Leica D-Lux 8 added to the studio scene

Photo: Richard Butler

We’ve spent a bit more time with the Leica D-Lux 8, an enthusiast compact camera that captured our imaginations last year. As part of our continued testing, we’ve put it in front of our standard studio test scene, to get a sense of what kind of image quality we can expect from the up-to 17MP crops it takes from a 21MP Four Thirds sensor.

Our test scene is designed to simulate a variety of textures, colors and detail types you’ll encounter in the real world. It also has two illumination modes to see the effect of different lighting conditions.

When shooting Raw, the D-Lux 8 captures a touch more detail as the Sony RX100Va, but falls behind the Fujifilm X100 VI and Ricoh GR III. Its base ISO Raw noise performance, viewed at a comparable size, generally follows sensor size, with the D-Lux 8 exhibiting less noise than the Sony, but more than the Ricoh and Fujifilm, an trend that continues at higher ISOs.

Leica’s JPEG engine is roughly on par with Sony’s when it comes to pulling out fine details, though the RX100 V’s processing is a bit more aggressive, occasionally bordering on oversharpening. At higher ISOs, the Leica does a good job of removing noise, though at the cost of smoothing out some details.

The Leica’s JPEG colors are similar to the Ricoh’s, and while they’re slightly more saturated than those from the GR III, they can appear a tad muted next to the Sony’s. They do hew towards accuracy, which doesn’t necessarily result in the most pleasing skin tones, something you can see in our sample gallery for the D-Lux 8.

It’s worth noting that our copy of the D-Lux 8 couldn’t quite match the peak sharpness that we achieved with the Panasonic LX100 II, despite several attempts at focusing and the two cameras using the same sensor and lens combination. This may be down to copy-to-copy variation.

Dynamic Range

The D-Lux 8 offers a fair amount of image processing flexibility for those looking to pull shadows up. The results from our exposure latitude test can only be used to compare cameras with the same size sensor, which is especially tricky with the D-Lux 8 given that it doesn’t use the entirety of its Four Thirds sensor. That means that when raised, you can expect its shadows to have a bit more noise when you push them by several stops, though the results are arguably still quite usable even when adding 5EV.

The decent, but not class-leading, performance trend continues when looking at its read noise levels. The camera’s added read noise becomes relatively noticeable in more extreme situations, like if you were trying to protect your highlights by shooting at an ISO 3EV below what you’d normally use for a given aperture and shutter speed and then brightening parts of your image in post. The D-Lux 8’s competitors generally fare better in this respect, but if you’re making smaller changes in post, the difference won’t be as obvious.

ISO Invariance | Exposure Latitude

Our DPREVIEW Tribute:

After nearly 25 years of operation, DPReview closed on 10 April 2023. This difficult decision was part of the annual operating plan review that parent company, Amazon, shared earlier this year.

Over the course of 25 years, DP Review built up a reputation as being one of the most informative places to go for information about that new camera or lens you’re after. DP Review began as an independent reviews site based in the UK in 1998, the brainchild of Philip and Joanna Askey, but it was eventually purchased by Amazon in 2007 and relocated over to Seattle in the USA in 2010.

Cheers DPReview – thanks for the great work and content that guided photographers, videographers and techno junkies the world over!