I noticed a grainy pattern in the photos from my Lumix P&S, and was using noise reduction to reduce it and get smoother tones. Then I realized it was the sharpening that the camera was applying to the photos when it saves them. I turned the in-camera sharpening down to zero and that was it. This in camera sharpening is not the unsharp mask that we all use when post processing on the computer, it's a pattern that give the image the appearance of being sharper when viewed at a normal viewing range. This is great for folks that are using the images straight from the camera, but I think for those of us that post process, turning off all in camera sharpening will probably give better results. I've noticed that Canon DPP does the same kind of sharpening pattern when it's cranked up.
You can see the pattern in the sample on the left, while the one on the right was taken after I turned off the in camera sharpening.
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