To put people in the loop.......this thread was started by the OP to challenge my claims (in another thread) that my G9 can be as good as my F31 (and his F30) at ISO800. It also started because I said most users like to use raw on the G9, especailly to control noise at higher ISOs. Fair play to the OP. Looks like he/she is doing a roll call...LOL!
I told the OP that I have the photos to back that up. It could have been sorted in another post but here goes. This should pipe the OP down a bit.
Here is your F30 (or my F31) in all it's full glory getting the pants blown of it at ISO400 by the G9 in detail with raw. But cheer up.....it does show why your little F30 is so good and clean though at higher ISOs.....because they take the noise out fantastically. But in doing so, they also take the detail with it by excessive noise reduction! So wakey wakey, luv.
Now lets go up a notch to ISO800. Here is your F30 (same as F31) against my G9 at ISO800 in the same lowlight indoor situation.
First of all I photographed a photo magazine which had fine detail on the printed cover. Both were taken on a tripod under tungsten lighting at same distances and same aperture and shutter speeds. SS was 1/13s, which I would deem low enough lighting.
And here below are the crops after I processed the G9 in raw myself. I should point out that not everyone will get these results if they don't posses a fair knowledge of raw and processing. Actually, I was dissapointed with my PP skills in this result as I only matched the F31 blow for blow. I should have gotten it better and probably would now if I processed it again. Anyway.....bottom line, the F31 is no better!
And lets crank it up full, shall we? And for a larf lets see the G9 getting a total pasting.......not!
Again you will still see why your infamous Fuji is so good and clean at high ISOs............here is both cams at ISO1600.
While I left more noise in the G9 crop in processing and you can also see a little horrible color noise in there as well..... it completley blows the doors off my F31 in detail once again in this magazine cropped shot. The printed "cymk" on the magazine was retained by the G9 in raw but went bye byes on the "NR smearing F31" in which you are stuck with and can't undo.
And you stated your F30 jpegs are WAY better than the G9's? You must have gotten a dud G9 or don't know how to handle that wild beast. Or else you got a Super F30!
Here are 100% crops of the G7 in jpeg which I owned before getting the G9 for raw. It has the same output as the G9 in jpeg. This is it against the terrific Canon 30D at low ISOs. Not bad, eh? If it can give a 30D a very close run for it's money, then your F30 must have ONE HELL of a beast if it blows the socks off the G9 in jpeg. It would blow the 30D along with it if that was the case!
And finally.....since you a bit hooked on noise. You forget one big thing with the G9 and noise for indoor shooting.....there is no need for noise with G9 at all!
Ever hear of a hotshoe? It's not put there to decorate the G9 for xmas. It is there for a purpose. There is no need for NOISE on a G9 for indoor shooting with a low enough ceiling if you don't want noise! And I for one, have no hang-ups in using it either for social gatherings, birthdays ect when I want the upmost in quality but still not wanting to lug all the bigger DSLR gear. Hell...it's another one of the reasons I bought the G9.....to use this function!
So try to get this quality from your F30 indoors. No noise or detail loss as we seen above from NR smearing in having to shoot ISO800/1600 with F30. And if you want to try and use low ISOs to match G9's image quality with the F30..... you will have to use that little redeye junky of a flash which will give very harsh shadows and unrealistic colors. No harsh shadows, redeye or unrealistic colors on the G9. Just pure quality with bags of detail.
And all with a flash that costed me €100 and is as small as your SB400 (coat pocketable) which I can bounce it off a ceiling at ISO80. Both flash and G9 together in a my bag is still way smaller than one entry level DSLR like D40 in a bag. And it will produce just as good images indoors for birthdays and social gatherings too!.
So off you go now....... and try to gather all the info you like to fire at me with this thread you started. No amount of info will ever convince of the facts even if you pointed me to some stupid jpeg comparisons from reviews. And most of all you will never take away from me in what I have and in what I produced here. And that is with MY PP ABILITY and with MY CAMERA (G9), not only will I technically produce as good images at nearly all ISOs with the G9 as your F30, but also technically, the camera itself (as DPR put it) is leagues ahead in all other areas compared to compacts like your F30.......
......so boo bl--dy hoo!
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Packy
) I find RAW unnecessary, slow as the dickens to fool with, and a camera such as the G9 gives great images with JPEG. Try it and judge for yourself. 
