[Leica] Q2

[Jayanand Govindaraj]

I know nothing about Leica Q2, but here is my take on the software.

Topaz Sharpen AI is a stunner, and used in conjunction with something like
DXO PureRAW will give your 6/12 MP digital files a new lease of life, which
is unbelievable. Highly recommended, especially for old, low MP, high ISO,
blurry files. It is at times, like magic!

Topaz Gigapixel is the best I know of for uprezzing. Photoshop/Lightroom
now give you the same facility that is probably a tad worse, but you are
not going to make that out in the real world - I can see the difference
only by pixel peeping, and cannot make out any difference in a print. I
purchased Topaz Gigapixel at a time when an alternative was not there at
the same level - but I would not purchase it today.

https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2021/03/10/from-the-acr-team-super-resolution.html

I would say, if you are going to be cropping a lot, look at DXO PureRAW as
well, its noise reduction is, at times, uncanny. It does add a step to the
workflow, surprisingly enough between the camera capture and the RAW
converter, but you can batch process, so it is not a complete PITA. It
basically does four things to improve a RAW file - demosaicing, noise
reduction, lens correction and capture sharpening, fully automatically. If
there is a downside, it is that we have no control at all, it is fully
automated. Again for low MP files, or high ISO files, it is now an integral
part of my workflow:

https://www.dxo.com/

Cheers
Jayanand



On Sat, Jun 12, 2021 at 9:27 PM Howard L Ritter Jr via LUG <
lug at leica-users.org> wrote:

> Looking for LUGgers’ opinions/experience with the Q2. And with Topaz Labs’
> Gigapixel AI and Sharpen AI software.
>
> After decades of flogging a 35mm, then FF DSLR or mirrorless, on various
> outings and expeditions, I have finally come to the realization that the
> opportunity to use a lens longer than 50mm for a few percent of my shots,
> most of them not particularly memorable, isn’t worth the bulk and weight of
> a 24-70 or -85 zoom. I’ve gotten progressively unhappy with the lack of
> decent compact primes for my Sony mirrorless FF a7Rii, and the resultant
> need to tote the 24-70. My everyday-carry lens on an M body is 35mm and I’m
> much more apt to wish I had something shorter mounted than longer. I’m not
> above going out with the M240 or MM sporting the lovely 21-35 Vario-Elmarit
> R on an M adapter and EVF.
>
> So I’m going to Iceland (again) next week with my son for a
> circumnavigation of the island by the Ring Road, with side trips to the
> volcano and the Snaefjellsness Peninsula. This prospect really stimulated
> some analytical thinking, and I went ahead and ordered a Q2 from B&H. It
> arrived yesterday and I’m familiarizing myself with it. It’s a real gem,
> well advanced from my M240 in terms of being a thoroughly modern FF digital
> camera, and it really feels right to/for me. It’s going to replace my Sony
> a7Rii, Sony RX1-R, and a few lenses.
>
> My reasoning is that with a 28mm prime lens and a 47 MPx sensor, I can
> crop and enlarge to the equivalent of 90mm and have a 4.5 Mpx image file.
> I’ve found that Gigapixel and Sharpen can produce an image file 4x as large
> as the original (2x the pixel dimensions) that looks at least as good as a
> native image file made with a lens of 2x the FL. So the 4.5 Mpx crop can be
> up-res’d and sharpened to look like an 18 Mpx file taken with a 90 mm lens.
> And the 24 Mpx images from my late, lamented NEX-7 that I see as background
> on my 25” iMac’s 250-dpi, 15-Mpx screen every day remind me of how
> stunningly detailed 15 Mpx can look 2’ across the desk even at 13 x 21”.
>
> Any helpful advice or reports from Q users?
>
> Images to follow.
>
> —howard
>
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