Leica Q2 Street Settings

Today i want to share with you my favorite street settings that i use with my Leica Q2.

Of course there are plenty of possibilities setting up your Q2 for street photography, this is only my preferred street setting that works very good for me. Feel free to try it. Here are the settings:

These settings i got from Lukas, a friend of mine, he uses only these settings on his Q2 and i basically copied them for my own street workflow.

I use these settings mainly at harsh sunlight / good sunny weather. For night photography with the Q2 you have to use other settings.

The goal: 

- snapshot as fast as possible 

- get sharp images using zone focusing with fast exposure time

- compensate the higlights

- fast change of settings when walking into darker areas without sunlight (tunnel, subway...)

Area of use:

snapshot of people or situations while harsh sunlight and hard shadows, but also possible to switch to kind of manual correction when light situation changes or when you have time to adjust focus exactly.

Step 1 - ISO/Auto-ISO Settings:

I have set my highest ISO to 3200, because in my opinion the Q2 produces too much noise beyond 3200. 

Then set the max exposure time to 1/1000, now the camera always tries to take 1/1000, so that freezes almost everything. If you want you can take 1/500 here. If you have to snap fast, 1/1000 is better in my opinion.

Step 2 - exposure dial to A:

Set your exposure dial to "A", so the camera will decide the exposure time, BUT only beyond ISO3200, so only when it is not possible to hold 1/1000 beneath ISO 3200. (Remember, that are the Auto-ISO settings from Step 1)

Lukas told me, not every Q2 can do this exactly because it is not adjusted properly. He tested my Q2 and it focuses perfect manually to infinity. So then mine can use the scala on the lens for zone focusing correctly.

Step 3 - Zone focusing:

Set your aperture to minimum f8. Is possible you can use f11 or almost f16, depending on the sunlight strongness. Set focus to manual mode. Then set the 2 meter mark exactly lined up with the left f4 mark. Then you get everything between aprox. 1.6meters and almost infinity tick sharp with f8. Using higher aperture, e.g. f11 or f16 you can increase sharpness range. Basically this is even better as the snapfocus mode on the Ricoh GRIII (that i own too).

Step 4 - compensate highlights:

To compensate the highlights you can now set your exposure correction (i can change this with the thumb wheel) to minimum minus 1. You can varry this depending on the sunlight at that day. -1 gets you mostly correct highlights and not blown them out, if sun is stronger try -2 depending on the light situation.

Step 5 - metering:

i use center weighted metering for street photography, but you can also use multi metering.Just make sure the metering mode corresponds with the saving of the highlights (the -1 setting from Step4).

(Update 2023: with the new firmware version you can use highlight protected metering)

Darker areas (sunlight gone, tunnel, behind buildings...):

suddenly you walk into an darker area in the city, the camera can not hold the 1/1000 anymore, or you want to open the aperture because of composition, then just turn the exposre wheel to a fixed exposure time, e.g. 1/125, and still use f8 with zone focussing, or click in the focus ring and use autofocus. Or readjust the highlight compensation. You can even set ISO to manual if you want to. (i configured my ISO setting to the button on the thumb wheel.)

These "changes" to almost auto or selective manual settings can be done very fast.

If you save the above street settings to one of the Q2's setting storages, you can just choose the saved settings again, dial back the exposure wheel, set up the zone focusing again, and you are good to go.

If you have the markings for zone focusing on your lens, then these settings are basically useable with any other camera. Please note that zone focus area is "smaller" when using longer lenses (e.g. 50mm).

Any questions?

Just ask me. (contact site)

Cheers,

Marc