I am a newbie who owns a D90 (18-55mm and 35mm) and was on a holiday to china recently with a friend who owns the famous LX3.
I must say, both has its pros and cons....
Personally, I feel that LX3 ISO above 800 is pretty bad already, though from the LCD screen of the camera it looks very sharp and nice (marketing HW gimmick). Bottomline it still has its limitation as a PnS like shutter lag, focusing speed and ISO noise.
In terms of low light environment, 35mm was my street/night/indoor and I am simply very satisfied with the results. I can shoot very vibrant/sharp/colourful pictures at ~ISO800 comfortably at ~1/60 shutter and F2.0-3.5 aperture. Fast focusing speed at night is very appreciated too given its large aperture especially when u need to capture the right moment and also focus on the correct subject FAST at low light. Focusing is very important particularly when u are working with such a narrow DOV. When I visited one of the food street at night in Beijing, I was busy snapping away with my D90 and 35mm in one hand, while the other was holding on to a sitck of skewered meat, snapping, eating, snapping eating.... ;p
And yes I agree with the bros that the person behind the camera matters a lot more than the equipment, I still have loads to learn with my current setup. I guess bottomline is to question what we (the photographer) could have done better in such situations e.g. composition, settings, angle etc
Happy snapping
