I don’t regret spending $8,000 on a Point-and-Shoot Leica camera. And here’s why

About a year ago, in November 2024, I spent £6,000 (about $8,100) of my own money to buy a Leica Q3 43. Over the past 11 months, it has been with me on numerous trips around the UK and across Europe, photographing More than 40,000 images With it, including everything from street photography, travel, landscapes and even Key editorial features. I have some thoughts on these types of premium compact cameras and I hope I have some good shopping tips, whether you’re considering this camera or Another ROM Like ever popular Fuji X100VI.

Let’s dig deeper.

I bought the Leica Q3 43 with my own money at full retail value, which at the time was less than £6,000 – well, just… more, Including the second battery I ordered as well. That’s a huge amount of money, especially at a time when financial constraints are tightening, and large purchases — especially non-essential ones like these — are hard to justify.

So, why did you want it?

Well, there are a number of reasons, and I hope any photographers, whether they are Leica fans or not, will understand. In recent years, I’ve found myself a bit overwhelmed with the equipment I’ve acquired over 13 years of taking photos professionally. There are so many bags, tripods, lenses, lens adapters – whatever – and I increasingly wanted to take a more abstract approach to a lot of my photography.

For years, I used Sony RX1R As a compact camera I can take it anywhere when I don’t want to take a bag full of gear. It’s a stunning little full-frame, compact device that takes beautiful photos with its 35mm fixed lens. But it’s now 12 years old, and it’s showing its age, with slow and unreliable autofocus, relatively low accuracy, and Crucially, There’s no viewfinder, so you’ll have to shoot using the main screen and look like a tourist. I spent years hoping Sony would replace it, and… While I eventually didI actually bought my new Leica and fell in love with it. Sorry Sonny, you snooze, you lose.

The Q3 43 is, in some ways, the spiritual successor to my RX1R. It has a fantastic full frame sensor with a very high quality fixed lens. It takes amazing photos, and I can carry it with me almost all the time, and keep it hanging around my neck, ready to shoot whenever I see an opportunity.

It has a 43mm fixed lens, which may not suit everyone, but is perfect for most of my work. I usually move between a 35mm and 50mm focal length, so 43mm is an ideal sweet spot between the two that I’ve never found limiting in many of the images I’ve taken with it. I tried the 28mm version of the camera and couldn’t see the wide angle.

I recently wrote about The three types of cameras photographers needwhich includes spine, everyday carry, and a more technical option, and while the Q3 43 was all three for me, it’s the second point where I feel it had the biggest impact for me. It’s not a camera I had to struggle with when carrying it. I don’t need a big photography backpack, I just need a small sling or messenger bag. Sometimes I would go out with it hanging around my neck without a bag at all.

I absolutely love having a camera with me always. It’s true that the best camera is the one you have with you, but that’s doubly so if it’s the camera you always have with you In reality Best camera. Well, it’s not as small as the Sony RX1R, but it is smaller than the Canon R5 and much smaller than the Canon R5 Hasselblad X2D II recent And he was a great companion Photography tours around Stockholm,Edinburgh and Barcelona. It’s a pleasure to be able to pick it up quickly and fire away.

Helps ease of operation. I mostly shoot with aperture priority, and I twist the dedicated aperture ring on the lens when I want to adjust the depth of field. I mostly keep it at ISO 400, and the camera is always very good at giving me the correct shutter speed for whatever scene I’m shooting.

At night, I have to crank up the ISO aggressively, especially since the camera doesn’t have a fixed image sensor like the R5. In fact, on a technical level, the Q3 43 doesn’t shape up very well, as the burst rate and autofocus system are slower than competitors. Target detection is also best described as “hit or miss.”

But this Why I love this camera. You don’t have to dive into the endless abyss of the settings menu to find out the different autofocus options. I keep this camera focused on just one point, then half-press the shutter to focus on what I want and then recompose to take the shot. Or I’ll focus manually. It’s an essential photography experience that encourages me to think more about the shot I take and less about the settings I use to get it.

Then there are the built-in color profiles that Leica offers, which I absolutely adore. I shoot almost everything with the Leica Chrome look, which does things with color and contrast that I’m obsessed with. I mostly pair this with warm white balance, and more recently, a PolarPro Gold Mist Filter, Which gives my photos a warm, cinematic atmosphere that I love. This filter almost never leaves the camera and is a must have for me.

In fact, I now shoot most of my photos in JPEG format and use them with almost no post-processing. This is in stark contrast to my way of working with the R5 – I only shoot primarily on that camera, and all of my images undergo some level of work in Lightroom. Do I wish Leica offered options to customize these profiles further in camera? definitely.

I treat the Q3 43 as a classic point-and-shoot compact camera. I use basic settings to shoot quickly and creatively, relying on in-camera colors to minimize the time I spend editing. It’s given me a different way to work, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every moment I’ve spent with this camera so far. In fact at the time of writing I am currently on the shortlist In four categories at the British Photography Awards – three of which I shot in Q3 43.

To be fair, it’s not just the Leica Q3 43 that can give you this. Fujifilm’s I’ve considered buying the X100VI instead of the Leica, but I’ll be honest, there’s another item I’m probably less proud to admit.

I required Leica.

I don’t like to think of myself as a status symbol, and while I don’t want to have a Rolex, yacht, or Lambo at my wheel (well, maybe a little), I’ve always dreamed of owning a camera that has that famous red dot on the front. I was worried that it would be a novelty that would wear off quickly, but it didn’t – I still find myself excited to pick it up and take it somewhere. It also helps that the Q3 43’s solid metal body makes it feel infinitely more premium than the lightweight, arguably quite plastic-feeling X100VI.

It gives me a creative buzz that I don’t really get from the Canon R5. To draw on the analogy I used before, the R5 is a workman’s truck; In practice, it specifies the requirements needed to do a job. A professional tool for getting things done. But it’s not the car they imagine driving along the coast. Leica is the fantasy car. Maybe a classic Ferrari. It does most of the same things technically, but it does it in a completely different way that makes you feel noticeably different when using it.

Maybe it was spending too much money on a camera, especially one that I didn’t do in the strictest sense needs. It helped that Leica in the UK offers interest-free credit, so I spread the cost out over 12 months, rather than dropping the money all at once. But that’s money I was and still am happy to spend.

Photography has given me a boost I didn’t know I needed. I’ve been there for almost a year now and I feel like I’ve developed even more as a photographer in that time and have taken a variety of images that I’m incredibly proud of. I can’t wait to see what the coming years will bring with them.