I've noticed that quite alot of cameras seem to be suffering from noise in reviews. I'm currently thinking of buying a Lumix DX1. It's unlikely I would want to regularly shoot at 8mp. Would dropping to 4mp or 5mp reduce the amount of noise?

I went to the panasonic site but i cant see a DX1 listed under their lumix cameras. Is this the correct model number?

For the best image quality I would shoot at the maximum camera resolution and then resize the images in Photoshop or similar software.

Even if there is visible noise at the full res it will be much less apparent when you resize to a smaller image, it will also end up a sharper image than if you shoot at low res.

Most of the noise problems I have read about in reviews and from my own experience are caused by higher ISO settings, not high megapixels. Although that said some of the five megapixel cameras do seem to have cleaner images than the higher Mp cameras. I think this is due to cramming so many pixels inta a small CCD. But even at a lower setting on the caera you still have the result of these small sensors crammed together. That's why some 5 Mp cameras perform well, the sensors are not so crammed together. This really varies a lot between makes and models though.

If you don't need 8 Mp why not get a lower res camera which is cheaper anyway in most cases?

If you get an 8Mp camera I would shoot in 8 Mp with the lowest ISO setting possible for the light conditions, then resize later if I need to. The low ISO will guarantee the lowest noise possible from the camera you are using.

You can download sample images at many of the review sites on the net to see the performance of different cameras.

Hope this helps.