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Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
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Cameras

Field Review (Day 5)- Leica D-Lux 4

Chris Gampat
No Comments
02/09/2010
3 Mins read

Last Updated on 02/09/2010 by

As the Leica D-Lux 4 field review continues, I explored the High ISO settings last night. This little camera delivered some results that pleased me and that also made me gawk at the images on screen. It’s really up to you and your own judgement. As a point-and-shoot with a larger sensor, we can’t expect it to have 5D Mk II type image quality but some of the images that come out will still be very usable, especially with use on Flickr. The images here have been resized specifically to be with Flickr’s Large setting. More analysis after the jump.

ISO 800

The opening photo was taken at ISO 800. As you can see, the image quality isn’t so bad if you’re going to upload it to the web. You surely do see some noise but it’s manageable. If not, it’s nothing that a bit of noise reduction in Photoshop can’t fix at all.

ISO 800 actually gave me my favorite results because it balanced image quality with low light sensitivity. I love shooting in low light and out in NYC at night. So it’s only natural that I’d want clean images as well. What also really helps with this is the F2.0 lens.

After a while, I tended to notice that noise is more prevalent and noticeable in some areas vs others. Since this is the case, I really can’t tell how the D-LUX 4 processes images but I can say that results can sometimes be unpredictable. This goes double for higher ISO settings.

If you think that ISO 800 delivers poor results then I’d advise you to stop here. However, ISO 1600 still does offer some very usable and pleasing results as well.

ISO 1600

This was the only picture I shot at ISO 1600. Why? Because I thought it to be too much noisier than ISO 800 but I still did like the results. The luminance noise looks nice, but I can see too much chroma noise for my liking to publish the shot. I’d use it for a personal site though. If you’re confused on the noise types, go here.

ISO 3200

This one was a bit tricky. In the photo above, I’d say no. Just no. There’s way too much chroma noise. It would require lots of photoshopping and perhaps conversion to black and white. In the photo below though, the results aren’t bad.

To be fair, this photo has better lighting so perhaps the camera did a better job with this. But towards the right of the photo, one can start to see banding. This is the worst type of noise to try to edit.

And sometimes, it can give you some really nice artistic looks to them. This looks like one of the art filters on the Olympus EP-2. If you’re using it artistically, it can be used just fine. Publishing though, I’d think twice.

Why wasn’t flash used for any of these? As a street photographer I try to avoid flash as it draws too much attention towards you and can offer some uneven results at times. However, I will put the flash to the test. So for best results, hold your breath and shoot at ISO 800 unless you can shoot at a lower ISO.

Cameras d-lux 4 high iso test images leica New York City Photography raw review
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Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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