Downsampling resolution to lower noise. In or out of camera?

Some posters have noted that increasing ISO is just amplifying the signal and introduces noise, while increasing the size of the pixel amplifies the signal by catching more photons without extra noise.

I know that Fuji achieves its low noise by combining pixels in camera but I don't know whether Panasonic combines pixels or (good for increasing the signal above the noise) or whether it just throws extra pixels away (same noise, lower reolution).

So, if you have a 10.4 Mpixel LX2 and you'd be happy with 8 or even 6 Mpixels, dou you get less noisy images by setting a lower resolution in camera or should you just shoot at full resolution in RAW (I always try to shoot in RAW) and downsize with a good converter? Do either help?

Thanks

Panasonic, for lower-res photos, generally performs them through a crop of the full sensor. So the pixel density, noise density, however you want to measure it, won't change by switching to a lower resolution. (Though to effect the "EZ" modes, they DO downsample at the shortest focal length, from the imager size to the crop size) I think if noise concerns you, you should just shoot in RAW, as you said, and deal with it in your RAW development workflow.
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Just cruisin' ...



EffZeeOneVeeTwo, EffZeeThirty, Tizzy (who captured the Eagle)

Taking a lower resolution photo won't help....but downsampling the picture from 10 mp to 5 mp should. The real questions become:

• Does it help enough?
• How well are details retained?

Downsizing the picture apparently would not help just as John indicated. You can find comparsion on such down sizing in the FZ30 review at dcresource. He down sized by going through the camera as well as PP using software.