Although their CCD's are different, much of what can be said of the
image quality of the LC33 can be applied equally to the LC43. Starting
with the Leica lens they have in common, their features are also nearly
identical with one difference found in the ISO range.
The LC33's 3.2 megapixel CCD yields crisp photos that print very well,
and which when printed by a photo service at a 4 x 6 (10 x 15 cm) size,
are indistinguishable from those made from film.
Aperture: f2.8, shutter speed 1/160 sec., 50 ISO.
The LC33 and the LC43 are basically point and shoot cameras. Few advanced
features are provided besides Scene modes, and a standard Program mode.
Controls over the colour, and contrast of photos are limited to 2 options:
Colour Effect and Picture Adjustments.
Aperture: f3.7, shutter speed 1/640 sec., 50 ISO.
The
Colour Effects option provides for Cool and Warm or Black
and White and Off. While the Black and White option can be
useful, it is also something within the reach of every photo editing software
package, and which when done with software, does not involve loosing all
the colour information of the original image, something that happens if
it is recorded in Black and White. The
Cool setting produces an image that is strongly pulled towards
blue and is of limited use. The other, Warm, could be used to enhance
a sunset photo.
Picture
adjustment, the other control provided over the way the image is recorded
has 3 settings, Natural, Standard (the default), and Vivid.
These options are more subtle than those available with the Picture Effects,
which makes them more useful. The Natural setting softens the contrast
and colours slightly, and works well with portraits. The Vivid setting
emphasizes both colour and contrast, with a stronger emphasis on colour,
and is actually useful when taking photos with the sun directly overhead,
a type of light that flattens both contrast and colour.
Aperture: f3.2, shutter speed 1/250 sec., 50 ISO
Aperture: f3.4, shutter speed 1/100 sec., 50 ISO.
With
its Leica lens, the LC33 captures photos that show that distortion is
well corrected by the aspherical surfaces of the lens. A slight bit of
barrel distortion can be seen at the widest angle of the zoom, but even
then, there has to be some sort of a straight line aligned right along
the longer edges of the frame. Generally, the images the camera captures
are sharp, and have a good level of detail when these are saved at the
highest image quality.
Still, the simple to use nature of the LC33 means that the choices for
some users will be a bit too limiting. For instance, there are only 2
image quality settings. At the highest image quality setting, the LC33
still applies a lossy compression in the order of 7:1, which is fairly
strong. A range with 3 settings, adding one with an even lesser compression
to the existing options, would have been a good feature.
The
LC33 offers a higher maximum sensitivity setting than the LC43, and the
400 ISO setting has relatively low noise, with noise only becoming noticeable
in dark, uniformly coloured areas of the frame.
Still,
the availability of high ISO value can allow the LC33 to capture photos
under low light, something that can be useful, even at the expense of
some gain in noise.
In summary, the LC33 offers a lower priced alternative to the LC43, and
while it has a lower resolution, it is still sufficiently high to produce
photos that will make perfect 4 x 6 size prints. Moreover, it has a slightly
extended ISO range that can come in handy.
