Well said and I also think the Q series necessarily gets bashed around by people who "don't get it". The problem is not so much with the camera as it is the philosophy of people who try to look at it as their primary platform to compete with APS-C or Micro Four Thirds. It is not meant to do so, it's a different beast altogether and it's a secondary system.
I currently own a Q10 with the 02 zoom and 01 prime lenses. I love it to bits as it's my "fun" camera. When the original Q first came out, the street price was around $800 in Canada, so I totally dismissed it. I was just way too much money for such a camera, especially when you could get much better mirrorless systems at a similar price point. When the prices dropped to around $250, I decided to try out the Q10 and if I did not like it, I could return it. Here we are a year later, I use my Q10 often, especially when I don't want to lug around my K-3 and extra lenses.
Let's face it, the Q series will never have image quality comparable to APS-C, m4/3 or Full Frame cameras. However, the Q10 can produce some really nice images provided you know its limits and you challenge your perspective on how to shoot.
Since the sensor is so small, you have to make some compromises. That means keeping your aperture at f/5.6 and below. Also, keep your ISO below 800. I generally shoot in bright conditions at f/4.0 and that will give you plenty of depth of field and you will not have any diffraction. It's like shooting f/8 or f/10 on larger format sensors. The proof is in the print! I've printed out 5x7's and 8x10's shot with my Q10 at ISO 200 and one is hard pressed to see a significant difference when compared to shots taken with my K-3 or Olympus OMD EM-5. Don't live by pixel peeping. The rest of the world looks at photos in their entirety, whether on social media, blogs or prints.
The JPG engine is actually quite good and it does a great job of maximizing the sensor's abilities (unlike the JPG engines on Pentax DSLRs). I tend to shoot the "bright" mode and I have bumped up the contrast, saturation and sharpness by 1. Of course, this is a subjective preference.
That said, I get the best results from my Q10 by shooting in DNG mode and doing the raw development in Adobe Lightroom. The Q10's sensor, as well as the Q7, has
fantastic dynamic range for such a small sensor. You can pull out lot of data from the shadows and highlights. The DNG files also respond quite well to sharpening, provided you use a radius < 0.9 and some focus masking to prevent skies from being sharpened. A bump in Clarity from +5 to +10 really helps give the Q's images some punch.
I tend to stretch histograms in Lightroom, so for the Q10, my workflow is:
Highlights = -100
Shadows = +100
Clarity = 5
Vibrance = 5
Saturation = 3
I then adjust the white slider as far right as possible to avoid clipping. Next, I pull the Blacks slide as far to the left until I start to see pure blacks. As a last step, I adjust the exposure and contrast to get the result I want. Noise reduction and sharpening are applied according to taste. This technique only works with sensors with a lot of dynamic range. I am happy to report the Q10 responds very well to it.
So, I recommend that you always shoot both JPG and DNG. Most of time the JPG engine gets it right, but it's good to have the DNG for trickier lighting situations.
The thing I enjoy most about the Q10 and I think the best way to get the most out of the system, is to program your front dial to your favourite art filters and just go out there and shoot. I know other cameras have art filters and you have to dive into menus or multiple buttons to use them. As such, those filters are often ignored or dismissed. On the other hand, the front dial on the Q invites you to play: it is immersive, tactile and spontaneous. It is one of the most brilliant features I've seen on a compact camera. Moreover, I really dig the look of the Q's art and smart filters. That's what keeps me hooked!
Some sample photos taken with the Q10.
Pickering Flea Market and The Tiny Q 04/18/2015 – First Harley Ride of the Year and Bluffer’s Park Q-ubed
Here are some other photos taken with both an Olympus OMD EM-5 and the Q10. Other than the art filter shots, I challenge you to easily identify which photos were taken with each camera.
June 29 – A Day in Quebec City and fun with the Q