Edgar_in_Indy
Senior Member
I've been running my Pixel 6 Pro through its paces, and last night I took it around to some sites that I like to use to test a camera's low light abilities. These scenes represent a challenge, since they contain a lot of dynamic range, from deep shadows to bright light sources, and they feature a variety of detailed textures.
I am comparing my Pixel 6 Pro to my Panasonic LX-10. The LX-10 is notable excellent manual controls and for being the only 1" compact camera with an f/1.4 zoom lens (at wide angle), so for its size it's extremely capable in low light situations, and with its fast telephoto lens it's a very versatile camera.
Here's my LX-10, with an aftermarket grip:
A head-to-head comparison is complicated by the many various shooting modes and adjustments available on each camera. I therefore shot and/or processed each scene different ways multiple times on both cameras.
First, here is the same scene shot in RAW and processed to taste on both cameras, with the Panasonic's 20MP image down-sampled to 12MP to match the output of the Pixel 6 Pro. No noise reduction applied. First the Panasonic image, and then the Pixel:
And here are the SOOC JPG images from each camera, again with Panasonic on top:
I didn't care for the SOOC result from either camera. With the Panasonic, the blacks were crushed too much, resulting in a bleaker scene than I viewed in person, and with the Pixel the shadows were boosted too much, resulting in a flat and artificial image.
To be fair to the Panasonic, I almost never shoot my real cameras in JPG, so I have never bothered fiddling with the JPG presets in the camera. It's very possible that I could have set the camera up to capture a better JPG image.
As for the Pixel, there's not much in the way of global adjustments to JPG output, but when capturing an image you do have sliders to adjust color temp, brightness, and shadow levels. Here's the same scene shot on the Pixel again, but this time with the shadow slider turned down from the default setting. I much prefer that image to the default capture.
In the first set of RAW images posted above, I did not apply any noise reduction since I wanted the sensor performance on display. However, I typically apply noise reduction if I think an image can benefit from it. I usually use Topaz Labs Denoise AI, which uses AI to selectively apply noise reduction to different parts of the image where it thinks it needs it.
Here are full resolution RAW images from each camera, with noise reduction applied to taste:
And finally, here is the full-resolution 20MP RAW image from the LX10:
Summary:
The Pixel 6 Pro's main sensor compares favorably to a 1" sensor in low light. The 1" camera can capture slightly more detail in the in-focus areas, but the Pixel 6 Pro's smaller sensor has more depth of field, resulting in more areas in focus.
While noise levels for the Pixel 6 Pro compare favorably to the 1" camera, I did not observe the expected dynamic range advantages that computational photography is supposed to provide. Dynamic range seemed comparable between the two cameras, but perhaps that can still be considered a win for the Pixel 6, since it is using a much smaller sensor.
RAW files were easier to work with from the 1" camera. For the Pixel 6 I had to go deeper into the sliders to match the image from the 1" camera. And for some reason getting correct/pleasing white balance and tint from the Pixel files took more finessing.
The bad news about the Pixel 6 Pro is that it does seem to provide significantly better image quality than my last two mid-range Android phones that were using gcam...the Motorola Moto G Power 2020 and then the TCL 10 Pro.
However, it is much easier to use and shoot with the Pixel 6 Pro than with my old phones since the Pixel captures the image almost instantly, while my old phones would require a few moments to capture and merge the multiple exposures.
I apologize for the long post, but I wanted to make sure I gave both cameras a fair comparison. I have more scenes I can post if there's interest, including telephoto comparisons, but it's getting late for now and I need to go to bed.
I am comparing my Pixel 6 Pro to my Panasonic LX-10. The LX-10 is notable excellent manual controls and for being the only 1" compact camera with an f/1.4 zoom lens (at wide angle), so for its size it's extremely capable in low light situations, and with its fast telephoto lens it's a very versatile camera.
Here's my LX-10, with an aftermarket grip:
A head-to-head comparison is complicated by the many various shooting modes and adjustments available on each camera. I therefore shot and/or processed each scene different ways multiple times on both cameras.
First, here is the same scene shot in RAW and processed to taste on both cameras, with the Panasonic's 20MP image down-sampled to 12MP to match the output of the Pixel 6 Pro. No noise reduction applied. First the Panasonic image, and then the Pixel:
And here are the SOOC JPG images from each camera, again with Panasonic on top:
I didn't care for the SOOC result from either camera. With the Panasonic, the blacks were crushed too much, resulting in a bleaker scene than I viewed in person, and with the Pixel the shadows were boosted too much, resulting in a flat and artificial image.
To be fair to the Panasonic, I almost never shoot my real cameras in JPG, so I have never bothered fiddling with the JPG presets in the camera. It's very possible that I could have set the camera up to capture a better JPG image.
As for the Pixel, there's not much in the way of global adjustments to JPG output, but when capturing an image you do have sliders to adjust color temp, brightness, and shadow levels. Here's the same scene shot on the Pixel again, but this time with the shadow slider turned down from the default setting. I much prefer that image to the default capture.
In the first set of RAW images posted above, I did not apply any noise reduction since I wanted the sensor performance on display. However, I typically apply noise reduction if I think an image can benefit from it. I usually use Topaz Labs Denoise AI, which uses AI to selectively apply noise reduction to different parts of the image where it thinks it needs it.
Here are full resolution RAW images from each camera, with noise reduction applied to taste:
And finally, here is the full-resolution 20MP RAW image from the LX10:
Summary:
The Pixel 6 Pro's main sensor compares favorably to a 1" sensor in low light. The 1" camera can capture slightly more detail in the in-focus areas, but the Pixel 6 Pro's smaller sensor has more depth of field, resulting in more areas in focus.
While noise levels for the Pixel 6 Pro compare favorably to the 1" camera, I did not observe the expected dynamic range advantages that computational photography is supposed to provide. Dynamic range seemed comparable between the two cameras, but perhaps that can still be considered a win for the Pixel 6, since it is using a much smaller sensor.
RAW files were easier to work with from the 1" camera. For the Pixel 6 I had to go deeper into the sliders to match the image from the 1" camera. And for some reason getting correct/pleasing white balance and tint from the Pixel files took more finessing.
The bad news about the Pixel 6 Pro is that it does seem to provide significantly better image quality than my last two mid-range Android phones that were using gcam...the Motorola Moto G Power 2020 and then the TCL 10 Pro.
However, it is much easier to use and shoot with the Pixel 6 Pro than with my old phones since the Pixel captures the image almost instantly, while my old phones would require a few moments to capture and merge the multiple exposures.
I apologize for the long post, but I wanted to make sure I gave both cameras a fair comparison. I have more scenes I can post if there's interest, including telephoto comparisons, but it's getting late for now and I need to go to bed.
I really like these kind of posts 
I understand reasons of buying pixel - i also like when phone works and i don't care about gcam settings and bugs 
