Originally posted by Ray Pulley I must completely disagree.
You cannot make details (in the highlights or elsewhere) that were smeared away by noise reduction or other parts of the sensor/processing chain. If you do not have the details to begin with, it matters not if you do a better job in the highlights or shadows.
The proof is in looking at details in both images that are somewhere near the middle exposure range.
Look at the green jacket arm, or the face of the mannequin and any number of other normally exposed areas and convince yourself that the Nikon is showing equal or better detail. If the details are not in the mid-ranges, they are not likely to magically appear in the highlights and shadows.
Lenses are part of the equation, certainly, but we do use lenses on our cameras most of the time
Regardless, the lens is not the issue. Look at a progession of 2 or 3 ISO steps starting at 200. Do you think it is the lens that is stepping on the details more and more as the ISO is raised?
Ray
I looked primarily at the low ISO image (sunlight), and was looking for blown highlights (the white shirt), and blocked shadows (under the model's hand).
Unfortunately, I'm going to give the guys test a 2 thumbs down, as he has made no attempt to optimize or match things like colour balance, saturation, the level of noise reduction, or really any other parameter.
His testing procedure leaves too much to be desired to trust his tests.
I will say that the K20 has more detail showing at higher ISO, but the Nikon obviously has the noise reduction turned up a lot higher.
I don't think one can definitely say that the K20 has a higher IQ than the D300 based on this website.
Really, I don't think one can say very much about anything being better than anything else based on this website, which is too bad, since the guy has obviously put a lot of work into it, and has allowed some faulty procedures turn the whole thing into a useless experiment.
If you like, I can ask the other photographer at my studio if I can use his D300 for an informal portrait shoot, and then do as close to the same pictures on my K20.
I don't know what lens I'll use though. It can't be one of my better ones, just to be fair to the Nikon.