Panasonic Venus IV Processor ISO Performance Comparison

[996GT2]

Panasonic's compact cameras have always been highly regarded for their feature set, great lenses, and fast operation, but ISO performance was always one of the weaknesses of the Venus image processor.

After getting my Lumix LZ8, I decided to take a series of test shots to compare the effects of noise reduction at ISO 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1600. The camera was mounted on a tripod for all shots and the linked images are 100% crops.

Manual exposure was used for all shots with automatic white balance. The zoom was set to an a 35mm equivalent of 55mm. Noise reduction was set at -2, the lowest setting.

ISO 100, f/4.9, 1/6 sec

ISO 200, f/4.9, 1/13 sec

ISO 400, f/4.9, 1/25 sec

ISO 800, f/4.9, 1/50 sec

ISO 1600, f/4.9, 1/100 sec

ISO 200 doesn't destroy too much of the detail, but does begin to smear some of the finer details (for example, the red parts of the rug are smeared at 200).

Shots are still usable at ISO 400, although quite a bit of the fine details are gone compared to 100. By ISO 800, most of the low contrast detail is gone (smeared away by NR) in the hairs of the rug and ISO 1600 is basically a worse version of the ISO 800 shot.

Venus IV does seem to be an improvement over Venus III, but the changes are more evolutionary than revolutionary.

What do you guys think?


EDIT: Below are shots taken with my Lumix FZ8, which uses the Venus III processor. Images were shot in manual mode with auto white balance and the "low" NR setting. The zoom was set to a 35mm equivalent of 51mm for these shots and all linked images are 100% crops.

ISO 100, f/3.2, 1/10 sec

ISO 200, f/3.2, 1/20 sec

ISO 400, f/3.2, 1/40 sec

ISO 800, f/3.2, 1/80 sec

ISO 1250, f/3.2, 1/160 sec (I forgot the FZ8 only went up to 1250 ISO so I set the shutter at 1/160...so it's a bit underexposed).

Overall, I think the LZ8's performance at ISO 1600 is better than the FZ8's at ISO 1250. This is especially noticeable in the small text, which is almost unreadable on the FZ8 shots at ISO 1250 but remains clear on the LZ8's shots at ISO 1600.

The FZ8 has the advantage of a much better lens, a Leica 36-432mm f/2.8-3.3 vs the LZ8's 32-160mm f/3.3-5.9. Even so, the Venus III image processor does take away more of the finer detail than the newer Venus IV processor, so the FZ8's shots end up having less low contrast detail.

Another thing to note is that the LZ8's auto WB system seems to work much better in a mix of daylight/fluorescent light.

 

[soydios]

I'd call ISO800 usable for snapshots. But how does it compare to similar sensors?

 

[magomago]

could you try on something else? I think the carpet itself is kind of fuzzy so its harder to see what happens with the details. I get a better idea of what goes on with the car key, but it still isn't enough.

 

[996GT2]

Originally posted by: magomago
could you try on something else? I think the carpet itself is kind of fuzzy so its harder to see what happens with the details. I get a better idea of what goes on with the car key, but it still isn't enough.

DPReview uses hair or other fuzzy objects to compare low contrast detail because that is what gets smeared away by NR most easily. If you look at the shots, the text on the dropper bottle is still readable up to ISO 1600, but much of the fine hairs in the rug have been blurred away as low as 400 ISO. It's possible to separate the fibers of the rug in the low ISO shots, but in the high ISO shots they all look like one smeared clump.