LX100 vs FZ1000 Highlight and Shadow Detail

A key attribute  of  picture quality is the ability of the lens/sensor/processor pathway to render good highlight and shadow detail with subjects having a high brightness range (SBR).  In other words the ability to faithfully render detail in bright highlights and dark shadows simultaneously.

This is often referred to as “Dynamic Range”.

I tested the highlight/shadow capability of the LX100 and compared it to the FZ1000 in identical conditions.

I chose a subject with very high brightness range and made exposures at the meter indicated level and also several levels of negative exposure compensation.

I kept reducing exposure until the zebras (set to 105%) on the brightest part of the scene almost disappeared.

I used JPG and RAW capture.

I set i-Dynamic Auto on both cameras. This serves to improve highlight/shadow detail in JPG images.

I used the following Custom JPG settings in the [Photo Style] tab of the Rec Menu.

Camera	Contrast	Sharpness	Noise Reduction	Saturation
LX100	-2	+3	-5	0
FZ1000	-5	0	-5	+2

I reached these settings after experimenting with the options over many hundreds of photos.

You can see the results in the photos.

Comment

* Both cameras handled high brightness range very well, especially with RAW capture.

* I was easily able to derive from RAW capture with editing in Adobe Camera RAW a better photo than any JPG combination or setting which I tried.

* With RAW capture I was able to recover good highlight detail with both cameras from the frames exposed according to the camera’s recommendation, using Multiple Metering.  This was true even though the Zebras at 105% were blinking on the bright tones.

* With both cameras JPGs exposed at the camera recommended settings had blown out highlights.

* This was successfully managed at the time of capture by dialling in negative exposure compensation until the Zebras just disappeared.  With the subject used for this test that was minus 1.33 EV steps.    However the resulting files had darker shadows than the edited RAWs.

Auto HDR can also be used with high SBR and JPG capture but this involves 3 exposures and the risk of mis-registration if  something or somebody moves during the exposure sequence.

* I have found from previous experiments that it is highly desirable to use i-Dynamic Auto when applying negative exposure compensation in JPG capture. This applies a curve correction to bring up the dark tones.

* With the RAW files, in each case I moved the sliders until I had achieved what I considered a best possible result. To ensure fair  comparison I made key highlight and dark tone brightness the same with each camera.

The edited RAW files from the LX100 had slightly better highlight detail and slightly less shadow luminance noise than those from the FZ1000.  I had to look closely at 100% on screen to see the difference however.