JPEGs: Leica VS Fuji (+ Sample Images) 

Just found your channel and I have to say you’re a gem to the community. Love the unbiased take and filmography.

My heart and head want the Leica but it is amazing how good the Fuji is bearing in mind it's about one fifth of the price... great comparison 👍🏻

Finally got my Q2 today. Thanks for all the info you shared. It’s a fantastic camera!

Fuji’s In-Camera RAW processing is such an underrated feature too.

Thank you for hitting the main points. Reviewing cameras is more than specs. The points that matter to photographers, like file size and complimentary lenses.

Great informative video, for sure helping me along with making my decision to buy a Q2

Thanks for the comparison! I’ve been using a Q2 for a while and absolutely love it, but coming from the Sony RX1 I find the amazingly sharp and contrasty Q2 images to be a bit overwhelming at times. Also I often find myself more focused on the shooting experience itself when shooting JPEG, so the Fuji cameras have always intrigued me. This video has been very helpful, and I’m probably going to try out the X-T5 for a bit and see which one I decide to keep 😊

Have to say I liked the Leica jpegs better. Thanks for this video. Trying to decide whether or not to purchase the Q2. File size scares me but with the option to shoot nice jpegs, I’m encouraged.

Very interesting and instructive, plus great pictures, thanks. I had an XT-1 for four years, enjoyed and kept it... then I discovered the Pentax K-1II FF with its 36 mega and its very special color science... it was a great surprise. Ans so I also went and purchased a Leica SL 601... a long lasting desire became true after seven years in the market, being more friendly with my budget, which I enjoy also, specially its bW, even in JPEG. The important thing, I guess, is to have fun and enjoying the IQ...

Thanks Tobis! I love the look and feel of the Fuji jpegs, especially the Acros simulation with green filter. If I need "natural" looking images, I would probably just work with the RAW files. The Leica images look really nice, but for that kind of a look, I have the Panasonic S1 which is a beautiful camera, although less street-friendly :) Price to quality ratio will always go to the Fuji, but Leica cameras are beautiful in their own right

Glad you have been in my town (Como). I'm a Canon and Fujifilm user and I agree about Fuji JPGs.

I'm so happy the pictures I get out of my new Pentax K1000🎄

Good analysis. Very helpful.

Fuji JPGs are really pleasing even without modifying their settings. But now you got me curious regarding tweaking some of those settings in the Leica. Great video

Great video and nice to hear your views on these cameras. I just rented a Q2 and had a blast. I am holding out for the backordered Q3 but I have been toying with the idea of picking up Fuji xt5 🤣 Both cameras are amazing in my book. But yes in different way. Thanks again for a great video.

Great video man :)

To add to what you said, this is why I love the xpro1. It's xtrans 1 processor, 16mp, and film simulations look so natural and I never have to post edit. Even if you gave me a newer fuji, I'd just sell it.

Thank you for the video. I always enjoy watching them. Can you share your favorite Q2 recipes?

I accept as it is... the fuji sim recipe help a lots in producing better sooc jpeg as I prefer it that way. I don't do editing too much.

Leica tends to over saturate colors, specially the sky, even in the raw files. That's something which I found hard to work with when needed to make delicate post processing. Now I'm very happy with fuji and his simulations (even for raws)

I wish I could use the Q2 JPGs ooc sometimes. But it's really hard to find a "recipe" like with Fuji because you don't have an in camera RAW converter to tweak. Also, the colors are not acurate on the display and differ from the EVF. Did you find a good "film simulation" on the Q2?

Amazing, thanks for sharing! Would the evf show the jpg selections. For example can you choose the monochrome option and have the live view / evf be in monochrome?

I keep all my photo in Lightroom so I only shoot raw, there always something to edit from straightening composition to removing chromatic aberration and pimples from people face.

Nice Video!

Great overview. Do you adjust your JPEG profiles on your Q2?

I didn’t like the jpegs out of my original Q, but the SL2 jpegs are fantastic. And I’ve found that the Leica Fotos app actually connects and transfers files fast, I no longer bring an SD card dongle for my phone around. I am so tired of editing raw files and usually after a few years my style has changed and the edits look bad anyways. Maybe the jpegs will be timeless. I’ll still use raw for astro or certain landscape work though. Another trick I’ve started is leaving the WB set to 5600 95% of the time.

I have a Fujifilm X100S, some people says their Leica Q is in another order of quality of how real the photos with it look. Fortunately in the web examples I cannot see it, in fact most of the time, as in your video, I just like more the Fuji photos, but maybe is due that where I live color is always too present.

Hi Tobis, Can you tell us, which setting is less saturated in the Q2: Standard or Natural? I think it is much better, if you can choose the degree of saturation in simple steps like in the Sony RX 100 Series, in which you can choose between + 3 and - 3. If you choose - 1 you get simple Perfektion. Same thing at Olympus: choose Adobe Color Space and Watch the pics at „normal“ sRGB Monitors and the Color matches the real World colors nearly 100 %!

Still toying with getting an X100v Fuji, I really like how it renders jpeg's, so yes I prefer the Fuji images

To be honest, of the jpgs you showed here, the ones of the Fuji looks far more pleasing to me. The X100V is the first weather sealed of the X100 series and you may tilt the screen and can go easily low, very low, without neck breaking contortion skills 😅

Thanks, interesting video. While I don't have the Fuji to compare, I do find the Q2 jpegs a bit bland. They're fine, but bland. I would love to get that wow factor straight out of camera. Sometimes you just don't want to spend hours editing hundreds of RAW files! With that said I would love to see a video on how you post process your images, as I've struggled to find settings that work for me! Do you have presets or is each photo edited individually?

Leica JPEGs treat daylight as 4600K instead of 5300K to 5600K. Thus the default is cool (bluer) & contrasty. Imho, Fuji JPEG is best. At weddings I can give the clients' family and friends nice samples during the day. I shoot both RAW with RAW backup on my main fuji but have a 2nd fuji for RAW with JPEG backup.

Hey Tobi, vielen DANK für deine Videos! Welche Tasche benutzt du in 5:50 Min? Viele Grüße Tobias

Great video thanks. I’m looking to buy a new camera for a two year long trip. I do like the idea of getting the Q2 - just not the cost. I really don’t wish to do any post work to so many images. And I certainly don’t want to store TB’s of data. So I think it’s JPEG’s for me. I really wish Leica would add a similar “recipes” concept to their software.

Nice Sebenza!

How does your Fuji X-T30 have the navigations buttons instead of the pointer thing button next to the screen?

Imagine the day everything shifts to heif. 10bit, much smaller sizes. Fuji xH2 has heif built in but don't know if profiles work on that though

Ha! I got most of the images right. I know the color of my Color Chrome skies!

6:02 if you dont mind me asking; what backpack is that?

The jpegs out of the Q2 are among the best there is along with the SL2s. The difference between the FUJIFILM and Leica jpgs is personal perspective. If you keep shooting both, over time you will gravitate toward the Leica jpgs as yo begin to realize the subtle but important quality difference. Leica has a natural realism, depth and rendering that is unsurpassed by any camera manufacture. The only thing we need to do is set the white balance - if you want it warmer for example - set the exposure and shutter speed. Photography as it is meant to be. The thing about Leica is this, the rendering is timeless and that's very purposeful. Images from a Leica will stand the test of time. Images from Fujifilm perhaps not depending on how stylized the individual user decides to make them. Fujifilm is not subtle and you notice this when you use Leica for a while. The only other manufacture that comes close to Leica in terms of SOOC jpgs would be Nikon. The D700 or D3/4 for example. People tend to need more and more and more. More colour shift, more contrast, more drama. It's the way of things these days. Elegance however is in the lesser detail. Again, timeless. That's what Leica does.

X pro1 x ever !! RAW+JPG and in camera processing is the best thing u can do

i love my Leicas.... but the digital ones... for me... so far... have been i can't think of any words that would be appropriate to use around other humans.... Leica has the glass... the build quality... the service and support... but the sensor is just another Sony sensor just like everyone else uses... i prefer using a Fuji (X-H1 & X-Pro3) with M Mount Adapter for Digital Photography.... it's the best of both worlds

if you use capture one you can get all the recipes and apply them in post. best part, you can apply those recipes to any image using any camera.

Which of the two would you recommend purchasing for a very immature photographer?;) like zero experience 😄

For me the Fuji's pictures JPEGs were the best

There is quite a lot you can edit on jpegs, you are not stuck with the exact file you took.

I’ve been shooting with Leica for a long time with M, SL & Q Systems and found the JPG‘s always to be mediocre to say the least compared to other brands. Ok, so one spend all that cash on a full frame systems so why bother anyway with JPG‘s? I guess that might have been the thought at Leica too. Their Raw Files on the other hand are really the lick. Incredible files come out of that cameras. So if you’re not willing to spend time in post to tweak your files you might be way better of with the Fuji Jpgs. I like the output a lot even as you said sometimes Fuji is overdoing it a bit.

Reduce noise reduction to -4 and sharpening to at least -2 and you won't get that waxy artificial look from your Fuji jpegs.

Little bit strange in my opinion that you do change setting in the Leica and like them for the natural look. You can do the same in Fuji ad you wish by adjusting to a less processed look.... If you like. And doing so saving also a lot of money!

80 MB? Can’t the Q2 do lossless compressed DNG? The lossless compressed 14 bit NEF of e.g. a Nikon Z7 (comparable sensor resolution and amount of details in shadows) are about 45 to 55 MB. If I convert them by Adobe’s DNG converter, selecting lossless compressed, the file size is plus/minus retained.

I shoot both raw and jpegs, on the same photo, if i for some reason want to edit in the future.

So if you edit what you prefer then?

I have a Q3 and X-T5. The black and white JPEGs from Leica are hands down best in industry. The colored JPEGs are better out of the Fuji. That said, I enjoy shooting with the X-T5 more.

Slight price difference, also.

All this is good, but the jeep will never be better than RAW. And For processing Fuji frames - only Capture One! Although, as we know, the camera is not the main thing, the main thing is skillful hands and trained eyes

JPEG’s king

I have Q1 but Jpg just like tragedy , I only use RAW on Q

The colours of your blues look very weak and slightly cyan. Are you shooting JPGs with embedded sRGB web only colours instead of full gamut Adobe RGB? You should ALWAYS set your camera to Adobe RGB in the menus!

In questi ultimi anni ho usato solo Fuji XT3, provengo da NIKON D3, ma non tornerei più indietro. Ho acquistato una Leica Q, e sono rimasto deluso (come te) per la qualità dei files… Tanto che penso di tornare al 100% a Fuji.

You need to try Olympus Pen F or EMg MKII or II to see how fine a jpeg can be out of the camera. Fuji jpegs are mostly over processed. I don't have Leica digital so I couldn't comment on the Leica jpeg. One more important point is that shooting jpeg, enables the photographer to free him/herself from the schakles of the likes of Adobe, or Capture One or Nik Software and RAW processing. Any basic image editing software would capable of editing jpegs. The last and the most important from my point from my view, because I have shot film for nearly 45 years, is that the ability of the photographer to mess about with a jpeg file is rather limited, unlike RAW. This will make the photographer to think ( as much as thinking is allowed in the digital world ) before taking a photo. This can't be a bad thing, to slow down and think about what you are trying to photograph. Persoanlly, I am sick of watching ' fineart photographers ' taking any old photograph and then proceed to edit the RAW file time and time again, to produce a cliche that they call fineart.

‘Massive firmware update by Leica….. ‘ why not right away when on sale? Confused…

I shoot Fuji X-Pro1, Fuji X-Pro2, and Leica M10. I see so significant difference in the jpeg images from any of them. However, the two Leica M10 I owned were defective. The first one was so bad that Leica returned my money. The second one I bought had a defective sensor that cost too much for me to repair.

Leica wants you to shoot like in the old days, only few images

The Leica is just an amazing camera. It’s also true that the Fuji jpegs may look artificial. The Q2 is my dream camera. I’m pretty sure I’ll buy it one day, maybe in a few years. Hopefully the Q3 will be even better.

I owned both devices, first the X100V which I sold for a Q2. I completely agree with your comments. But, it seems unthinkable to me to buy a camera like the Q2 and then not post-process your photos. No need to learn how Lightroom works in detail. The simple use of automatic correction transforms the Q2's RAWs into superb JPEGs. Then comparing the JPEGs of the X100V with those of the Q2 (after post-processing) is like comparing a Picasso with the photo from the French postal calendar. Admittedly, the Q2 is much more expensive, but the results are absolutely not comparable.

Really people pay 8000€ to shoot in jpg?

On the lie a it’s the lens…… micro contrast

If everyone keep using photo shop or light room then who care which camera produce better photo . Just buy cheap camera will do .

Sinn 104. Nice!

Leica, a poor man's Fuji.

And the cost of that Leica... :)

I’ve shot both and the Leica is clearly better than the Fuji. But I shot raw on both. I sometimes put Fuji jpeg on Instagram, but you’d never buy any Leica to only shoot jpeg.

Why would you want your picture to be natural as hell? Might just use your eye instead of a camera.

After shooting with Xpro 2 for 3 years i sold all of my Fuji lens and the Xpro 2 , buy a Leica X Vario and never touch Fuji again . Leica is just a world apart when i compare the Jpeg , the Xpro 2 almost always got wrong shadow tone , Leica take time to see what it is and not many people will get it especially when you are new to photography .

In short, the Fuji is still better than the very expensive Leica

Maybe a controversial opinion, but I just really dislike Fuji colours. I actually am deep in the GFX ecosystem and have a lot of great to say about it, but that’s not one of them.

Do you use your histogram??? Lol...

Shooting jpegs on a Leica… 😂

No offence, but I can't afford a Leica

First of all, show the same shots made by both cameras… these pics are completely not comparable…

German accent

Hört mal ihr Teebeutel! So geht das einfach nicht, wir leben im Jahr 2023!! Unverschämtheit

fuji always wins against over hyped and over priced kraut kamera

You make such beautiful videos. Get to the top FAST - Promo sm!!!