noise issues with Leica V-Lux 1?

[ghadden]

Hello. I'm thinking about getting the V-Lux 1 but worry that with so many pixels crammed onto a relatively small CCD I'm going to end up with a lot of noise with larger prints. Does anyone out there have experience with this camera? Many thanks.

[Riley]

ghadden
this camera is the same as Panasonic FZ50,
save for detail firmware differences in image saturation/contrast settings
and the much better warranty provisions of 3 yrs that Leica AG offer
so you could field the same question in the Panasonic part of the forum, Shooting in RAW mode they are identical

in broad daylight the camera is fine
wherever light is low
or whenever you choose an iso above iso200
things get pretty ugly

that said, the manual zoom and focus, and the sharpness of the lens aided by OIS are the star qualities of this camera, and it does that well

cheers

[ghadden]

Thanks Riley, that's helpful. I live in Spain where I believe by law warranties are at least a year long, but I'll need to investigate. And then decide if customer service warrants paying more for the Leica.

Besides the Sony it seems there are no other 'bridge' cameras with DSLR sized CCD's. Do you know of any?

Best,
gkh

[Riley]

the Sony R1 was the only bridge camera with an APS C size sensor

cheers

[ghadden]

I suppose it has just proven too expensive to put in the larger CCDs given that entry level DSLR's have come down so much in price. Too bad! I keep almost picking up the V-Lux 1 but just can't do it given the noise issue.

I do some professional food photography and some of those images end up in materials larger than 8 x 10.

I'm now leaning toward the Panasonic given they share basically the same pros and cons.

Best,
gkh

[Riley]

you may be interested in the Panasonic FZ30, or the FZ7
as the noise performance is a little better (not a lot)
but generally shooting at iso100 is good, iso200 more risky for noise aversion

what sort of products are they ?

[ghadden]

Pizzas! Mostly. It's for a chain called Pizza Marzano. I also shoot for many local restaurants' webpages. For the pizzas it's just straightforward 'portraits.' For the others I can do some more fun macro work.

I'm a journalist by trade (radio) but this work just sort of landed in my lap. And I enjoy it immensely.

[Riley]

you asked about large sensor point and shoot cameras

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0703/07030807sigmadp1.asp

cheers

[wrestlingreport]

ghadden
this camera is the same as Panasonic FZ50,
save for detail firmware differences in image saturation/contrast settings
and the much better warranty provisions of 3 yrs that Leica AG offer
so you could field the same question in the Panasonic part of the forum, Shooting in RAW mode they are identical

in broad daylight the camera is fine
wherever light is low
or whenever you choose an iso above iso200
things get pretty ugly

that said, the manual zoom and focus, and the sharpness of the lens aided by OIS are the star qualities of this camera, and it does that well

cheers
They are not the same.
Leica is much better.

[coldrain]

They are not the same.
Leica is much better.
The only thing the Leica will differ in is the firmware settings, less sharpening and less noise "reduction" by the processor (that venus thing).
For the rest it is the same camera. You need to shoot RAW for any decent results anyway... so there is no difference, except a BIG one in price.

[Riley]

there are firmware differences, i really think they are slight though
the main differences are the price and the warranty period
Leica provide 3yrs warranty
possibly the distributed software is different too

Leica are known to be more generous than that at times
both the Leica Digilux2 and the Panasonic LC-1 have suffered from sensor failures
they were apparently using some of the Sony 2/3 sensors that had failures
where Panasonic are looking for a customer contribution for repairs
Leica are doing the responsible thing and repairing the cameras for free
often customers find other things like the lens has been exchanged or cleaned when the camera is returned to them

[ghadden]

Thanks to all for the feedback.

I have indded been reading about the Sigma DP1. It looks very promising with it's huge sensor. In theory that should greatly reduce noise.

The head of Sigma says the camera will come equipped with a 3x digital zoom. I'm wondering if that will be useful at all given the loss of information inherent with a digital zoom.

If we were to use it, say, to zoom in just a little, to go from 28mm to 35 or even 50mm, does anyone think it will still render good images?

Best,

Gerry

[Riley]

i dont think it will have a zoom
i left a link to some info in the Sigma part of the site
it just could be a landmark camera
but depends on the limits of the lens, and if they've got the foveon sensor better sorted
one things for sure, it will be very sharp

ok i just saw it has a digital zoom

[John_Reed]

They are not the same.
Leica is much better.I looked pretty carefully at some high-ISO VLUX-1 photos, posted by a Leica user on dpreview's "Leica talk" forum. As far as I could conclude, the VLUX-1 differs from the FZ50 only with respect to default settings of "Pict Adj" settings. Leica sets NR lower, other parameters like sharpening, contrast, etc. may be different by default only. I analyzed ISO 400, 800 images, and they exhibit exactly the same "red bleed" issues that the FZ50's 400+ images show. This is an artifact of the way the Venus III engine internal to both cameras is driven by its firmware to convert captured image data into JPG images. And evidence seems to indicate that that conversion acts the same for both cameras, with a breakpoint vis-a-vis "smudging" around ISO 400. As Riley indicated, shooting and processing images in RAW gets around that particular issue, and it's the same for both cameras.

If having a Red Badge and a 3-year warranty is "better," the VLUX-1 is indeed better, at least by that definition. (Oh, and they throw in a 256MB SD card too). If you have any photographic proof of the VLUX-1's superiority, let's see it?