Leica Q2 Reporter £4,950/$5,550

A luxury compact camera built like a tank

The Leica Q2 has been in our list of best compact cameras for some time, and for good reason – we love it, not least for its image quality. Now the limited edition Leica Q2 Reporter is here, but does it steal the original Q2’s thunder?

Leica’s camera range could get confusing, so here’s a quick run-down. This German brand is probably best known for its Leica M rangefinders, which take interchangeable M-series lenses. The Q2 Reporter shares the same ‘look’ as the M-series, but it is a different design – a compact camera with a fixed lens.

Leica also makes SL-series L-mount mirrorless cameras, including the professional-level Leica SL2 (which has a lot in common with the Panasonic Lumix S1R). There’s also the rarely seen Leica S3 medium-format SLR.

Key features

The Leica Q was one of the best sellers in Leica’s illustrious history, and this wave of new adopters and upgraders continued with the release of its successor, the Leica Q2. Now the Q2 series features a dedicated Monochrom version, and the new Reporter ‘Green’ colourway has been added to the list of this compact powerhouse hybrid, in the form of the Leica Q2 Reporter.

Essentially, the Q2 Reporter is the same as the original Q2. It still features the amazingly sharp Summilux 28mm f/1.7 ASPH wide-angle lens and has full manual control, so those coming from the Leica M system need not worry – you can still manually focus the lens if you want to, but you don’t really need to.

Along with the Reporter colourway is the omission of the red dot Leica logo, which you will only ever see on

the Q2 Reporter when the camera is powering off. All lens distance scales and focal length colours are now in white and grey to give a cleaner, more neutral look. Of course, you cannot forget that this Reporter version brings across the dark green colour in matt, which is similar to Leica’s ‘Safari’ editions, making it more inconspicuous than its counterparts, allowing the photographer to go unnoticed when covering reportage or documentary-style photography, according to Leica.

Whether this really makes you more unrecognisable is up to the subject matter you are shooting, but there is no denying that the Q2 in this colourway looks absolutely stunning.

For the Reporter variant, the textured leather grip that surrounded the Q2 has gone and is replaced with Kevlar that has been designed to ‘wear’ as you use the camera, so the texture and weave of the kevlar becomes slightly fibrous, which will give you better grip of the camera the more you use it. This is an interesting concept, and I like it.

As well as being a great stills camera, the Q2 Reporter, like the original Q2, offers 4K video shooting. You get a choice of standard 4K (3840 x 2160 pixels) or you can opt for Cinema 4K with a resolution of 4096 x 2160 pixels. You can choose either 30fps or 24fps frame rates with 4K, but are limited to 24fps with C4K. Switch down to Full HD and you get useful slo-mo options of 120fps or 60fps. Even though I see this camera targeted at photographers, having these video options as someone in the field out reporting and having the ability on the fly to tap the touchscreen and quickly take a video can be very handy, especially for multi-media news coverage.

“As well as being a great stills camera, the Q2 Reporter offers 4K video shooting”

Build and handling

The Q2 Reporter is equipped with an electronic viewfinder that is a pure joy to use. Being a Leica M user and used to rangefinder focusing, it took me a small amount of time to get used to it, but once up to speed with the EVF, I enjoyed its automatic on/off function when putting the ’finder up to the eye, and could see a lot of detail thanks to its 3.68 million dots. Once you take an image, you are presented with it in the viewfinder to make sure you have hit critical focus.

However, if you have this function on and set to single image capture, rather than continuous, and you want to quickly take three or four images in a row of some action that’s happening around you, the EVF it will lag slightly, showing you the image you have taken, rather than seeing what is happening. Instead of ‘blackout’, think more ‘image obstruction’.

The LCD remains a 3-inch 1.04 million dot affair, and is touch sensitive, so you can control features without the need to dig into menus unnecessarily, which is great when you are constantly on the move.

Live View is crystal clear and touch-to-focus is again another great feature to have on a camera this compact. One drawback of the Q2 Reporter is that the screen, however beautiful and streamlined, is not movable. If you like to shoot a lot in Live View and have a tilting screen, the Q2 Reporter might not be for you.

Autofocus is fast and responsive, and it always hits critical focus where I want it to be. A decent range of autofocus options is available, including Multi point, One Point, Tracking, Face Detection, Touch AF and more. But the real party trick is the ease with which you can switch to and from manual focus by pushing down on the focus tab, releasing the lens for full manual operation. By simply returning the focus past infinity, the lens will return to full AF operation.

As well as this focus ring, and the mechanical aperture ring, which are both silky smooth as you would expect from Leica, there is also the macro ring, which when engaged allows you to focus from 0.17m to 0.3m. However, with such a wide lens, you don’t get a particularly impressive magnification ratio. Sebastian Oakley

1 Without even the hint of a grip, the Q2 Reporter needs to have the extra security of a strap. 2 The Summilux 28mm f/1.7 has a fixed focal length, but it’s a beauty. 3 The olive green finish of the Reporter edition gives it a very stylish look.

4 6 5 6 5 4 The LCD is touch sensitive, and contains 1.04 million dots. The original leather grip has been replaced with Kevlar. While beautiful and streamlined, the screen isn’t moveable.

7 The styling of the distance scale – now in white and grey – makes for a more neutral and distinct look. 8 8 7 With the physical aperture ring on the lens and a shutter speed dial, the Q2 has oldschool exposure controls.

The physical aperture and shutter speed dials make it easy to select manual exposure settings for difficult lighting conditions, even before you raise the camera.

The optical performance of the Summilux 28mm f/1.7 lens is outstanding. Its 28mm focal length is ideal for ‘wide’ street photography.

The f/1.7 lens looks well adapted for low-light work, though there’s no IS and the high-res sensor starts to show noise at high ISOs.

At lower sensitivities, the Q2’s dynamic range is respectable. However, at ISO 1600 and above, both Leica cameras capture noticeably less dynamic range than the Sony and Fujifilm cameras on test.

All three full-frame cameras are closely matched for image noise levels at lower sensitivities, though the Q2 generates progressively more noise than the competition as ISO sensitivities increase.

The 40+MP full-frame cameras offer clearly superior resolving power to the X100V. The Q2 Monochrom resolves slightly more fine detail than the regular Q2, and equals more at higher ISOs.