The Leica D-Lux 5 and Panasonic LX5 are basically identical cameras manufactured by Panasonic in Japan. The Leica version has a more clean design (no grip and labels). The rest of the differences are: LX5 comes with Silkpix Studio (retails for $100), has one year warranty and costs $400. The D-Lux 5 comes with Adobe Lightroom (retails for around $260, currently there is a $100 rebate), has 2 years warranty, costs $800 and usually has better resale value. In addition to those differences, both cameras have different firmware. The menu is almost identical with some small exceptions, mainly the way some features are called and where they are positioned:
I did several JPG comparison between both cameras to see if I can spot any differences.
First, under daylight with low ISO I could not see any differences in the IQ of the pictures (JPG images directly out of the cameras):
Leica D-Lux 5, ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/2000s
Panasonic LX5, ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/2000s
Leica D-Lux 5, ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/500s
Panasonic LX5, ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/500s
Color chart comparison in daylight:
Leica D-Lux 5, ISO 200, f/4, 1/160s
Panasonic LX5, ISO 200, f/4, 1/160s
Comparing low light images is where I start seeing some minor differences:
Leica D-Lux 5, ISO 1600, f/2.7, 1/13s
Panasonic LX5, ISO 1600, f/2.7, 1/13s
I used a color chart at ISO 1600 and 3200 for an easy comparison between the JPG files of both cameras:
ISO 1600
Leica D-Lux 5, ISO 1600, f/2.7, 2s
Panasonic LX5, ISO 1600, f/2.7, 2s
Here are the crops from the above chart:
| Leica D-Lux 5 @ISO 1600 | Pansonic LX5 @ISO 1600 |
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ISO 3200
Leica D-Lux 5, ISO 3200, f/2.7, 1s
Panasonic LX5, ISO 3200, f/2.7, 1s
Here are the crops from the above chart:
| Leica D-Lux 5 @ISO 3200 | Pansonic LX5 @ISO 3200 |
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Conclusion
At lower ISO I was not able to see any differences in the JPG image quality of the Leica D-Lux 5 and Panasonic LX5. At high ISO however, the Leica D-Lux 5 seems to have better noise performance than the Panasonic LX5.
