The image above was taken with the Panasonic Lumix LX7. The camera was set to Aperture priority mode with the aperture set to f4 and the sensitivity was set to 80 ISO. The Lumix LX7 metered an exposure of 1/800 at f4. I selected f4 as it delivered the most detailed result for the LX7 under these conditions. The sharpest result for the Cyber-shot RX100 and PowerShot G1 X was at f5.6, as you might expect given their larger sensors. Both metered the same exposure, in this case 1/400 at f5.6.

The size of the detail in the crops reflects the different sensor resolutions – in ascending order of size are the 10.1 Megapixel Lumix LX7, followed by the 14.1 Megapixel PowerShot G1 X and finally the 20.2 Megapixel Cyber-shot RX100.

Overall, the level of detail in the Lumix LX7 crops is very good. Starting with the top one you can make out the small details and the people outside the chapel and there’s also plenty of detail in the grassy foreground which lesser sensors render as a clumpy green mass. The sky is noise free and the small area of horizon on the left, shows a clean divide between sea and sky.

The lighthouse crop is equaly reassuring. The lighthouse itself is a well defined white cylinder and you can even make out a little detail in the cliffs beyond. In the middle ground of this crop the window frames of the houses are crisp and cleanly defined. The third crop from the edge of the frame is equally impressive with no distortion or chromatic aberration and detail that’s only a tiny bit softer than at the centre of the shot.

Finally, the crop from close to the centre of the frame has no surprises. As elsewhere edges are crisp and fine detail is well resolved. Overall this is an excellent result from the Lumix LX7.

Compared with the results from the Sony Cyber-shot RX100 and the Canon PowerShot G1 X, there’s not much of a margin in quality terms of quality. If anything, the difference between them is due to the fact that the higher resoution sensors in the Cyber-shot RX100 and PowerShot G1 X are able to resolve more detail. This is most apparent with the 20.2 Megapixel sensor of the Cyber-shot RX100. There’s more detail in the chapel in the first crop and you can make out the lamp room in the lighthouse a a distinct element. The roof tiles in the foreground of the second and fourth crops – detail too small to be resolved by the 10.1 Megapixel sensor of the Lumix LX7 provides no problems for the RX100.

It’s the same, but to a lesser degree for the 14.1 megapixel sensor of the Canon PowerShot G1 X. Canon’s slightly more aggressive processing makes for a slighty more contrasty, grainier appearance, but neither the G1 X, nor the RX100, both of which have larger sensors than the LX7, shows any appreciable signs of noise.

Check out my Panasonic LX7 RAW vs JPEG results on the next page or see how these models compare at higher sensitivities in my Panasonic LX7 Noise results.

The ability to shoot RAW+JPEG files on the Lumix LX7 means you can process the RAW data yourself in the supplied Silkypix Developer Studio 3.1 SE, or another third party RAW processing application. One reason for doing this might be to attempt to squeeze a better quality image from the LX7 by using different processing parameters. As it turns out, the Lumix LX7’s in-camera JPEG processing produces very good results with an excellent balance between detail and noise suppression.

The crops below show the in-camera JPEG on the left with the middle column displaying crops from the RAW file processed using the Silkypix default settings. As you can see the LX7 actually does a much better job. The default Silkypix JPEG looks softer with less detail and lacks the punchy contrast and saturation of the in-camera shot.

In the third row I’ve attempted to tweak the parameters in Silkypix to improve the result. I’ve altered the white balance marginally, increased the contrast and saturation and applied unsharp mask of 80 with a radius of 0.8. The result is a big improvement on the defaults, but I’d still take the in-camera JPEG against my effort.

With a little more time I could probably match and even slightly improve upon the in-camera JPEG. Using a third party application that you’re familiar with might also yield better results, but the in-camera JPEG is good enough that you shouldn’t need to bother in most circumstances. Of course, improved detail isn’t the only reason to shoot RAW and the extra exposure latitude and enhanced scope for white balance and other corrections make this a very worthwhile option to have.

Now let’s see how they compare at higher sensitivities in my Panasonic LX7 noise results.

To compare noise levels under real-life conditions, I shot this scene with the Panasonic Lumix LX7, the Sony Cyber-shot RX100 and the Canon PowerShot G1 X within a few moments of each other using their best quality JPEG settings at each of their ISO sensitivity settings.

The zoom settings on the cameras were adjusted to provide an aproximately equal vertical field of view. The PowerShot G1X and Cyber-shot RX100 were set to their minimum 28mm equivalent focal length. The Lumix LX7 was zoomed in slightly to 28mm equivalent.The cameras were set to Aperture Priority exposure mode with the ISO senstivity set manually.