My Fuji F700 does provide wider latitude when processed with downloaded
freeware.
See RAW Conversion at :
http://www.photoprojects.net/fujif700.html
Gene

Many cameras are losing a stop because the native color balance of the
sensor/CFA combo is not white.  It seems that many Bayer filters cut a
*lot* more red than green, with blue somewhere in-between, and most of
the cameras do not do *anything* at all for white balance when
digitizing the sensor image, so the red channel uses almost a bit less
depth than the green, and its noise and posterization are spread into
the other channels in the demosaicing process.  Perhaps it would cause a
speed problem, reading the sensor, but I think that if the sensor/CFA
combe is a half stop less sensitive to blue, and a stop less sensitive
to red, then it should amplify those channels differently, based on the
white balance setting.

For DSLRs, in general, the sensors are already more sensitive at ISO 100
than the cameras are delivering.  The limitation on the usefulness of
the shadows in these cases is imposed more by the 12-bit digitization
than the sensor itself, as is evidenced by the fact the the same
shadows, when they are shot at the same f-stop and shutter speed at
higher ISOs, have far more levels and detail than the ISO 100 shadows.