Leica and Formula 1 just made their partnership official with a Q3 43 dressed for the paddock. Underneath, it is the same camera: a 60MP full-frame sensor shooting at 60, 36 or 18 megapixels, a fixed 43mm f/2 APO-Summicron that sees roughly the way your eye does, hybrid autofocus and 8K video. What changes is everything you touch. The wireless-charging handgrip wears a carbon fiber shell, a material Leica does not normally use, made and tested in Germany, with a carbon thumb rest and soft-release button with a carbon inlay and red rim. The Microvelour covering copies a racing steering wheel’s texture, red accents mirror a driver’s color-coded controls, with F1 logos on the top plate and lens cap. The Formula 1 Leica Look, exclusive to this camera in the FOTOS app, adds contrast and saturation previewed in the viewfinder. Leica’s last camera I covered was the Sofort 2; this is a very different animal. It runs $9,950, so I read the $2,000 over the standard Q3 43 as paying for carbon, the Look and the badge, not hardware.
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Leica Q3 43 Formula 1 Edition
Leica and Formula 1 team up on a Q3 43 special edition with carbon fiber, a steering-wheel-textured grip and an exclusive F1 Leica Look. $9,950.
