Hi Carman,
For family snaps, the S9500/S9600 is great, and I've really enjoyed using it...I'm torn between selling it to recoup some of the cost of the D80 and keeping it as a second camera...choices, choices
I agree, it's better to have some shadow to play with in an image than to have blown (and hence unrecoverable) highlights; I'm just trying to find out if the D80 pics *should* look a bit on the dark side...if the general consensus is "yes", then I'm happy.
Regards
Birsay