Leica D-Lux (Typ 109) Review

High ISO Performance

Below we show a series of full resolution crops from ISO 100 through ISO 25000. These images are out-of-camera JPGs with the camera's default settings. The images were shot in low light (EV 4) at F5.6. Leica indicates the two highest ISO ranges as 12500 and 25000; mathematically it ought to be 12800 and 25600, respectively, as used by other manufacturers.

ISO 100 is in the "extended" range, so there is hardly any difference between ISO 100 and ISO 200.

The noise reduction is somewhat aggressive at the expense of detail. Click a thumbnail to enlarge and browse the 600 x 400 pixel full resolution crops.

ISO 100	ISO 200
ISO 400	ISO 800
ISO 1600	ISO 3200
ISO 6400	ISO 12500
ISO 25000

Our recommendation is to not go higher than ISO 1600 when shooting JPGs, perhaps ISO 3200 in a pinch. The noise reduction is quite aggressive and blurs the images too much in our opinion at higher ISOs. The in-camera noise reduction cannot be adjusted. We'll venture that most buyers of a camera like the D-Lux would prefer to use the images right out of camera rather than spending the time post processing from RAW. Given the many other customization features of the D-Lux, it is disappointing that the noise reduction algorithm cannot be tweaked.

The darker areas suffer the most from the noise reduction. Below we compared the ISO 12800 image developed from RAW in Adobe Camera RAW with the in-camera JPG development. We managed to get better detail in the dark areas without the noise getting excessive:

The next series is shot in daylight (shade). The images represent full resolution crops (600 x 600) of in-camera JPGs. Click any image for a larger and more telling crop (1200 x 1300).

100
200
400
800
1600
3200
6400
12500
25000

The D-Lux is pretty good for a compact.  It's no champion alongside DSLRs, but at ISO 1600 and below the images are very clean. If you're a RAW shooter and do your own noise reduction in post processing, you can comfortably make even ISO 6400 work for you.

Verdict on High-ISO Shooting

For shooting in-camera developed JPGs we recommend staying below ISO 3200. ISO 3200 can be used in a pinch, but details are visibly blurred and above ISO 3200 the result is simply not good. RAW shooters can go higher at the expense of having to tweak noise reduction during development.