Cameras | Why I Moved to Leica
What I Use · And Why
Behind the Scenes
From a Nikon FM2 and rolls of 35mm film, through Sony, then a long and happy Fujifilm chapter, to the two Leica Q3s that photograph every wedding today. This is the kit, and the honest story of how I got here.
Where It Started
I have been a professional photographer for years and have worked through more cameras and brands than I care to admit, starting with the classic 35mm SLR film cameras of my youth. My first love was a Nikon FM2, framing everything through a viewfinder, and that habit never left. I shot weddings on the Sony A7III from 2019 into early 2020 and the results were technically excellent, but there was a clinical quality to the files that never quite felt like mine.
The Party Cam
In late 2019 I bought a Fujifilm X100F with its fixed 23mm lens, and it changed everything. It became my party cam, the camera that is always with me, no lens swapping, just point and shoot with files good enough to send straight to my phone. It also became something far more precious. It is the camera I used to capture the final memories with my mother before her health declined, and that alone tells you why the camera you carry matters more than the one you leave at home.
The Fujifilm Years
After my last full wedding of March 2020 the Sonys sat gathering dust while I reached straight for the X100F, so I made the call. I rented an X-Pro3 with a 23mm f/1.4 and a 56mm f/1.2, and the moment I picked it up, light, robust and built around a viewfinder, I was back with my old Nikon FM2 again. Fujifilm carried me through five brilliant seasons. Two X-Pro3 bodies at first, a spell with the medium format GFX50R for pre wedding sessions and portraits, and then a pair of X-T5s whose sensor, white balance and autofocus were the best I had used to that point. I loved those cameras, and I still own an X-Pro3 to this day. Some cameras you sell. That one stays.
The Switch to Leica
Last September I changed systems again, and this time it felt less like a change and more like an arrival. I now photograph every wedding on a Leica Q3 and a Leica Q3 43. Two full frame bodies, each with a single fixed lens. The Q3 gives me a 28mm Summilux for the wide storytelling frames, and the Q3 43 carries the 43mm APO Summicron, a focal length that sees the world almost exactly the way your eye does. No lens swapping, no zooming, just moving my feet, which is how I have always preferred to work anyway. They are small, quiet and completely unintimidating, which for a documentary photographer is worth more than any spec sheet.
What the Leicas Give Me
The proof is in the work. Everything in my halfway through 2026 recap was photographed on the two Qs, from Belfast to Bristol by way of a former President’s birthday party. The files have a depth and a rendering that I stopped trying to describe and just started showing people. The X-Pro3 stays in the bag as backup, and rolls of actual film still come along when couples add my 35mm film coverage. Here are a few frames from this year, straight off the Leicas.
The honest truth is that cameras matter far less than the person holding them, and I have written about that side of the job in why I photograph weddings. If you like the way these files look, that look is the same across every wedding in my portfolio, there are photographs of the kit itself on my FAQ page, and if you want the analogue version there is a whole post on shooting weddings on 35mm film.
Main cameras: Leica Q3 (28mm Summilux) and Leica Q3 43 (43mm APO Summicron)
Backup: Fujifilm X-Pro3, plus the X100F party cam
Film: 35mm coverage available as an add on
Photography: Oliver Holder
Camera nerd questions welcome. I would love to hear from you.
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