Noise Control

So... I got a new camera, and thought it was all set up and ready to go, settings and all. I practiced with it manually and tried to get the crispest of pictures by using the focus ring, but it wasn't doing the job. So Saturday I had my first practice shoot (not going professional anytime soon, if ever, just having fun playing around and seeing if that could be an option someday) and set it to Auto Focus, thinking that would be safest since I couldn't get it clear manually. Well, after the shoot, I found that the pictures were awesome, but not crisp as I'd imagined. What was I doing wrong? Well, I didn't know, I thought maybe it was camera shake. Then I had another practice shoot, this time with my professional photographer friend, and she told me it wasn't normal and thought it might be a problem with the camera, since we bought it refurbished. Sigh. Disappointed, I got ready to take it to my friend's photo teacher to have him examine it to see if I should return it. Thankfully, before then, I did one more study of the settings and found that the noise reductions setting had been disabled. Turned it back on and voila! Crisp. So bummed that my first shoots didn't turn out perfect, but glad to start learning. And excited to finally get me some crisp clean pics. :)