Thanks for the nice comments. I'm not an expert here; however, I'll try to answer your questions from my (limited) experience. The only photo that I did any pp for is the one with the woman on the bench. I gave it a small bit of "contrast." Other than that, all the images were straight out of camera. The G9 is perfect for me because I don't have a lot of time for photography and like to spend it all out shooting. I find that for the most part I don't have to post process - like in the above images. However, I have Photoshop Elements2 and do make some use of it, especially with my XTi. For the G9 I never spend more than a minute or two just tweaking a few things - contrast, brighter, sharp. Whatever. However the G9 has a lot of features and manual settings including 2 custom settings which means, find the best settings for you (aperture/shutter/whater) and save it. With the G9, in-camera (auto) settings are better than any camera I've used.

Noise reduction - there is some noise reduction in-camera, but from what I've read, it's less than the G7 - and less than other p&s cameras. You can get noise reduction software if you inclined to do so, but so far I haven't wanted or needed it. For me the G9 hasn't needed it for the ISO200 - the 400 is a bit noisy, but not as bad as a lot of others I've seen.

RED - from what I've read, different brands have different color issues. Some have blue, some magenta, etc. Canon's color issue happen to be red. Personally I've never had a problem with my images. However, I believe if someone is pixel peeping, they would find the red a problem - as they would blue/magenta, etc. on other cameras. As I said, I'm not the expert here - I know I can get good results right out of camera - and I don't print beyond 8x10 which is fine. WB - I leave it on auto all the time. No problems for me personally. SKIN TONES - yes, it is possible to get slightly reddish skin tones. However, there is a setting on the camera that fixes this quickly (sorry, I don't recall which one).

FILTERS: you can use filters on the G9 but you need an adaptor. Check out Lensmate.com for adaptors for Canon cameras. You can then use any filter you wish. The lens is 58mm I believe. ND - Neutral Density filter - the G9 comes with this filter built in which you can turn on or off. I turn it on when I'm shooting on bright sunny days - I get a nice blue sky with this - I had it on with the shots you viewed. It filters the light - how much light gets into the camera.

Circuit City - I meant to say "AAA" membership. Sorry about the AA. They are offering a 10% discount for AAA membership. I believe it is still available.

Let me just say that I found it very challenging to choose a p&s to "replace" my heavier lenses. It took me weeks - even a couple of months - to decide on a P&S as I was always comparing the images to my XTi. It doesn't work. P&S cameras are very limited. There is no perfect one. Some get better results at higher ISO - but the IQ isn't as good, and so on. I am a Canon person - and with all the glitches - I love the Canon color (red is easy to fix for the most part as there are so many setting options). The p&s lenses are very small compared to the ones used with a dslr. You will not get results like you will with a DSLR. However, I have come close with the G9. Obviously my comments are subjective. After much research and trying out 4 different cameras, I found the G9 to be the best of the bunch for me personally.

I don't know anything about the FZ8 - however, just to confuse you more the new FZ18 is a nice camera from what I've read. However, comparing the images, the G9 IMO is brighter/crisper and cleaner.

Liz

Hope this helps.