I’m shooting north towards the end of the Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge to a bunch of condos and apartment buildings. At a 52.5mm equivalent, I’m creating moderate compression of the scene, especially compared to a more typical wide-angle view. I could frame most buildings within the bridge’s width and the street lights.

As I explained yesterday, the zoom lens on the Leica D-Lux 8 enables more framing options than a prime lens on other compacts, such as the Fujifilm X100 VI. I can zoom as much as I want with my feet, but it will not create the same look.

I exposed it at -1.3ev to avoid blowing out the lights in the apartments and lightened the picture with post-processing. Even at a moderate ISO 500, lifting the shadows produced fine-grain noise—one of the disadvantages of a smaller sensor. There are two ways around this. I can expose it brighter, with the risk of losing window details. Or I can use advanced AI-based noise reduction software, which is how I prefer to approach this limitation.

I’m playing with a demo version of Topaz Photo AI that looks promising. It easily removes the light noise, and I can optionally have it work only on the sky where it’s the most visible. Removing the noise from the entire picture made it look too clean—I like the added texture in the buildings.

There are certainly limitations with the D-Lux 8, but its compact size and versatility are very enticing. If adding extra post-processing can greatly reduce its weaknesses, I’m more convinced of its spot in a compact travel setup.

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