While I love that the Leica Q3 Monochrom exists, I’m struggling to understand why it exists. There surely are folks who think in black and white and will only ever shoot in black and white. You’d probably think that the sensor would render images similarly, right? Then I remember before stepping into my meeting with Leica, that’s not how it works.
Where the modern Sony-made sensor wants you to underexpose your photos, the Leica Q3 Monochrom wants you to really, really underexpose the scene and then push it back in post-production. At least, that’s what I think. In most cases so far, I’ve been perfectly fine with the rendering I’ve gotten. And more importantly, it takes me a few minutes to remember what it was like shooting with the Leica M11 Monochrom. With that comes the Leica Q3 Monochrom’s greatest strength: you truly don’t have to worry about the ISO, and it can be set to the full range in auto mode. You can shoot everything at f5.6 and 1/2000 if you wish. That’s what I did for a lot of my time with this camera.
The Leica Q3 Monochrom is essentially the same thing as the original Leica Q3, but they gave it a monochrome sensor, content credentials, and there is a chic all-black look to it. It’s just as weather resistant, just as small as the other 28mm version, and just a wonderful to carry around. I’m not the only one who feels this way. During my test of this camera, another M6 user tried this, fell in love with it, and stated that he’d buy one asap.
Indeed, when I shoot with the Leica Q3 Monochrom, I feel liberated. Yes, is no phase detection because that’s a technology that only works with color. The camera is also $7,790.00. But even in my tests, I haven’t found a single camera that has this level of tonality. I tried it against some of the top offerings from Panasonic and Sony. And they didn’t even come close to the full beautiful tonality that the Leica Q3 Monochrom’s 60MP full-frame sensor offers.
Granted, this can’t be done right out of the camera. Instead, you have to treat this like Kodak Tri-X or something else. You have to underexpose it and then push it in post-production.
Here are a few examples that really brought me joy when using this camera:
This is something that I love so much about photography: when companies do something unique because the product is more about the passion than it is about trying to make something that looks like what everyone else in the world makes. The world makes too many images that copy one another.
If you’re obsessed with black and white, then the Leica Q3 Monochrom might be for you. Or if you’re looking to simplify in some ways, then you may love this camera. For sure, it’s doing something different for me that my Nikon Zf set to black and white mode can’t do.