Leica Q3 43 review: a stunning premium compact with a unique focal length

The Leica Q3 was already 1 of our favourite premium compacts, pinch its stunning build, tactile handling and unparalleled full-frame value for a camera of its size. This version changes nan view, pinch a accelerated 43mm premier lens that offers a earthy and intuitively quality perspective. If pin-sharp portraits and thoroughfare photography are your style – and if money isn’t an rumor – this is 1 of nan finest compacts you tin bargain for mundane shooting.

Why you tin spot TechRadar We walk hours testing each merchandise aliases work we review, truthful you tin beryllium judge you’re buying nan best. Find retired much astir really we test.

Leica Q3 43: two-minute review

You cognize a camera’s typical erstwhile you don’t want to return it aft a review. Almost arsenic soon arsenic I sewage it successful my hands, I knew that would beryllium nan lawsuit pinch nan Leica Q3 43. To telephone this 1 of nan best compact cameras is to do it a superior disservice: we’ve already waxed lyrical astir really unthinkable nan Q3 exemplary is successful our full Leica Q3 review – and this version shares nan aforesaid halfway qualities.

All of nan Leica hallmarks are here: beautiful design, stunning build quality, and tactile handling. You get a powerful 60.3MP full-frame sensor, comfortably nan astir tin you’ll find successful immoderate compact camera, pinch support for 8K 30p video. You besides get nan aforesaid niggles arsenic nan modular Q3, including comparatively mean artillery life and autofocus that’s bettered elsewhere. And, of course, there’s nan eye-watering Leica value tag.

What sets this version isolated is nan glass. This is still a fast, fixed-focal magnitude affair, but nan hint pinch nan 43 is successful nan name: it’s fronted by a 43mm premier lens that’s meant to mimic nan earthy position of your eyes. Wider than 35mm, tighter than 50mm, that focal magnitude offers an different section of position which someway feels instantly and intuitively familiar.

Even much truthful than nan modular Q3, nan Q3 43 feels for illustration nan cleanable mundane camera. Set speech nan costs facet and you’ve sewage a sublime camera pinch a focal magnitude that really invites you to position nan world, and which besides gives you nan devices to seizure it effectively. With a accelerated f/2 aperture astatine its widest, nan specially designed APO-Summicron lens nails each of nan benchmarks: beautifully soft bokeh, minimal distortion, and perfectly pin-sharp detail.

That, mixed pinch nan high-resolution sensor, makes nan Q3 43 a camera that's astatine location successful almost immoderate scenario. Having changeable pinch it for a week, nan 43mm focal magnitude lends itself wonderfully to thoroughfare portraiture, producing stills pinch a existent consciousness of intimacy. Should you request to re-frame, you person a full batch of pixels to play with.

There are galore things that make nan Leica Q3 43 genuinely unique. No different compact ships pinch a 43mm premier lens. And you don’t find excessively galore cameras of immoderate explanation pinch a 60MP full-frame sensor inside, fto unsocial 1 that looks and feels this bully to sprout with. In short, nan Q3 43 is everything a compact camera should be. If you tin spend its inordinate value tag, it’s 1 you’ll ne'er want to time off location without.

Leica Q3 43: Specs

Leica Q3 43: Price and availability

• Launched connected 26 September 2024
• Priced astatine $6,295 / £5,900 / AU$11,890

The Leica Q3 43 was released connected 26 September 2024. It’s priced astatine $6,295 / £5,900 / AU$11,890, which intends it will group you backmost much than galore of nan best mirrorless cameras. It’s an undeniably premium portion of kit pinch niche appeal. Red-dot cameras ne'er travel cheap, and what you’re paying for present goes beyond nan spec sheet; it’s nan Leica design, build quality, and shooting experience.

The 43 is somewhat much costly than nan modular Leica Q3, which is priced astatine $5,995 / £5,300 / AU$9,790. At this extremity of nan value spectrum, though, you won’t beryllium choosing betwixt nan 2 cameras based connected cost. Instead, it’ll travel down to whether you’d for illustration your full-frame Leica compact pinch a 28mm aliases 43mm focal length.

Leica Q3 43: Design

• Identical assemblage to nan Leica Q3
• Modern, minimalist design
• Tactile controls and tilting touchscreen

Besides nan lens, everything astir nan 43 is physically identical to nan Leica Q3. That intends you get nan aforesaid weighty, magnesium die-cast construction, pinch nan aforesaid beautifully pared-back creation and nan aforesaid wonderfully tactile power layout. There’s thing rather for illustration it astatine immoderate value point, and you really person to clasp nan Q3 43 successful your hands to admit nan measurement it feels.

Everything astir this camera is premium, from nan weighting of nan assemblage to nan perfectly judged guidance of nan power rings. This is simply a camera that you want to handle, and 1 that rewards you pinch satisfying beingness feedback astatine each turn. The manual attraction ringing is conscionable 1 example: it’s truthful enjoyable to usage that you mightiness hide nan Q3 43 besides has an fantabulous autofocus option. It's nan aforesaid communicative pinch nan macro ring, which twists to uncover a different group of markings for close-up focusing.

This is nan benignant of camera that you’ll travel backmost to, erstwhile it’s sitting connected your room antagonistic aliases entranceway hallway table, conscionable to prime it up and admit it. It's a camera that you’ll ne'er want to time off location without – not only because you want to sprout stills pinch it, but because nan Q3 43 makes it specified a joyousness to do so.

That besides extends to nan interface, some beingness and digital. Pressing and holding to customize buttons makes it easy to accommodate nan personification acquisition to your liking, while nan speedy touch paper connected nan surface feels responsive and intuitive.

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

That’s not to opportunity it’s a cleanable camera. Like nan Leica Q3, nan 43 has a mini indentation connected nan rear which serves arsenic a thumb rest, but nan compact dimensions mean location isn’t overmuch room for ergonomic sculpting – location are much comfortable cameras to grip complete agelong periods.

As successful our reappraisal of nan Leica Q3, we besides felt that nan tilting touchscreen isn’t perfectly implemented. While it’s theoretically useful erstwhile you're shooting from nan hip, it’s not nan easiest show to propulsion retired and adjust. During our clip pinch nan 43, we were much people drawn to nan high-res 5.76m-dot viewfinder.

Really, though, it’s very difficult to prime responsibility pinch a camera that feels arsenic bully to usage arsenic nan Q3 43. Shoot pinch it for a day, and you’ll wonderment really you’ll ever afloat bask a different camera again.

Leica Q3 43: Features and performance

• Phase discovery autofocus
• Lens-based image stabilization
• Single SD UHS-II paper slot

In astir respects, nan Leica Q3 43 shares its spec expanse pinch nan Leica Q3. That includes nan 60.3MP full-frame sensor, 8K 30p video recording, and Leica’s champion phase-detection autofocus to date, complete pinch quality search that’s broadly sticky. And for illustration nan Leica Q3, it besides has immoderate features which item its position arsenic an mundane camera – albeit a very costly one.

There’s nan maximum burst velocity of 15fps, which you tin only usage pinch nan physics shutter. You besides get conscionable 1 SD UHS-II paper slot, while nan lens-based image stabilization still can’t compete pinch nan best. You tin publication much afloat astir really these features execute successful our Leica Q3 review, but nan takeaway is that this isn’t a camera pinch nan outright capacity to rival nan champion mirrorless cameras.

What you’re getting present is not a heavyweight workhorse, but a sublime instrumentality for mundane use. That’s reflected successful features specified arsenic Leica Looks: preset image styles which tin beryllium loaded via nan Leica Fotos app complete Wi-Fi, allowing less-experienced photographers to execute different and move effects pinch nary editing. The original DNG files are kept, truthful it’s non-destructive.

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

(Image credit: Future)

Leica Q3 43: Image quality

• 60.3MP full-frame sensor
• Fixed 43mm f/2 premier lens
• Digital cropping up to 150mm

Where nan Leica Q3 has an uncropped 28mm section of position akin to that of your smartphone’s superior camera, nan 43 mimics quality imagination pinch its APO-Summicron 43mm f/2 ASPH lens. That gives you a somewhat tighter harvest than nan much acquainted 50mm prime, but a wider perspective than nan Q3, aliases immoderate 35mm lenses you mightiness person used. While it’s an unfamiliar number, it’s besides an incredibly intuitive one.

By offering a natural, distortion-free view, that solid offers an friendly perspective. It’s 1 that invites you to look astatine nan world and seizure it, whether that’s a portrait, a thoroughfare segment aliases thing other entirely. Both erstwhile framing and reviewing what you’ve shot, there’s a consciousness of scenes being existent to life, some successful stills and video.

Specially designed for nan 43, nan APO-Summicron lens is tightly packaged and pin-sharp. Thanks to its accelerated f/2 aperture it’s tin of soft backgrounds and beautifully soft bokeh, strengthening its credentials arsenic a image star. We besides detected minimal distortion successful stills.

(Image credit: Chris Rowlands)

(Image credit: Chris Rowlands)

(Image credit: Chris Rowlands)

(Image credit: Chris Rowlands)

(Image credit: Chris Rowlands)

(Image credit: Chris Rowlands)

Paired pinch nan Q3 43's 60.3MP full-frame sensor, this is simply a lens that tin nutrient stunning images successful a full scope of scenarios, from high-contrast backlit portraits to elaborate macro shots. Low ray wasn’t an rumor either: nan lens and sensor pairing seemed capable to stitchery a adjacent magnitude of light, and wherever it was basal to bump up nan ISO we didn’t announcement a immense nonaccomplishment of item successful nan good atom of noise.

Like nan Leica Q3, you person nan action to use a integer crop. This doesn’t change nan position aliases extent of field, but it does springiness you nan versatility to framework successful connected subjects. Starting astatine 43mm, you tin use nan integer harvest each nan measurement up to 150mm, which is notably tighter than nan 90mm maximum of nan Leica Q3. It’s a useful trick, though I would mostly for illustration to harvest successful aft nan fact. Helpfully, nan harvest is only applied to JPEG files, pinch nan afloat area retained successful DNG earthy files.

On nan modular setting, JPEG images retired of nan Q3 43 are pleasingly crisp and dynamic. Colors tin consciousness a small understated, but there’s a realism to JPEG stills that nicely complements nan 43mm section of view. That said, we’d ever counsel signaling shots successful some JPEG and Leica’s DNG format, to springiness yourself maximum editing flexibility.

(Image credit: Chris Rowlands)

(Image credit: Chris Rowlands)

(Image credit: Chris Rowlands)

Should I bargain nan Leica Q3 43?

Buy it if...

Don't bargain it if...

How I tested nan Leica Q3 43

• I utilized nan camera for a week
• I changeable much than 300 stills
• I took pictures successful a scope of conditions

Premium aliases not, nan Leica Q3 43 is sounded arsenic nan benignant of compact you’ll want to return pinch you everyplace – truthful that’s precisely what I did. With a indebtedness play of only a week, I made nan astir of each day: it went wherever I went. That meant taking nan 43 astir town, connected a thrust to nan beach, and conscionable astir everyplace else.

I changeable much than 300 stills complete nan people of 7 days, covering a full scope of scenes and conditions. That included nan brightest sunlight that an autumn time successful nan UK could muster, nan much acquainted cloudy skies of September, nan chromatic tones of nan aureate hour, and acheronian nights sat by a occurrence pit.

Because nan 43mm premier lens is what distinguishes this version from nan modular Q3, I paid peculiar attraction to really that felt erstwhile framing different subjects successful different scenarios. That spanned taking portraits, thoroughfare shots, landscapes, and close-ups, to get a afloat belief of really it feels to activity pinch that unsocial framework of view.

First reviewed October 2024