Leica FOTOS Reviews

The new version 3.3.1 still applies the wrong sign to GPS locations in North America, causing them to look like they are in the Indian Ocean. The new version 3.3.0 applies the wrong sign to previously recorded images’ GPS locations from my M10-R Visoflex. After testing, with the latest M10-R firmware, the problem still exists. Which then moves geolocations from the mid Atlantic States to the Western Indian Ocean. I have the same GPS problem with the M11 getting data from my iPhone. This should be a quick fix. This is a problem with Fotos. For downloading from the camera to the iPad or iPhone it works well. It is more reliable and easier to establish a connection than connecting a Nikon camera with the Nikon SnapBridge app. However, you cannot direct the images to a particular folder. The storage in the iPhone and iPad is limited, so it would be nice if one could download the images to a selected folder on an attached storage device like the LaCie SSD drive. It still doesn’t allow one to GPS stamp ones images at time of capture on the M11 while it is connected with one’s iPhone; as it was advertised it would before the camera’s release.☹️

Well the GPS now records correctly for the M11. There are still issues with FOTOS maintaining a connection with the M11 when walking through the woods taking photographs. Getting either the M10-R or the M11 connected to FOTOS to download images is still not as reliable as one might like.

LeicaFOTOS was great for the 2 years I used it until 6 months ago Leica did an update to LeicaFOTOS and now it’s unusable for me. The update did bring some nice features that had been requested by users but with the compromise of the reliability and stability of LeicaFOTOS . For me I can’t transfer more than 3 photos to my phone without LeicaFOTOS freezing and sometimes crashing. What used to take a few minutes to transfer photos now takes a few hours. I’m one who would prefer to get the image right in camera, and I love how the Leica JPEGs look. Sure I can transfer the photos to my computer and back to my phone, but it sort of defeats the purpose for having LeicaFOTOS. I’ve been in contact with Leica support for months now and no one from the company has been able to do anything to fix this problem. I have followed all of their suggestions and nothing has worked. Well I haven’t tried the latest suggestion, which was to delete all the Leica photos from the Leica gallery and storage on my phone. To me that’s an unacceptable suggestion to solve the problem. Please Leica fix your app. Your cameras are so great, but the software side of things is very unreliable and unacceptable for a company as yours.

LeicaFOTOS has not worked properly or reliably since I purchased my M10 a year ago. Lately it just freezes on the black screen with the Leica logo in the middle. My camera says it’s connected but LeicaFOTOS just sits there. The red dot reminds me of HAL from 2001, staring at me, waiting, plotting maybe? I’d like to use it once in a while as a remote way to view when shooting from the hip or over my head. It’s not a necessity but I would like to at least try it for f$&ks sake. Good thing I went with the m10 as I was planning on the M10-d and was going to use LeicaFOTOS often to check my exposures and view what I shot when I take my mid day break. Who am I kidding, I still wish I would have skipped a month of meals and paying my bills on time and gone with the M10-d. I’m a poor man, sold my car and Fuji gear for the M10,as a serious illness leaves the true rangefinder as my only option for professional quality cameras. Just fix LeicaFOTOS as it’s me and the M 10 for the rest of my life unless some cash decides to fall from the sky and into my wallet. I’m proud to be the worlds poorest Leica shooter.

I own a Q2 Monochrome and an iPhone 11 Pro Max. The Fotos app is simple and well designed. The Lightroom integration is especially appreciated. The user experience is well thought out and focuses on what photographers want - without bloated features. Bravo!

Unfortunately, the wireless download feature to get photos from my camera to my phone is very (very very) unstable. I typically select 10-30 photos to download after a shoot and select download RAW - and I’ve never once had the download feature fully work on the first try. It always ends in an error with only some of the photos downloaded. It typically takes 3-4 tries to finally get every image to my phone.

As a young photographer, a fast and stable wireless experience is an expectation - not a nice to have. I urge the development and hardware team to prioritize wireless and mobile experiences for the young, modern photographer!

I really wish this worked as well as other iPhone software, but it falls far short. The Leica brand is all about reliability and top notch performance. However this software has ongoing problems with connecting to either of my cameras (SL and M10) and when somehow it does connect it is painfully slow. If I were the Leica CEO I’d replace the engineering team and product manager for putting out something that reflects so poorly on the company.

2021 update: I bought a new camera and LeicaFOTOS is still completely unreliable and not a serious tool.

So, I stumbled on a fix for connectivity. After the most recent update, I couldn’t get any of my devices to connect to the camera- issues across my iPhone and iPad Pro. Then, last night, I put one of the devices in Airplane mode, et voila! No more problems connecting. I’ve been using it for several hours now, and it’s working flawlessly. So, in my case, at least, it seems there was some issue when two devices were running LeicaFOTOS . I hope this is helpful.

*UPDATE*

They have now made the pro features available for free. Thank you Leica for listening to your customers. I can confidently rate LeicaFOTOS 4 stars. Really looking forward to using LeicaFOTOS more now.

Pretty shocking they want to charge a subscription model for functionality that has been around for a very long time through other camera brands. Really wanted to use that function but no way on earth I’m paying $50 a year for something so simple and standard across the board these days.

First, why is the version for the M11 beta? I know what beta means but does Leica hide behind the beta designation to let you know that the product will not work? The M11 has been out long enough to drop the beta from the Fotos app. Second, what have they done to it? The earlier versions allowed for easy connectivity to the camera where I could easily transfer any photos on the SD card in the camera to iPad or iPhone via wi-fi. It was slow to transfer but at least it worked. Now, the camera doesn’t even connect to my iPhone or iPad device. Not via Wi-Fi. How difficult is it to ensure you can connect for the most common and basic function, transferring your photos?

My M10-P takes forever to connect to the iPhone It displays the message, “could not connect,” two or three times before finally connecting as long as I keep tapping the “join.” It will eventually connect but requires patience which I guess is the ethos of Leica.

Other than that substantial glitch I love the idea of downloading the images to the iPhone. I hope they fix this issue.

The latest version of FOTOS on iOS15 and iPhone 13 pro max is not working.

My M10 will sync with my device however when I open FOTOS I just get the splash red Leica logo screen and nothing more. I’ve force closed and reopened LeicaFOTOS and it doesn’t work.

Love LeicaFOTOS otherwise.

Nothing is more disappointing than this when you cannot download pictures you take on the trip and share them with your family and friends! I ended up leaving my Leica Q in the hotel’s safety box and taking all the travel pictures with my iPhone (lol).

The previous app worked well though it acted unstable sometimes, but it stopped working on my iPhone 12 with iOS 15.4.1. I found the new app and it is even worse. It connects to my Q but shows nothing in the Leica Gallery.

Please hire a decent software engineer and fix the bug ASAP. Do not copy and paste the same “please contact the customer support” message here.

When connecting my Q2 om my iPad Pro 11” M1 my gallery will not update. It worked fine but not anymore. Keep loosing connection too. It’s slow too. Downloading is horribly slow as well. Opening LeicaFOTOS it immediately goes to remote. Q2 settings for Leica Photos are Bluetooth On, Remote Wake-up Off. I just don’t get it. On my iPhone my gallery works fine. What a mess and that for a 6k (+9.125% California sales tax) point and shoot, plus grip, plus extra battery, plus Cooph Leica strap, plus UV protection filter, plus 3x 64GB Lexar pro Gold SD cards. One star until you fix your problems. Smart marketeers you have all right.

The latest release is dramatically draining my iPhone battery, like 45% of the usage! I disabled the location services but it still shows 35% battery drainage. Sorry to use a review for this but you should also work on making it easier to reach your support team

Update Aug 23
I disabled all location services and LeicaFOTOS still consumes 10% in background activity after 7hrs. I will delete it from my phone as it seems there is no other setting to prevent LeicaFOTOS from draining the battery.
I’m appalled at the lack of responsiveness from the developers

LeicaFOTOS has been a pain and improvement has been slow, I love the cameras but with the Q2 not being able to use a shutter release cable I’m for to use this POS… but i can’t so long exposure are o.u.t until they get it together. Leica you lessen the quality of your product with bad software. iPad won’t join the Leica network

I want to download photos from my Leica to my iPhone, without giving LeicaFOTOS access to all my existing photos on my iPhone. I have already given LeicaFOTOS “limited permission” which allows it to add photos to my photos library—but LeicaFOTOS insists on having full access. Why do you need to see all my other photos? All you need permission to do is to add a photo! Other than that it’s a good app. But please fix this.

My Leica DNG files are over 80MB each. Pretty bad experience downloading files via WiFi. A cheap SD card dongle makes far more sense.
The Foto app is more usable as a remote. The connection to camera is still slow and unreliable, not to mention that the camera UI is locked when connected to LeicaFOTOS . The GPS feature still doesn’t really work with Bluetooth (you want to drain battery and be connected via WiFi all the time?)
I am just glad that Leica is listening and improving.

I’ve been having connectivity issues with my QP for a while now, and over the last year it’s just gotten worse. It takes forever to connect to the camera, use the remote, and view the gallery, and it often freezes when I’m using the remote. Now there’s a new issue with my photos not showing up - I just keep getting a “no photos found” message.

Also hate that I can’t select the self timer option in the remote - I have to set it on the camera before opening the remote option.

LeicaFOTOS has improved a lot since it was first released. I use it with my M11 and the SL2 and I’m impressed with the ease of connecting and the speed of downloading the pictures. If you want to quickly download and edit a handful of pictures LeicaFOTOS does the job very well.

I’ve begun using it regularly.

Man, when LeicaFOTOS worked it WORKED. Hands down my best experience with a camera app ever. Files transferred quickly and easily. Nearly a seamless experience. However now that LeicaFOTOS has been updated it’s basically not functional. Constant crashes and practically impossible to download more than three images from the camera without LeicaFOTOS crashing and refusing to open again. As LeicaFOTOS is now don’t waste your time with it.

I just bought my Leica D Lux 7 and wanted to import the photos on my phone. No matter how many times I try, LeicaFOTOS says there’s no photos found. However the photos show on the camera on my SD card. I’ve tried contacting them without response, disconnecting the camera, removing and putting back the SD card, trying it a day later, switching the format from raw to jpg, nothing works. I love the camera but it doesn’t do much for me when I can’t take the photos off of it.