ywenz said:
In the review, the lower noise canon examples clearly shows more detail than the Leica. Your assumption in this case would be incorrect.
I hope the digi M will not get a simple derivative of the DMR sensor... I assume Leica is smart enough to realize this is their flagship model and will do everything to make it as robust as possible.
The amount of detail has little to do with the presence of noise.
There is a difference between sharpness and sharpness. One is resolution,i.e. the number of lines reproduced, which shows up in things like 100% crops and more detail in large enlargements, and then there is acuity, which is the sharpness as we perceive it when looking at the photograph,which is produced by the abruptness of the transition between the lines. Think of it like sine waves vs block waves. That is definition as opposed to resolution, which can be compared to frequency. A high frequency sine wave will have less definition but a higher detail content than a low frequency blockwave which will be far more defined. Now in terms of resolution the Canon 16 MP sensor is clearly more powerful than the Leica's 10 MP. In acuity it loses out due to the heavy optical filtering in front of the sensor and the noise reduction in the camera.In the Leica-Canon thread on FM forums there is a beautiful example of that in the comparison of a resolution chart, on page 147 I believe. In principle CMOS sensors ar far more noisy and moiré sensitive than CCD type sensors, but Canon has done a great job in producing what they have now, which produces velvity images. I've been told CMOS sensors are less expensive too.The technical price for Canon's technology, however, has been the "Canon-digilook". Leica, with its very thin filtering and limited noise-reduction, even if it resolves less, has a far sharper and lively look in their pictures, if you do not blow them up to bill-board size, when the resolution difference starts to show if you view from close enough. The price for that is that noise can be more obtrusive, especially at higher ISO settings. Think of noise like tape or amplifier hiss. But I can assure you that I can give my sometimes very noisy Digilux2 files a very Canon-like smoothness using Neat Image or Noise Ninja. In the end, CCD photographs tend to look more photographic. I too was blown away by the smoothness, nearly like mid-format through the lack of grain, read noise,of my 10D photo's, but after the first 2000 or so, I can only describe them as wearysome or bland looking compared to the technically less polished Digilux results. So Please, Mr Leica, a DMR-like sensor for me. I like film, I don't mind grain, I don't mind noise, and if I need to I can control it.
