H2 and H9 - both showing similar effects

I finally decided to get a replacement for my lost H1. I decided that I will not take advantage of the "fortunate" event that the camera was lost two days after the H9 was announced, and wait with the upgrading decision for a later time. So I got an H2 instead! I hope I'll be as happy with it as I was with my H1. I was also considering the FZ8, but decided against it when a borrowed FZ5 couldn't survive my handling for 2 weeks....

Anyway, here is photo number 16 from my brand new H2. Not an artistic statement, and it will not even get me into the duck club. But I noticed that exactly where I would expect the H9 to produce watercolor artifacts (out-of-focus/low contrast areas), the H2 produces something very similar. So if this is what the NR reduction algorithm of the H9 starts with, maybe it isn't doing such a bad job. (it would still be better to be able to set NR to low...).

What do you think - is this just a regular effect in all H cameras, just amplified in the H9? Do you also see this effect in the H2/H5/H1?

or Maybe sony backported it to my H2?

Here is the full image: http://flickr.com/photos/7379350@N02/492935849/