The sensitivity of an optical homodyne receiver with prac tical degradations is analytically evaluated using a semiclassical pho todetection model which is valid for arbitrarily low levels of local us cillator (LO) power. This model provides several important advantages over the usual treatment in which large LO is assumed. In addition to giving an intuitive picture of the evolution of the detection sensitivity from the direct detection case (LO = 0) to the shot noise limited co herent detection case (large LO), it allows for a quantitative compar ison between degradations caused by some important receiver non idealities for the two limiting cases. Sensitivity loss due to dark cur rent, thermal noise, and electronic distortion is evaluated and the LO power required to reach shot nuise limited operation in the presence of these degradations is determined.