Ideal Sharpness/Noise Suppression, Etc in RSE?

I tried to search for this but I can't find the solution. It's definitely my settings but I'm not sure exactly where I'm going wrong.

I tried RAW a couple times and the main reason I don't like it right now is I cannot for the life of me get smooth TIFF or JPEG conversions out of it. I can't seem to find that perfect balance between noise suppression/detail extraction and sharpness. Every single image has kind of a smudgy grain look to it. Lower ISOs are cleaner but not as nice as straight from cam JPEGS and the higher ISOs are horrendous compared to straight from cam JPEGS.

Does anyone have any ideas? I've attached a sample of what I mean. It almost looks like a mosaic.

PS: Here's the full image. Looks fine when it's small. But that doesn't help me any. heh.

Did you try this in "Raw Image Task"? the noise reduction in RIT are much closer to the in-camera (and superior to RSE/RSP in my opinion).
There are a lot of threads on this subject on the pixmantech forum.

I love using Rawshooter (i even purchased the premium license), but for high ISO images i still use RIT.

Well these are ISO800 images...high ISO in my opinion. I guess it's really not just me then. I'll give RIT a shot if it's free!

ISO 400+ is high in my book

RIT is the basic raw converter in zoombrowser. Rightclick an image in zoombrowser and choose "Process RAW Images..."

You should seach the pixmantec forum on this - there is a lot of posts on noise settings.

ok thank hemuni. I'm new to RAW and hated it because of this...but I think I'll try to overcome it and make the best of it. JPEG is usually good but in tricky lighting, RAW can come in handy.

If you are new to RAW i suggest starting with zoombrowsers Raw Image Task. The layout of the controls are similar to those of the camera so its a very familiar interface.

I've played around with RAW and I can get my white balance, exposure, etc all set up the way I want/need...but it's that danged noise/sharpness balance I can't seem to find. I'll keep playing I guess.

RIT dont have any controls for noise reduction. I just applies the default amount, similar to that of the camera.

There is a control to adjust sharpness in 6 steps.

if you want more noisereduction you could also try noise ninja or neat image.

Actually I have NeatImage. I'm not really concerned with removing noise. I'm concerned more with the way my noise is appearing (if that's even what it is) in my RAW files. See that it's kind of a mosaic-ish type of noise. Or edges, or whatever. It's just not the same kind of noise that straight JPEG delivers...and I'm not even sure that it IS noise because of it.

I wouldn't use detail extraction and sharpness when I'm using noise suppression. They work against each other. And I'd never sharpen in the raw conversion. It's best saved for a last step in PS when you know what the final image size will be. Unless you're just sharpening a jpg to send off as a proof.

Well I do currently have all those settings turned all the way down. I still get that wierd mosaic kind of pattern going on...maybe that's just how RSE works??

I know exactly what you mean, it tends to make everything look a bit processed and "lumpy". Even with everything turned down, even in the processing defaults, RSE/P still seems to do some noise reduction which leads to this effect