In partnership with

Leica’s New Q3 Monochrom Camera

Leica is adding a monochrome option back into its fixed-lens lineup with the Q3 Monochrom, a black-and-white version of the standard Q3 that swaps out the usual 60-megapixel colour sensor for a version without a Bayer filter. That single change is the main point of the camera, and it is what allows Leica to claim noticeably sharper files, cleaner high-ISO performance, and a broader tonal range than the colour model.

The last time Leica offered a monochrome Q-series camera was the Q2 Monochrom in 2020, and the Q3 Monochrom picks up that idea with a substantial jump in resolution.

As with the original Q3, the Monochrom sensor supports Leica’s Triple Resolution mode, so you can capture images at 60, 36, or 18 megapixels depending on the situation. The ISO range runs from 100 to 200,000, and the camera also records monochrome video up to 8K. With the Bayer filter removed, and no low-pass filter either, the camera leans heavily toward maximum sharpness and tonal depth.

The exterior follows the usual Monochrom treatment. There is no red Leica dot, and the body uses a more muted design with “Monochrom” engraved on the top plate. The leatherette pattern is different from the standard Q3 and looks more in line with Leica’s M-series cameras.

Internally, one consequence of losing the colour filter array is the loss of phase-detection autofocus. As a result, the Q3 Monochrom relies solely on contrast-detect AF, which is slower but works consistently in black-and-white implementations.

Beyond those changes, the rest of the camera matches the regular Q3. It still uses the Summilux 28mm f/1.7 ASPH., complete with its macro switch that lets it focus as close as 17 cm. Continuous shooting tops out at 15 fps, and it retains the 5.76-MP OLED EVF, tilting touchscreen, IP52 weather sealing, and single UHS-II SD card slot.

Since the body dimensions remain the same, most Q3 accessories fit, though Leica is launching a few Monochrom-specific extras, a wireless-charging handgrip with matching covering, a red filter, and new strap options.

The Q3 Monochrom also becomes the first Q-series camera to support C2PA content authenticity, which embeds a verifiable digital signature into images to confirm how and when they were created and whether they have been modified, something neither the original Q3 nor the Q3 43 includes. The Leica Q3 Monochrom will be available starting November 20 for $7,790.

Learn The Art Of Photography

Get full and free access to my Creator University - The World’s Best Online University for Photographers & Creatives: Get access to hundreds of amazing photography courses, learn from professional photographers, connect with students and much more!

Get free and full access to The Creator University here

Interview with Ronny Zimmerman

This week’s Interview with Ronny, a talented street photographer from Germany. I am truly honoured to have had the opportunity to interview him!

You can find him on Instagram as: @ronny__rocket

Enjoy the amazing Interview ;)

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

Sure. I’m 48, based in Karlsruhe, and I’d say I live in that space between family life, work, sports, and this weird obsession with photographing strangers. I’m married, we’ve got two kids who constantly remind me what actually matters, and if I’m not out shooting, I’m usually running, biking, or glued to my headphones discovering new music. I came to photography pretty late in life, and in a way it became the thing that slows me down. I spend so much of my day rushing around that picking up the camera feels like switching into a different pace, more attentive, more present. I’m not trying to chase perfect photos or build some big career out of it. I just want to hold onto those little moments that most people walk past. That’s enough for me.

How did you first get into photography?

It really began around 2005 or 2006. My wife and I were backpacking through Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand, and I carried this tiny Canon IXUS around with me. I had no clue what I was doing, I just liked watching people. I’d aim the camera at older folks on the street, kids running around, vendors resting in the shade… all these small human scenes that felt honest. When we got home, friends kept saying the photos felt emotional, even though technically they were a mess. That gave me a little confidence, but then life took over — work, kids, responsibilities — and photography slipped into the background for a while. Around 2014 I picked up a camera again and slowly drifted toward the streets. Once I clicked back into it, there was no turning back.

Why street photography?

Because the street doesn’t lie. The street doesn’t perform for you, it just is what it is. People moving, waiting, arguing, laughing, zoning out, thinking about their day… it’s everything humans do, happening without anyone posing. I love that mix of unpredictability and honesty. You can walk the same street every day and it will never look or feel the same twice. It’s like fishing for moments: you wait, you miss some, you catch a few, and the ones you catch feel like little gifts. I think the real reason I do it is because the street always tells the truth, even when you don’t want to hear it.

How do you decide where to go and shoot?

Honestly, I barely decide. I just go. I usually start walking and let myself drift. Sometimes I end up in a crowded place and sometimes I find myself in a quiet street where barely anyone passes and both can be great. Music helps a lot. Whatever song I’m listening to kind of becomes my pace. If I’m stuck, I just turn left instead of right and see what happens. That unpredictability is part of the fun. The best photos almost always happen when I’m not trying too hard and I’m not forcing myself toward a “plan.”

What does photography mean to you?

It’s my way of making sense of the world. A visual diary without words. Photography allows me to slow down, to see what others walk past, to document the emotional texture of everyday life. It keeps me grounded, curious, grateful, especially during tough periods or injuries when sport takes a back seat. In simple terms: It’s how I breathe creatively.

What gear do you use?

I’ve been a Sony guy since forever. I moved through the A6000, the A7 III, the A7C, and now I shoot with the A7R V. It’s a beast, but still small enough to not feel like a burden. Lens-wise, I used to swear by the Zeiss 55mm 1.8, but eventually switched to the Sony 50mm 1.2. It just fits the way I see. I’m not much of a gear nerd, if anything, gear talk drains me, but I do like using tools that don’t get in my way. Cameras don’t change your vision, but they can make the process smoother. After that, it’s all instinct.

Do you prefer shooting in the chaos of a busy street or in quieter, more intimate spaces?

Both, depending on my mood. Busy streets give you chaos, energy, movement, it’s like visual jazz. You never know where to look first. Quiet streets, on the other hand, give you that slow-burn feeling where emotions get louder because everything else is still. I like switching between them because each reveals a different kind of truth. But the key thing is always the same: If there's a human moment worth capturing, I’m in the right place.

What are your favourite shooting conditions?

Rain, absolutely. Rain turns everything into a film set. People behave differently, they walk differently, their shoulders drop, their pace changes. There are reflections everywhere, windows, puddles, streets, and light sticks to surfaces in a beautiful way. Fog and cloudy weather are great too because they soften the scene and give everything this quiet tension. I’ll shoot in sunshine if it’s all I’ve got, but moody weather is where I feel most at home.

How do you capture candid moments?

By being patient, relaxed, and invisible. I don’t chase moments, I let them form naturally. I walk slowly, stay in the rhythm of the place, listen to music, and wait for life to unfold. People forget you’re there if you blend in and don’t act like a photographer on a mission. The best candid shots happen when I stop thinking and simply feel the moment coming.

What are some of your favourite photography techniques and why?

I love techniques that create depth and emotion rather than perfection:

Layering, it turns a simple scene into a multi-dimensional story.

Reflections in shop windows, reality and illusion merging into something new.

Framing through objects, doorways, buses, glass, anything that adds context around the scene.

Shooting through rain or fog, texture, atmosphere, emotion.

Using light pockets, letting one element shine in a natural spotlight.

These techniques let me show the world the way I feel it, not just the way it looks.

How did you find your unique photography style?

By failing on purpose, then listening to what stuck. I started with family photos and realized my favorite frames were always the unposed ones — the split seconds between gestures. From there I leaned into what I felt on the street: a mix of solitude, unease, and quiet beauty. I cut gear talk to a minimum, walked more, watched more, and let small imperfections stay. Over time the recipe became clear: honest moments, a hint of melancholy, strong layering, and a little story tucked inside every frame.

What role does storytelling play in your work?

It’s the spine. A photo without a small narrative thread feels like a nice surface to me. I want viewers to sense what happened five seconds before and what might happen five seconds after. Titles and music often help, many series borrow a song to deepen the mood. I’m not documenting heroes; I’m collecting human fragments and arranging them into a felt, coherent world.

If you could travel anywhere in the world where would that be and why?

Tokyo. It’s a living metronome, rhythm, density, reflections, order colliding with chaos. The layers (glass, neon, umbrellas, commuters) create ready-made stages for street storytelling. I love how the city lets you disappear and observe without disturbing the scene, perfect for honest, unposed moments.

What’s the most challenging thing about photography for you?

Turning down the inner technician. I know the rules, composition, balance, contrast, but the photograph dies if I overthink. The challenge is to prepare like an athlete and then let go like a musician: trust instinct, accept imperfections, stay present. Also… editing ruthlessly hurts, but it’s where style is shaped.

What are the best photography locations in your city?

In Karlsruhe/Ettlingen: The Kaiserstraße during rush hour, streams of people, glass facades, reflections, movement, and those tiny everyday stories that happen in passing. Marktplatz and Europaplatz in the rain – umbrellas, puddle reflections, a bit of urban chaos that makes street photography so alive. Around the ZKM – minimalistic, industrial, graphic; perfect for strong lines, shadows, and a more architectural approach. And I love spots with a bit of old charm: small passages, worn facades, corners where the city’s history is still visible in the textures. The old town alleys with their historical character - narrow paths, older light, little encounters you only notice if you slow down.

I’m also drawn to underground stations and transitions – anonymous, rhythmic places where nobody stays long, yet everyone brings a moment with them. And honestly: bus and tram stops are tiny everyday stages for me - everyone waits differently, everyone drifts off into their own head for a second.

What is your favourite subject to shoot?

People who aren’t performing, the in-between face. Someone lost in a thought, a hand adjusting a sleeve, a look that doesn’t seek attention. Lately I’m obsessed with reflections in shop windows: inside/outside collapsing into a single, surreal layer. It’s honest and dreamlike at the same time.

Are you a professional or a hobbyist?

I’m a devoted practitioner. I do occasional commissions (even weddings — with a street mindset), but I treat street work like a lifelong discipline rather than a market product. The intention is professional; the freedom stays personal.

Who are some photographers or other artists that inspire you?

Saul Leiter for color, compression, and poetry; Billy Dinh for modern urban solitude. Music shapes me just as much, the right track changes how I walk, breathe, and see. Outside photography: filmmakers who linger on silence and space.

How do you know when you’ve nailed the shot? Is it instinct or something else?

It’s a physical click before the shutter one, a tiny pull in the stomach. Later, on screen, the frame still breathes: the energy holds, the edges behave, the story whispers without shouting. If a picture keeps me from skipping forward in the edit, it stays.

How important is composition in photography?

Crucial and overrated when worshipped. I use composition like training wheels: rule of thirds, leading lines, layering, negative space, symmetry, perspective, color balance… all in the toolkit. But on the street I let them fall away and trust timing and feeling. Good composition should be felt before it’s seen.

What’s your advice for someone who wants to start exploring monochrome street photography?

Think in light, not in “black & white.” Look for shape, contrast, and gesture; reduce the scene until only the essential remains. Shoot in color, preview in mono if it helps, but decide in the edit what truly benefits from B&W. Avoid clichés; let the tonality serve the story, not replace it. And walk, rhythm matters more than presets.

How important is lighting in photography?

The rest, 5 more questions, of this Interview are for Premium subscribers only.

Subscribe to the Premium Version here

Fujifilm’s Limited-Edition GFX100RF

Fujifilm has introduced a special limited-edition version of its compact medium-format camera, the GFX100RF Fragment Edition, created in partnership with Fragment Design, the label led by Hiroshi Fujiwara. While the camera’s internals remain identical to the standard GFX100RF, meaning it still uses the 102-megapixel medium-format sensor and the built-in 35mm f/4 lens (28mm equivalent), nearly everything about its exterior has been reimagined to fit Fragment’s aesthetic.

The most noticeable change is the finish. Instead of the matte black or silver options available on the regular model, the Fragment Edition uses a mirror-polished, glossy black anodized aluminum body. The surface is hand-polished, giving it a reflective look that sets it apart from the more utilitarian finish of the standard GFX100RF.

Fujifilm also redesigned the grip specifically for this edition. The standard GFX100RF’s grip has a slightly textured, rubberised touch, but the Fragment version uses an entirely new material that is smoother and more refined. The texture is significantly finer, with a matte finish that contrasts against the polished body.

The change doesn’t alter how the camera functions, but it does change how the camera feels in the hand, pushing it closer to the tactile styling of Fujifilm’s higher-end M-series-inspired designs.

To keep the look cohesive, Fujifilm created a full set of matching accessories. The lens hood, lens cap, adapter ring, and hot shoe cover all share the same glossy black finish and carry Fragment’s lightning bolt logo. The camera also ships with a custom leather strap made from a single piece of black leather, designed to complement the camera’s look.

In addition to the visual design changes, Fujiwara contributed something on the imaging side as well, a custom Acros-based Film Simulation recipe, called FRGMT BW. It modifies Fujifilm’s existing Acros simulation with a handful of adjustments meant to push the look further into Fragment’s stylistic world.

The recipe uses stronger grain, altered highlight and shadow curves, reduced sharpening, less noise reduction, extra clarity, and slightly positive exposure compensation. The result is a monochrome profile that feels grittier and more contrast-driven than the default Acros modes.

The Fujifilm GFX100RF Fragment Edition is priced at 998,000 yen (over $6,300 at current exchange rates), a noticeable jump from the standard model’s cost.

A few sample shots:

Get your Photos featured in this Magazine for Free

I am currently testing a new feature, where everyone can get a completely free chance to be featured in my magazine and get seen by thousands of photographers.

Advertisement (Absolutely make sure to check it out) ⬇️

Find your customers on Roku this Black Friday

As with any digital ad campaign, the important thing is to reach streaming audiences who will convert. To that end, Roku’s self-service Ads Manager stands ready with powerful segmentation and targeting options. After all, you know your customers, and we know our streaming audience.

Worried it’s too late to spin up new Black Friday creative? With Roku Ads Manager, you can easily import and augment existing creative assets from your social channels. We also have AI-assisted upscaling, so every ad is primed for CTV.

Once you’ve done this, then you can easily set up A/B tests to flight different creative variants and Black Friday offers. If you’re a Shopify brand, you can even run shoppable ads directly on-screen so viewers can purchase with just a click of their Roku remote.

Bonus: we’re gifting you $5K in ad credits when you spend your first $5K on Roku Ads Manager. Just sign up and use code GET5K. Terms apply.

Use code GET5K now

Photography Tip of the Week

The weekly photography tip is only accessible to Premium Subscribers of The Magazine For Photographers.

Subscribe to the Premium Version here

Photo Analysis

Welcome to the new part of the Magazine Issue where we take a closer look at a photo and analyse it so that you can learn and better your own photography from it ;)

Photo by: @adamhliva

Let’s Analyse this Image: 

Composition & Framing

What works well:

• Leading lines are very strong overall, literally everything goes straight toward the person at the top → the escalator steps, the rails, the ceiling lines, the walls. It all creates a big tunnel.

• What I like a lot is that the leading lines (well most of them) start all the way from the very edges of the photo and converge into a clean vanishing point at the end, that adds a ton of depth.

• The symmetry great too. Even though the architecture is uneven (stone wall on left, metal/mirrors on right), the central alignment holds the frame together.

• The architecture definitely works in the photo’s favour, it naturally creates a strong tunnel effect that again amplifies the sense of depth.

What could be better:

• The person at the end is a bit too small. They are perfectly placed but so tiny that they don’t fully anchor the scene. A slightly closer shot could have helped them carry more visual weight.

• The right paneling area feels slightly dense compared to the more empty texture on the left, so the balance is visually tilted even if the symmetry is fine overall (but of course there is not a lot the photographer can do about that here, the architecture is given).

Light & Atmosphere

What works well:

• The light strips running across the ceiling are doing a lot of the work here. They give this clean, modern, almost sci-fi look to this underground station and again they pull your eye all the way to the end of the escalator.

• The reflections on the metal sides of the escalator look really nice, subtle, glossy, and they give the space more dimension as well as textural interest.

• The darker, cave/stone-like wall on the left adds atmosphere and contrast. It makes the bright corridor feel even brighter and you get a lot of nice texture from that side as well (it’s also just pretty interesting to look at).

• The pop of colour from the orange ceiling really adds a lot of energy and plays nicely against the cooler tones of the metal and rock.

What could be better:

• The ceiling highlights are a bit intense in places, slightly reducing them could help keep texture while keeping the glow.

• The shadows on the rocky wall (especially up top) get pretty deep, and while the texture is nice, some detail is lost. Lifting the shadows just a bit could bring out even more.

• The orange panel does pop a lot in comparison to the rest, it tilts the overall balance a bit toward the right side. Even a slight desaturation would have helped keep things a little more even.

Emotion & Story

What works well:

• There obviously is a strong sense of scale and space. That tiny person at the end of the escalator makes everything feel very ‘grand’.

• The lighting and architecture make this underground station feel very futuristic, which creates a mood and a certain feeling even without a narrative.

What could be better:

• Storytelling is really minimal here, the person is too small to read anything about who they are, what they are doing, what they are wearing, carrying etc.

• Because we can’t see + read them, the photo leans way more toward architectural photography than human storytelling in that typical sense.

Colour & Tone

What works well:

• The palette is pretty clean and complementary with the warm orange panels (and the yellow escalator accents) vs. cool metal and stone surfaces. Again, it feels modern and slightly futuristic.

• The orange ceiling adds energy and contrast without overpowering the scene (well, mostly).

• The tones on the escalator are very crisp, detailed, and consistent from bottom to top which is nice.

What could be better:

• As touched on before, the orange ceiling is maybe too strong. It throws the balance a bit toward the right side since there is so much saturation concentrated up there.

• Some uneven lighting in the orange tiles creates patches that distract slightly rather than blend smoothly (overall not that dramatic though).

• The person at the end blends into the darker tones, so they don’t stand out much colour-wise.

Balance

• Overall the balance is okay thanks to the central vanishing point and symmetry, but the strong orange on the right and the dark textured rock on the left fight each other a bit.

• The bright ceiling light also pulls more attention upward and right-side, slightly shifting the weight of the frame.

• The person in the centre helps anchor everything, but because they are so small, they can’t fully balance the heavy tones on both sides.

• The depth and the strong leading lines definitely help stabilise everything, meaning they guide the eye in a straight, controlled path.

Explore The World’s Best Photography Locations

Get access to the world’s best photography location map - explore tens of thousands of amazing photo spots across the globe!

Get access to the photo location map here

Photographer of the Week

Photographer of the week goes to: Paulo Alexandre

You can find him on Instagram as: @paulo_fotografoamador

A few photos of his:

The Rest of this Issue is for Premium Subscribers

The Premium Version of this Magazine is now on a ‘‘Pay What You Want’’ model. Meaning you get to decide the price.