Ho ho ho! My Christmas present to myself arrived at the beginning of December, a new Lumix S9 camera by Panasonic.

I posted my initial comments a couple of weeks ago, and hope to share more of my experience with the camera shortly.

But first–just because I was curious–here’s an old-fashioned, side-by-side test to compare five of my cameras, the S9 and five older digital cameras, including one that was introduced 12 years ago.

This test includes six photos taken with each of the five different cameras. If you dig around on Flickr, you’ll be able to see which is which, but hopefully that won’t wreck the suspense for you when you look through the first time.

The five cameras include my little travel camera, a Canon G7xiii, and the Christmas gift to myself, the new Lumix S9, shown here.

I hesitate to prejudge, but to my eye, there’s little to distinguish the best from the others in this set of photos.

The bottom line appears to be that for this purpose–small photos posted online–it is very, very difficult to tell the difference between these cameras. One of them cost just over $3,000 (and the price for the current model is much higher). The others range down in price from there, although none of these was inexpensive.

The digital sensors range in size from 1″ (the Canon G7xiii) up to APS-C (Canon M6ii), and to full frame (three cameras), and generally a larger sensor is believed to give better results, just as larger film sizes would yield sharper and clearer photographs.

Here’s an illustration showing the relative sensor sizes.

Screenshot

Admittedly, this set of photos doesn’t tell the whole story. But it’s a good reminder that the best camera is the one that you have with you, as the old photographer’s adage goes.

Let us know your thoughts after looking through the photos from all five cameras.