Leica Q3 43 Review – The Peerless

Introduction

Since 2015, a comment I have heard numerous times from the 50mm focal length aficionados is:

“If Leica ever releases a 50mm version of the Leica Q, I will buy it!”

And 9 years later, on 26th September 2024, Leica announced the Leica Q3 43, a 43mm variant of Leica’s extremely popular full-frame fixed lens compact. In the usual Leica fashion, Leica has gone for the extreme and designed the optics on the Q3 43 with the APO designation.

My in-depth review of the 28mm Leica Q3 is here.

The “APO” designation in Leica’s lexicon refers to apochromatically corrected, optical designs with the aim of minimising chromatic aberrations for the sharpest image possible.

The Q3 43 joins the triple-resolution 60-megapixel sensor family with the SL3, M11 and Q3 siblings

In the sections ahead, let us look deeper at what this release means to you regarding what remains the same and what has changed, and, of course, answer a few critical questions along the way.

tl:dr

Even though some may argue that very little has changed specifications-wise, the fact is that the new focal length of 43mm with Leica’s apochromatic design changes almost everything that matters in the Leica Q3.

Sporting a completely new optical design and optimised for minimal chromatic aberrations, the Q3 43 with its digital crops now provides a versatility which complements the 28mm Q3 in a way that having BOTH the Q3 and Q3 43 now provides the user focal lengths (including digital crops) from 28mm to 150mm.

In the Leica Q3 43, Leica has retained what users love about the Leica Q series, taking photography possibilities further. I am pretty confident many photographers and enthusiasts will take fondly to this new member of the Leica family.

Leica is the only brand making a full-frame fixed lens compact, and now in both 28mm and 43mm variants with zero competitors in this camera segment.

Why specifically a 43mm?

First, let us touch on the raison d’etre of a 43mm focal length, especially to the ones wondering why specifically ’43mm’ instead of the usual ’50mm’?

The 43mm focal is equal to the diagonal of a full-frame sensor & close to the the visual acuity of the human eye, giving a natural-looking perspective, especially for portraits.

source: Leica

In fact, the choice has its historical roots, with Oskar Barnack recognising this in the early 1920s when he picked the Leitz Milar 42 mm ƒ4.5 as the first lens for the original Leica, later named the Ur-Leica at Ernst Leitz Optische Werke, Wetzlar. 

In fact, a random thought I now have given Leica’s naming designation for this variant to be the Leica Q3 43, which means this opens up the potential for other variants like, say, a Leica Q3 75 or even Leica Q3 90.

Technicalities

• Fixed 43mm ƒ2 image stabilized lens with 11 elements in 8 groups, including 7 aspherical surfaces.
• 60MP BSI CMOS triple-resolution full-frame sensor
• Digital crops to 60, 75, 90, 120 or 150mm equiv focal lengths
• 5.76M dot OLED EVF with 0.79x magnification
• 3″ tilt touchscreen LCD with 1.8 million dots
• Native ISO range of 100-100,000 (ISO 50 manually selectable)
• Minimum focus at 26.5cm (Macro mode)
• Continuous shooting up to 15fps (7fps with AF-C)
• 8K video capture in UHD or DCI ratios up to 30p (H.265)
• Apple ProRes 422HQ support for 1080p video capture up to 60p
• AI-assisted perspective control and dynamic range tools for JPEG mode
• Approximately 772 grams at 130 x 80.3 x 97.6 mm
• IP52-rated dust and water-resistant
• HDMI jack Type D, USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type C up to 10 Gbps
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth with connection to the Leica Fotos app
  The full list of specifications can be found here.

The APO-Summicron 43mm F2 lens

The most significant change of the Q3 43 is its lens. Labelled an APO-Summicron ƒ2 43 ASPH lens, the optical design employs 11 elements in 8 groups, including 7 aspherical surfaces.

The APO designation brings a significant step up from the Leica Q3’s already excellent optical output, as it indicates that colour fringing due to chromatic aberration should be suppressed almost completely, resulting in even sharper output.

The dynamic range provided in images is also great to work with. From ISO 100 to ISO 400, one can easily ‘pull’ a lot of extra detail out of deep shadows without being concerned by excessive noise.

Given the common knowledge that the output from the Leica Q3 is already excellent, the output from the APO lens on the Q3 43 takes this a step further, akin to like adding excellent plating skills to an already masterfully cooked dish for the perfect presentation.

In the Leica Q3 43’s lens’s standard configuration, the minimum focus distance is 60cm, but in Macro mode, the minimum focusing distance is now a much closer 27cm. 

Optical image stabilisation is built-in, and Leica cleverly includes an Auto mode, which is only enabled at slower shutter speeds.

The 100% crop below shows excellent detail and sharpness captured. In the many instances where I have tried to ’cause’ chromatic aberration, the APO lens on the Leica Q3 43 does an excellent job in either minimising or simply totally shrugging them off.

My filter doesn’t fit!

Hardly news by now was Leica’s obsessive decision to engineer the Leica Q3 43 to the dimensions of the Leica Q3 as far as possible, and both cameras share the same 49mm filter diameter.

Physically, as the new lens is 5mm longer than before, Leica has compensated for this by making the supplied rectangular hood shorter, and ‘unexpectedly’ bringing an unexpected issue where the provided hood lacks enough clearance for some lens filters in the market.

The official reply from Leica so far seems to be simply that the set-up is meant to be used without a filter, but whether Leica will release a solution to this later or that users will mind this enough remains to be seen.

I am not going to restart the age-old filters or no filters argument. I use ND, CPL filters beyond the usual protective UV filters too and the fact is that there are already at least two solutions available.

Retaining what is loved & handling

Aside from the lens, though, the Leica Q3 43 is essentially the same camera as its wider-angle sibling, the Leica Q3, which is a good decision.

The tilt-LCD with the one-handed operation from the Leica Q3 are all carried over, ensuring the user gets continuity in muscle memory.

The Leica Q3 43 has the same excellent 60MP full-frame BSI-CMOS sensor in the SL3, Q3 and M11 series. Of course, the feature of this triple-resolution sensor is that one doesn’t have to record in full 60MP glory, and you can choose to record in both JPEG and raw files at either 36MP or 18MP.

Autofocus performance of the Leica Q3 43 is very similar to the Leica Q3 speed wise with the excellent reliabilty we have come to expect.

Handling the Leica Q3 43 will be exactly like handling the Leica Q3, save for the difference in focal length. One gets the same excellent 5.76 million dots EVF with a 0.76x magnification with a choice of 60 or 120 frames per second refresh rates.

Combined with the Maestro IV processor, the sensor offers a standard sensitivity range of ISO 100-100,000 and an ‘extended’ ISO 50 setting. It also enables continuous shooting at up to 4 frames per second with continuous auto-focus and 15 frames per second with focus fixed, with a buffer of at least 60 shots in raw. Subject recognition is now part of Q3’s autofocusing capabilities, too.

A good decision made was to ensure all current Leica Q3’s accessories work with the Leica Q3 43, and I applaud this decision instead of the usual ‘we will force you to buy another set of accessories because we can‘ decision I see so often in some other camera brands.

Other useful features include an intelligent Dynamic Range (IDR) option, which works to improve shadow detail in high-contrast situations for JPEGs; there is also a very useful Perspective Control option, which can automatically correct converging verticals in JPEG files.

Regarding video, the Q3 43 supports 8K recording at 30fps, 4K at 60 fps, or Full HD at 120fps. Leica has included an HDMI output for connecting an external monitor or recorder and a USB-C port for power. Other advanced video features include ProRes recording, Leica’s L-log profile, and LUT compatibility. I noticed no microphone socket, but I understand some RODE microphones are compatible with the USB-C port.

Digital crops – complimenting the Leica Q3

Like the Leica Q3, the Leica Q3 43 also utilises the 60-megapixel sensor to offer a genuinely helpful digital Zoom that crops into the image to match familiar focal lengths and corresponding resolution, which are shared in the table below.

	Crop Factor	Megapixels count (rounded to the nearest integer)
43mm	1x	60
60mm (equivalent)	1.4x	31
75mm (equivalent)	1.7x	20
90mm (equivalent)	2.1x	14
120mm (equivalent)	2.8x	8
150mm (equivalent)	3.5x	5

As the camera is cropping into the full-size image, there’s no degradation of the image quality, just a reduction in the megapixel count and now the interesting part is that with the Q3, one actually gets access to a very versatile set of focal lengths of 28, 35, 50, 75, 90 plus 43, 60, 75, 120 and 150mm equivalents.

Obviously it does take a bit of getting used to the 43mm focal length from the Q’s 28mm, but once one overcomes this, the 43mm focal length is actually lovely to work with, especially for portraiture and scenes where a close-up helps.

Conclusions

In my week with the Leica Q3 43, my objective was to use it across as many scenarios as possible, with me seeking an answer if the narrower focal length might be an issue. The surprise was that it hardly was.

Aside from how excellent the images from the APO lens are, what struck me was how natural the photographs look. An image from the 43mm focal length gives me the feeling of simply being there and looking at the scene myself, and this is a very interesting notion to explore for me.

With the Q3 43, there were moments when I felt I was handling a Leica APO-Summicron 50mm with auto-focus.

Beyond what is already mentioned, the digital crops all the way to a 150mm equivalent add another layer of versatility to this compact camera, adding further to the appeal of the Leica Q3 43.

No other camera comes close to the Leica Q3 43 in our increasingly crowded camera market. Thus, it only fits that a unique peerless camera commands a premium. I will say that the Leica Q3 43 will amaze and deliver in the right hands.

Thank you.

Disclaimers:

1. All product photos and samples here were photographed by me. I believe any reviewer with pride should produce their own product photos. 

2. All images were shot with the Leica Q3 43, a review unit from Leica Singapore and returned at the end of the review.

3. This review is not sponsored.

4. I write as a passion and a hobby, and I appreciate that photography brands are kind enough to respect and work with me.

5. The best way to support me is to share the review, or you can always help support me by contributing to my fees to WordPress for the domain using the Paypal button at the bottom of the page.