May I add my 2 cents worth, FWIW? Film grain I can put up with, and even find it attractive in some cases; but I must admit I find digital image noise VERY ugly and annoying. Of the cameras I've owned (not being overloaded with money), the absolute worst was a Trust 910Z. The images it produced at 200 iso & above were completely unusable, and those at 100 weren't that inspiring either. A Kodak 3.1 MP (I forget the model) went too far in the opposite direction, producing grass that looked like a snooker table, and painted hair. I now have a Panasonic Lumix FZ7, which is great, but also produces awful noisy images at 400 iso in available light (though flash seems OK). Maybe I've been unlucky, but I now consider some sort of NR software indispensable. The upshot is that I have tried a lot of NR apps, and have settled on Imagenomic's Noiseware Pro plugin. With a bit of tweaking, it can remove all noise without loosing too much detail (see image). You may prefer something else, but it costs nothing to give 'em a try. Most have some sort of free demo. Hope this helps. Best, Cal