But green is good, and the Leica Q is still one of our favorites
It probably depends where you’re from, but on this side of the Atlantic ‘Khaki’ is a light brown sandy color associated with military (especially British) uniforms.
However, we will concede that there is such a thing as ‘khaki green’ even though we think the proper name for this is ‘olive drab’.
But maybe Leica has got it right. ‘Khaki’ is a much nicer-sounding name, and the colour of the new limited-edition Leica Q Khaki is very pleasing, even if it is green. It’s reminiscent of the 2015 Leica M-P ‘Safari’ edition. And in fact, we like the Leica Q so much it's made it into our list of top 10 best compact cameras.
Leica has a long history of special edition cameras, often developed in conjunction with cultural icons like rock legend Lenny Kravitz (Leica M-P Correspondent), artist and photographer Rolf Sachs (Leica M-P “grip”), and fashion label founder Marcus Wainwright (Leica M Monochrom ‘Stealth’ edition).
Only 495 of these special edition Leica Q ‘Khaki’ cameras will be made, and they will be finished in premium khaki-coloured real leather trim with the engraved Leica script on the top plate in Khaki too. The same colour is used for a matching leather camera strap.
Even the Leica logo is in green!
Leica Q specifications
Otherwise, the specs are the same as for the standard Leica Q, which is a full frame compact camera with a fixed Leica Summilux 28mm f/1.7 ASPH. lens and an integrated electronic viewfinder with a resolution of 3.68 million pixels. Wi-Fi is built in and can be used alongside the Leica FOTOS app on a smartphone or tablet.
Inside is a 24-megapixel CMOS sensor with an ISO range of 100—50,000 and a pretty impressive 10fps continuous shooting speed, though video is full HD rather than 4K.
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We like the Leica Q because it’s actually very affordable for a Leica at around £3,700/$4,500 and not bad for a premium full frame camera generally.
The Leica Q ‘Khaki’ does cost more, but it’s not ruinously expensive, being listed at £4,150 /$4,995.
Rod is an independent photography journalist and editor, and a long-standing Digital Camera World contributor, having previously worked as DCW's Group Reviews editor. Before that he has been technique editor on N-Photo, Head of Testing for the photography division and Camera Channel editor on TechRadar, as well as contributing to many other publications. He has been writing about photography technique, photo editing and digital cameras since they first appeared, and before that began his career writing about film photography. He has used and reviewed practically every interchangeable lens camera launched in the past 20 years, from entry-level DSLRs to medium format cameras, together with lenses, tripods, gimbals, light meters, camera bags and more. Rod has his own camera gear blog at fotovolo.com but also writes about photo-editing applications and techniques at lifeafterphotoshop.com
