To measure and compare the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H9's noise levels we photographed the standard Gretag Macbeth ColorChecker with it and a number of rivals at each of their ISO settings.

The crops are taken from the original images and presented here at 100%. To compare typical noise in skies and dark shadows the crops were taken from patches 3 and 24 respectively.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H9 appears to deliver very clean and smooth results up to 400 ISO with texture from noise only really appearing at 800 ISO and above. Its results certainly look quite different to those from its superzoom rivals, the Panasonic FZ8, FZ50 and Olympus SP-550UZ, which all exhibit greater texturing through noise artefacts at lower sensitivities.

As always though, the flat coloured patches of Gretag chart can hide a multitude of sins when it comes to noise reduction, and some smearing is already quite visible on many of the crops below. So to see how the H9 handles real-life subjects at each of its sensitivities - and crucially how it compares to a rival model - check out our Outdoor noise results page.