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Chapter 3: Set it and forget it.
The Leica Q2 Monochrom journal.
For the most part, you can run a Leica Q2 Monochrom on autopilot with the camera deciding the best setting for shutter, aperture, ISO and focus. Such sacrilege, I know: turning an expensive, full-frame camera into a point-and-shoot. But hey, it’s my camera.
I usually have the shutter, aperature and ISO set to auto, since I often find that letting the camera do the praying to the God of Light for a great exposure makes the most sense. The two things I usually want control over are focusing and EV (exposure value) compensation. I use spot focusing, so I point the plus sign at the center of the screen at the critical spot I want to focus on, half press the shutter to lock it, compose and press the shutter the rest of the way to take the image. Sometimes on the street I set the focus to Highlight-Weighted for quick shooting. Hip shooters may find shooting fully automatic Multi-Field to be useful for capturing the fleeting moment.
I also have the EV compensation set up on my thumbwheel so I can darken things a bit when the histogram is showing a lot of area burnt into pure white. Or brighten a bit to protect shadow integrity.
How to set the Lieca Q2M for Spot Focusing.
Menu 3X > Focusing > AF Mode > Spot > Center button.
How to set the Lieca Q2M thumbwheel to EV compensation.
Menu 5x > Customize Control > Wheel Assignment > EXP Comp > Center button
There are times where I want control over the shutter to slow it way down or speed it up. Or I want to set the aperture to the sharpest ƒ︎-stop or get a nice bokeh. And Leica has a simple way to engage aperture priority, shutter priority, etc: You don’t need fire up a profile or mode: Just move the aperture ring or shutter dial off automatic and you have manual control of that feature. That hasn’t been this simple with other digital cameras. The other settings will adjust to your change.
I guess my attitude toward automatic is: Use it unless you’ve a good reason not too.
Read the next chapter: JPG, DNG or JPG+DNG?
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Photography Leica Q2 Monochrom