Leica announces 60MP Q3

Leica has announced the third iteration of the company's popular Q-series mirrorless compact, with the overnight announcement of the Q3.

At the heart of the Q3 is a new 60MP BSI-CMOS sensor with what Leica calls 'Triple-Resolution' technology, which essentially means the camera can shoot at 60, 36 or 18 MP, with the two smaller image sizes allowing for faster camera operation, longer image sequences, and smaller file sizes.

Physically, the Q3 is largely the same as the Mark I and II models, with the front design and top plate nearly identical. The Q3 however features a 3" LCD tilting touch panel on the rear, that sees a bump in pixels from 1.04M dots to 1.84M dots. This is positioned next to two new custom buttons, bringing the total custom buttons from two to four. The camera has the same IP52 rating at the Q2.

The EVF gains a resolution bump up to 5.76M dots (up from 3.68M dots on the Q2).

The Q3 uses the same Leica Summilux 28 mm f/1.7 ASPH. lens as its predecessors, and also features a new integrated macro mode. The Macro mode can be activated by rotating a clutch near the base of the lens that restricts the lens to a focus distance of between 30 to 17cm.

The Q3's autofocus should also see an improvement, with it gaining phase detection, which it uses in addition to Leica's existing Depth-from-Defocus AF system, and appears to be similar tech as to what's in the recently announced Panasonic S5 II. 

Where the Q and Q2 had no ports at all, the Q3 now has a USB-C (3.1 Gen 2 10Gbit/s) port and a micro-HDMI port. The USB-C port can handle charging and file transfer, and the HDMI port supports an external display with or without recording to the SD card. 

Finally, the Q3 promises to shoot 8K video at up to 30p, and offers both DCI (1.89:1) and UHD (16:9) 8K. It can also capture 10-bit footage in either L-Log or HLG profiles.

The Leica Q3 will be available at all Leica Stores and authorised dealers in Australia from today, along with Leica’s Online Store. it'll set you back $9,790.00 including GST, considerably more than the $7,999 of the Leica Q2 at launch. 

You can find out more at Leica's website.