BERLIN STREET PHOTOGRAPHY WITH THE LEICA Q3

Berlin is an incredible city to photograph. The history aspect alone can immerse you for days on end. But there is so much variety in Berlin, from vibrant street life, cutting-edge architecture, bustling waterside restaurants and a different scene around every corner. But the Lonely Planet guide can tell you all of that.

I’m here to speak about how the Leica Q3 performed whilst I spent time photographing the streets of Berlin. This isn’t a pixel peeping tech review as there are plenty of those elsewhere to read, and to be honest all I care about with a camera is how it is to use in the real world, carrying it around for hours on end, whether it ends up being a burden and if the user experience is hampered in the any way which means shots get missed. If a camera motivates me to shoot with it then that’s all that matters.

Well in a nutshell, the Leica Q3 for street photography in Berlin performed incredibly well. The 28mm 1.7 Summilux lens is razor sharp and renders images beautifully. The camera fires up quickly and the battery sees out a day of shooting no problem, although I did always carry a spare just in case.

If I was to be picky and find a con to the Q3, it would be that the 28mm was a touch too wide for me on occassion. A lot of street photographers like this focal length, but ultimately for me I ended up trading the Q3 recently in for a Leica M240, as I now want a system that both allows me to the wide stuff on 35mm, and then also street portraits with a 50mm should I need to.

Yes I know you can use the 50mm ‘crop’ mode on the Leica Q3 as the 60MP sensor is so great, you have the scope to do that. And yes, the Leica M240 a much older camera with a 24MP sensor, but this conversation is a whole different blog post! I have been using the M240 extensively recently and will definitely share my thoughts about it.

So back to Berlin, I’ll let the images do the talking, but the Leica Q3 really did shine and it’s undoubtably one of the nicest cameras I’ve used.