Used 40D producing more grain than expected?

Yesterday, I purchased a used 40d, I put it's 4000th shutter click on it. I took about 400 pictures yesterday down on the wharf, and once I imported them, I noticed grain. This could be completely normal, but I'm not sure. It's more than I expected though.

Link to an unprocessed raw.

http://www.mediafire.c​om/?b41kx8781izyaj9

Taken with a 17-40L.

Any help is appreciated

I went ahead and opened it up in Lightroom. I've got the XS which has the same sensor as the 40D.

Personally I think your image is underexposed. I pushed the exposure up 0.7 stops and got it where I think it should be. I pushed it almost a full stop and I really don't see any grain of any significance. The little bit I saw was easily taken care of with a little noise reduction.

I also see that you shot with ISO 250 as opposed to 200 or 400. I remember reading somewhere that its better (I hate to use that word without having information to back it up) to shoot with the even, full stop ISOs because the camera isn't pushing or pulling exposure. Hopefully someone will properly explain what I just said, or tell me I'm completely wrong.

Too much grain compared to what and viewed at what size?

tkbslc wrote in post #13761039
Too much grain compared to what and viewed at what size?

Compared to my t1i, and no particular size.

There is not enough grain in the picture to be concerned with. Underexposed as already mentioned and ISO 250 did not do you any favors... but noise not an issue.

imsellingmyfoot wrote in post #13761028
I went ahead and opened it up in Lightroom. I've got the XS which has the same sensor as the 40D.

Personally I think your image is underexposed. I pushed the exposure up 0.7 stops and got it where I think it should be. I pushed it almost a full stop and I really don't see any grain of any significance. The little bit I saw was easily taken care of with a little noise reduction.

I also see that you shot with ISO 250 as opposed to 200 or 400. I remember reading somewhere that its better (I hate to use that word without having information to back it up) to shoot with the even, full stop ISOs because the camera isn't pushing or pulling exposure. Hopefully someone will properly explain what I just said, or tell me I'm completely wrong.

I will experiment with different ISOs, and the majority of the shots were underexposed. I had the camera on AV, and it was set dead center.

The older cameras kind of suck at exposure. My 30D was forever parked at +1/2 EV and I still needed to brighten about half the images.

I'd also check noise reduction settings. The 15 and 18MP sensors have far different settings. When I went from a 30D to 60D I thought the images were less noisy, but softer. 95% of that ended up being the noise reduction methods (basically the 60D uses lots and the 30D had none).

And P.S. You are being too sensitive about noise. Nobody notices this kind of noise but the guy with the RAW editor and 100% view.

If you were shooting snow in your other shots then your meter did exactly what it was supposed to (make the white snow middle gray). When shooting snow you need to add some exposure compensation to make the snow white....

MuteGoose wrote in post #13761062
I will experiment with different ISOs, and the majority of the shots were underexposed. I had the camera on AV, and it was set dead center.

With the sharp contrast between the white snow and darker colors underneath, the camera was probably a little confused.

Thank you everyone for great suggestions that make sense!

Right about 1.5 stops underexposed. What metering mode were you in?

And as the others said, there's no issue with the noise, itself, there.

MuteGoose wrote in post #13761062
...I had the camera on AV, and it was set dead center.

And there's your problem Dead center is just about never the right exposure in Av/Tv mode; especially when you have a large amount of lights or darks (lots of white, in this case). Whites like that will trick the meter into setting an exposure that moves the whole scene toward a neutral gray, resulting in the underexposure you see; thus requiring you to dial in some + exposure compensation.

Lots of black would have given you the exact opposite and required - EC on your part.

Snydremark wrote in post #13761152
Right about 1.5 stops underexposed. What metering mode were you in?

And as the others said, there's no issue with the noise, itself, there.

And there's your problem Dead center is just about never the right exposure in Av/Tv mode; especially when you have a large amount of lights or darks (lots of white, in this case). Whites like that will trick the meter into setting an exposure that moves the whole scene toward a neutral gray, resulting in the underexposure you see; thus requiring you to dial in some + exposure compensation.

Lots of black would have given you the exact opposite and required - EC on your part.

This thread is not making me look good.

Coincidentally, that was also the first time I used AV. I know nothing about metering modes, it's on my list of things I need to learn asap.

So shooting snows means I need to over expose slightly.

It makes you look fine, as long as you're willing to learn. It's when you stop learning that you look bad

Read "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson for a good starting point.

Snow may require more than "slightly" overexposing, depending on how much of the scene it is. I'll usually spot meter off of it and set the needle somewhere between +1 and +2, depending on how much ambient light there is.

Snydremark wrote in post #13761226
It makes you look fine, as long as you're willing to learn. It's when you stop learning that you look bad

Read "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson for a good starting point.

Snow may require more than "slightly" overexposing, depending on how much of the scene it is. I'll usually spot meter off of it and set the needle somewhere between +1 and +2, depending on how much ambient light there is.

I know I have a lot to learn, and I'm excited to do it. That book has been on my amazon wishlist for a while.

It's really hard to read there; you should get it in your hands