting at 50mm while travelling gets restrictive quickly — a 24mm or 28mm lets you capture most architectural subjects. I own the little Sony 28mm f2 , which is genuinely excellent given its price and tiny size — I’d strongly recommend it. On the other hand, goodbye to the pleasure of manual focus with a lens like that. But I’ll admit that focal length (28mm) appeals to me enormously — more than 35mm, in fact. I even sold my Loxia 35mm because I could never get on with it.

In the end, over the past few years I’ve managed to find my reference focal length — the one that works everywhere. For me, that’s 28mm. I hesitated for a long time over 35mm, probably swayed by the specialist press, but it just doesn’t work for me, and the experience with the Loxia 35mm confirmed it.

That’s when I started looking at full-frame 📸 “all-in-one” cameras. I’d had my eye on the Sony RX1R for a long time — that camera is a technological monster, but it was perhaps missing a soul? Or at least another lens option, since it only comes with a fixed 35mm.

And then… in the same category, there was this Leica Q 💕 — it had everything going for it except its 🏷 absurd price for someone like me. Yet, through patience, I managed to find a great deal: a Leica Q in perfect condition with a spare battery, the right leather case, not a single scratch. Done!

For the same price as my Sony A7r + Zeiss 35mm f2.8 , I got myself this Leica Q . It’s a beautiful object, full of quirks — but taking photos with it completely changes what photographic pleasure means. And the image quality, straight out of camera! It’s a world apart; I knew it, and now I’m convinced. Sony builds technological monsters; Leica builds photographic jewels. Sony will cover your mistakes; Leica will make you want to grow as a photographer.

For now I’m blown away by the colour rendering and the contrast in the photos — in RAW, I should say — and the difference between shots taken with the Sony and those taken with the Leica Q is genuinely shocking. I used to lightly retouch photos taken with the Sony; with the Leica Q, I don’t touch them at all…