Dimage A2 - Noise pollution!

I have a Konica-Minolta Dimage A2. Apparently I have a rare "Jekyll-Hyde" version. Or maybe you all will tell me it's not so rare. Or maybe you'll tell me it's operator error! I can never tell from one session to the next whether my pictures are going to turn out fantastic (that is, clear with no noise) or horrible (loaded with little noise marks, they look like \\\\\ across the image). Is it just me? I'm a newbie here (in fact, this is my first post) and I under-utilize the camera's functionality, pretty much doing point & shoot picture taking. (This is what led me here-- I want to get a little more sophisticated in my picture-taking). In other words I haven't set the ISO, WB or other settings. I've just let the camera take care of all that-- that may be where I'm going wrong.

I've put an example of the garbage I'm getting here. I was so disappointed that the gorgeous scenery was marred with these marks:
<A HREF="http://www.artfulx.com/a2.html">Noisy Picture</A>

In particular, look between the two trees in the crop of the original image. You can't miss the stuff.

I'm incredibly frustrated because this was not an inexpensive camera. I am wishing at this point that I'd bought the Rebel 300.

Any suggestions? I hate the roulette feeling of never knowing if this picture series will turn out or not. I should mention that the cases where I've had the problems have been scenics. I love nature shots. Of course it never acts up when I'm just taking pictures of the kids playing around the house! When it's good, I get awesome images. But when it's bad... I want to cry.

Thanks for your help!
Alicia

I took a look, and I couldn't see the marks immediately.
I had to zoom it to 200% before I could spot the problem.
It seems to be restricted to shadow (dark green) areas.
Which may be why it only shows up in your scenic photos?
I can't see it in the lighter green, or in highlight areas.

Paul,
Thanks for taking the time to look at the image. I can't believe you couldn't see the problem, though. Were you talking about the first image on that page, or the second? The problem is not apparent in the first picture, which is just to give you a reference for the 2nd picture. On the second picture, I cropped down to just one part of it. There are diagonal lines running throughout the image. Kind of reminds me of courduroy material. Anyway, this stupid artifact is on most of my pictures and I don't know what to do about it!

Alicia

Alicia,

I see what you're talking about. I have an A2 also. Have you loaded the newest firm ware update for the camera. I've heard of this problem that some A2 were having and the firm ware updated cured the problem.

Also, after you have loaded try setting the camera to capture a in the 'fine' setting and not the standard. It gives ia bit more data to work with the pics in photoshop or other programs.

I'll post the newest firm ware for you in just a bit.

-Hope this helps