I had Fuji 3800 in past. Was mostly happy with that camera. Came to US for a few months and saw amazing deals for Fuji S9000 (Known as S95000 outside US). Got it for $430 from Fuji authorized dealer :)
Features :
10x Optical Zoom ( 28 - 300 mm )
9 Mega Pixel
80 - 1600 ISO
28 mm Wide angle
1/4000 to 30 seconds shutter speed
RAW mode
Full manual mode
zoom control through lense barrel
manual focus ring
can accept 58 lense and filters
Solid, SLR-style body
VERY GOOD low light focus with AF Assist
Hot shoe for adding external flash
It has quitea few things I was looking for. Fujifilm FinePix S9000 is equipped with an in-house createdlens. One that features a superb zoom range of 28-300mm.The fact that the range starts at 28mm is worthyof a compliment. Most other cameras in this price range start from 35+ mm.
Have a look at this sample that I shot few weeks back.
https://flickr.com/photos/newshutterbug/tags/samplezoom/show/
This has a shot of a flag pole from full zoom to normal settings.
Noise:
NO noise at all at ISO 80, very little nosie till ISO 400, ISO 800 usable, ISO 1600.. well if you "must" geta nightshot witout tripod, then probably you can bear with noise. Excellent print quality, good color, very good 13x19 inch prints.
I got this photo :
https://flickr.com/photos/newshutterbug/219265529/
printed at 13x19 and result was awesome.
Good night shots as well.
https://flickr.com/photos/newshutterbug/tags/night/show/
As with any other camera, you need a tripod to get a good multi second exposure.
What is not good about this camera:
Very poor software. suggest using picasa instead of software that comes with camera
Nearly useless RAW conversion software. Use s7raw instead.
Manual focus does not display current focus distance
Does not have image stabilization.