E-500 and noise at low ISO

[photofun]

Can anyone help me understand what is going on? I'm a relatively new DSLR owner so I'm guessing it's something I'm doing wrong or I'm not understanding the way things work. I noticed that I got what I thought was a lot of noise at 400 ISO so I just stayed at the lower ISOs. I recently took pictures at a March of Dimes walk and it was a rainy, dreary day so went up to 200 ISO thinking I'd be okay. Some of my pictures have more noise than I would have expected. I've attached a cropped photo - I didn't feel comfortable posting people who haven't given their permission to be put out on the internet. You can see the noise in the the background. I shot in shutter priority since I didn't want to be caught with a slow shutter speed and end up with a lot of blurred pictures. Alot of the pictures weren't bad but some were. Is the noise more a result of inadequate light than the ISO which I though would correct that, but maybe I should have gone higher? Would the moisture in the air affect noise in photos? Any insight?

Thanks for any comments!!

[djc1026]

If you're going to pixel peep, you're likely to see noise at any ISO if you didn't get the exposure right. Prints don't always show the noise depending on the output size, but if you're looking at 100% all the time pay attention to how big that actually is. On my 510, shooting HQ jpgs, the actual size of my photos is between 8x10 and 10x14. At 100% though, I find more times than not if I get the exposure close to dead on, I have very little noise at ISO 100-400. I don't always achieve that spot on exposure as I'm a newb. Prints look great though at 8x10 and lower.

[jdepould]

I would expect a little extra noise, since it's a smaller sensor than the ones you find on Canon and Nikon bodies. That doesn't look bad, it's a pretty even grain, wouldn't really be distracting at normal sizes. To some extent, a properly exposed high ISO image will have less grain than a low ISO image that's been pushed in post, this is especially true if you shoot jpeg.

[photofun]

djc1026 - I haven't tried printing since I just assumed that I'd get what what I saw on my monitor on my prints as well. I would just choose a different shot that wasn't so noisey.

Jdepould - I wondered whether it would have turned out better with a higher ISO. I guess I shouldn't limit myself to the lower ISO just because of a bad experience. I will have to play with this and learn to use my camera better.

Thank you both for your input. You have quieted my initial panic and given me hope that my pictures can be better.

[albasphoto]

Though I am not familiar with the Olympus system, I can say that DSLRs do show some grain/noise if you underexpose the picture. In the crop you provided, it looks as if the camera underexposed the shot, which would lead to noise, especially in shadow areas.
A lot of people say that it's good to underexpose by 2/3, but actually with DSLRs it's actually better to expose more to the right. That is at least the case in my experience with Nikon cameras. Currently I have a D300 and even at base ISO of 200, there is a little bit of noise if I underexpose the shot.

The Olympus system is a 4/3 system, so smaller sensors, which could also exagerate the noise in shadow areas if underexposed. Not being familiar with the system, that is just a guess though.

Usually in prints, most of the noise does not clearly show up until ISO 800 in my experience, and even then it's still a very usable print.

[i_luv_ph0tos]

Yeah.. I think the pic is really underexposed that is why it shows some noise...

not that much though...

[photofun]

Thanks for your comments albasphoto and i_love_ph0tos. It is comforting to know that it's not the camera. Hopefully I'll get better selecting my settings and I won't have this problem.