Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2 noise level comparison


Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2 results continued…

Outdoor / Resolution / Noise / Noise 2 / Corner sharpness / Fringe & macro / Geometry / Vignetting

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To measure and compare the Panasonic Lumix LX2’s noise levels we photographed the standard Gretag Macbeth ColorChecker with it and the Fujifilm FinePix F30 at each of their ISO settings. We also repeated the LX2 tests using its High and Low noise reduction settings.

The crops are taken from the original images and presented here at 100%. To compare typical noise in skies and dark shadows the crops were taken from patches 3 and 24 respectively.

Up to 400 ISO, the LX2’s crops below look quite clean with noise only making a significant appearance at 800 ISO and above. As you’d expect, noise levels are also higher on the examples with the Low Noise Reduction setting. The LX2 also roughly matches the Fujifilm F30 up to 400 ISO, although the F30’s results are noticeably cleaner at 800 ISO and above.

Viewed in isolation, this would still be an impressive result for the Lumix LX2, but it’s easy for overly-aggressive noise reduction systems to give the impression of low noise in this test. As such, it’s crucial to also compare real-life outdoor results taken at different ISO settings. We’ve provided these on the following page, where you’ll see the LX2 is best used only at its lowest sensitivities.

The High Sensitivity mode in particular should only be used in situations where you have no other choice, as it results in considerable loss of detail from noise reduction and reduced resolution as seen in particular on the following page.

Note: we have compared 100% crops from both cameras here measuring 136×136 pixels. In reality the LX2 crops represent a slightly smaller area of the image than the F30’s due to its higher resolution, but as explained on the previous pages, the LX2 is effectively acting like a 7.5 Megapixel model here. As such the areas are actually very close – this is illustrated on crops from real-life subjects on our first results page.

Panasonic DMC-LX2
(standard NR)
Panasonic DMC-LX2
(low NR)
Panasonic DMC-LX2
(high NR)
Fujifilm FinePix F30
Panasonic LX2 - noise at 100 ISO with standard NR
Panasonic LX2 - noise at 100 ISO with low NR
Panasonic LX2 - noise at 100 ISO with high NR
Fujifilm F30 - noise at 100 ISO
100 ISO
100 ISO
100 ISO
100 ISO
Panasonic LX2 - noise at 200 ISO with standard NR
Panasonic LX2 - noise at 200 ISO with low NR
Panasonic LX2 - noise at 200 ISO with high NR
Fujifilm F30 - noise at 200 ISO
200 ISO
200 ISO
200 ISO
200 ISO
Panasonic LX2 - noise at 400 ISO with standard NR
Panasonic LX2 - noise at 400 ISO with low NR
Panasonic LX2 - noise at 400 ISO with high NR
Fujifilm F30 - noise at 400 ISO
400 ISO
400 ISO
400 ISO
400 ISO
Panasonic LX2 - noise at 800 ISO with standard NR
Panasonic LX2 - noise at 800 ISO with low NR
Panasonic LX2 - noise at 800 ISO with high NR
Fujifilm F30 - noise at 800 ISO
800 ISO,
800 ISO
800 ISO
800 ISO
Panasonic LX2 - noise at 1600 ISO with standard NR
Panasonic LX2 - noise at 1600 ISO with low NR
Panasonic LX2 - noise at 1600 ISO with high NR
Fujifilm F30 - noise at 1600 ISO
1600 ISO
1600 ISO
1600 ISO
1600 ISO
Panasonic LX2 - noise at 3200 ISO high sensitivity mode
Fujifilm F30 - noise at 3200 ISO
3200 ISO
(High Sensitivity mode)
3200 ISO unavailable outside HS mode
3200 ISO unavailable outside HS mode
3200 ISO
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