Low light performance more about the sensor or lens?
Screamin Scott wrote: Both will have an effect. In film days, it was about faster (and grainier results) film coupled with faster lenses. Now , with digital, it's about more sensitive sensors with faster lenses. Either a fast lens or a more sensitive sensor will get you better low light images, both are equally important...
Yeah the grain is what would kill you unless you were into hypering film, or buying it. And then not all films would cook really well for doing that. So hence fast glass, is and always will be king in the area of giving you more light to work with. But the beauty of the digital age is that you can shoot with much faster shutter speeds in lower light even with the lens stopped down to a greater extent. So the lens is not the primary performer for low light for some camera models. Though having fast glass does give you an advantage speed wise for the shutter end.
The larger the sensor does not mean that it is better at low light, it only means it has more surface are to gather what it sees, and more room for photo sites depending on size. The larger the photo site the more photos it can collect from any available light. But if you use too large of a photo site the resolution drops, but you can shoot in essentially the dark. Now they are going back to pixel packing, and losing some of it, but not as much as they have gained. It is a win for us in that we are now able to do thing we only dreamed we could do in the old days. I fell lucky to have seen it all change.
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