the LX3 (10.1MP) on this forum, seems to be highly regarded for its low light capturing technology, boasting higher signal to noise, faster optics combined with Mega OIS.
Since I recently purchased an LX3, I thought, why not put it up against a 5 yr old DSLR with lower MP, and see how it fared against it.
The Canon 10D sports an amazing 6MP APS-C (1.6x crop) sensor which is massive compared to what is found inside the LX3. The LX3 in hindsight boasts that its sensor is newer, and bigger than its predecessor, the LX2. The Canon 10D was coupled with a 24-105mm L IS USM image stabilized zoom lens.
Here are some rough results
The LX3 files were taken in RAW to maximize resolution and then post processed using UFRAW, Neat Image to remove noise, PT Lens to correct for distortion, and photoshop to push saturation. The 10D files were taken in RAW, then post processed using bibble pro with saturation increased and USM applied. For the ISO1600 10D shot, Noise Ninja was applied.
Looking at the low ISO shots, both the 10D and the and the LX3 fare well, But in terms of resolution, both are pretty much on par, with the LX3 really not resolving any more from its 10MP sensor over the 10D's 6MP sensor. Obviously from the larger 10D sensor, behind the focused PCB, the depth of field is alot narrower even though the zoom lens is an F4 vs f2.0 in the LX3. Also the 10D seems to have slightly better shadow detail in the fan area, but again, the difference is pretty small,
At ISO400 the 10D is clearly taking the lead in terms of noise, even after efforts have been made using Neat Image on the LX3 file. Overall though both cameras are not showing too loss of resolution at this ISO setting.
ISO1600 the 10D seems to have lost the plot, with a sudden climb in noise. This is the maximum official setting for the 10D after all, and even with Noise reduction from Noise Ninja which took out nearly all the chroma noise, the image has lost alot of contrast, matching closely now to the lx3 image. This was really quite a surprise, that the LX3 image seemed to be keeping up well against the 10D, with far larger lower MP sensor.
From these images, I have to say that the LX3 seems to perform best against the competition at ISO1600! Knowing though, the 10D is a pretty old camera, and models after the 10D showed alot less noise there after, one would expect the LX3 will pail in comparison to those, but hey, at least we know that LX3 owners have a point and shoot, that can perform nearly as well as a DSLR 5 years ago at ISO1600
Mazor
Since I recently purchased an LX3, I thought, why not put it up against a 5 yr old DSLR with lower MP, and see how it fared against it.
The Canon 10D sports an amazing 6MP APS-C (1.6x crop) sensor which is massive compared to what is found inside the LX3. The LX3 in hindsight boasts that its sensor is newer, and bigger than its predecessor, the LX2. The Canon 10D was coupled with a 24-105mm L IS USM image stabilized zoom lens.
Here are some rough results
The LX3 files were taken in RAW to maximize resolution and then post processed using UFRAW, Neat Image to remove noise, PT Lens to correct for distortion, and photoshop to push saturation. The 10D files were taken in RAW, then post processed using bibble pro with saturation increased and USM applied. For the ISO1600 10D shot, Noise Ninja was applied.
Looking at the low ISO shots, both the 10D and the and the LX3 fare well, But in terms of resolution, both are pretty much on par, with the LX3 really not resolving any more from its 10MP sensor over the 10D's 6MP sensor. Obviously from the larger 10D sensor, behind the focused PCB, the depth of field is alot narrower even though the zoom lens is an F4 vs f2.0 in the LX3. Also the 10D seems to have slightly better shadow detail in the fan area, but again, the difference is pretty small,
At ISO400 the 10D is clearly taking the lead in terms of noise, even after efforts have been made using Neat Image on the LX3 file. Overall though both cameras are not showing too loss of resolution at this ISO setting.
ISO1600 the 10D seems to have lost the plot, with a sudden climb in noise. This is the maximum official setting for the 10D after all, and even with Noise reduction from Noise Ninja which took out nearly all the chroma noise, the image has lost alot of contrast, matching closely now to the lx3 image. This was really quite a surprise, that the LX3 image seemed to be keeping up well against the 10D, with far larger lower MP sensor.
From these images, I have to say that the LX3 seems to perform best against the competition at ISO1600! Knowing though, the 10D is a pretty old camera, and models after the 10D showed alot less noise there after, one would expect the LX3 will pail in comparison to those, but hey, at least we know that LX3 owners have a point and shoot, that can perform nearly as well as a DSLR 5 years ago at ISO1600
Mazor
