OK, I understand why noise is always going to be an issue, especially with P&S cameras because of the smaller size of the CCD chips as manufacturers ratchet up resolution by cramming more pixels onto these chips.
Recently my trusty old P&S, a Sony DSV-1 dies on me. Ultimately I'm gonna migrate to the DSLR platform, but for the near future I elect to stay with a P&S replacement simply because I've gotten spoiled carrying around a pocket-sized manual P&S camera.
After researching things on dpreview, I choose the Canon G9 because I want a manual P&S and I'm drawn to the G9's ability to shoot RAW. Both dpreview and folks in the Canon forum there point to noise issues with the G9 at ISO 400 and above. Of course how this affects one is relative to how and what you shoot.
Personally, I'm happy with what I'm seeing from the G9 thus far ( though I've not really had it in the field yet doing my usual thing ). For me, I'm jumping from a 5.1 Mpx camera to a 12.1 Mpx G9. And yes, I can indeed produce the noise that folks at dpreview and elsewhere speak about if I ratchet up the ISO.
But shouldn't I also be able to reduce some of this noise effect by dropping down to lower resolutions such as 7 or 5 Mpx? Sure, one wants to shoot at high resolutions, but in certain light I'm willing to forgo high resolution if I can produce a little less noise as I'm not printing these images ( or if I do, it's a 5x7 or smaller ).
At this stage I'm just playing with RAW and JPG shots as I expand my skill set with RAW and Photoshop while I wait for the not too distant future when I talke the DSLR plunge. Are there any other techniques to minimize noise?
Barry