Compared to... Panasonic FZ30

Below you will find a studio comparison between the FinePix S9500 and the similarly specified and priced Panasonic DMC-FZ30 at ISO 400.

Studio scene comparison (@ ISO 400)

• Fujifilm FinePix S5900 Zoom: Aperture Priority mode, ISO 400, Default Image Parameters, Manual white balance, +0.7 EV compensation
   
• Panasonic DMC-FZ30: Aperture Priority mode, ISO 400, Default Image Parameters,
  Manual white balance, +0.66 EV
   
• Lighting: Two 800W studio lamps with dichroic daylight filters bounced off the ceiling

Fujifilm FinePix S9500	Panasonic DMC-FZ30
ISO 400, 1/200 sec, F5.7	ISO 400, 1/250 sec, F5.6
4,324 KB JPEG	3,951 KB JPEG

At ISO 400 the superiority of the S9000's Super CCD sensor is obvious - noise (and therefore the amount of noise reduction needed) is much lower - though the Panasonic lens is still showing its superiority. The S9000 doesn't have quite the ISO 400 performance of it's little brother, the 6MP FinePix F10, but it's still a lot better than any of its non-SLR competitors.