Digital Photo Grain - Question

I'm getting high grain on photos I'm taking. I'm not sure if we have any photography 'buffs here, but I'll ask in case.

Image 1: *Removed, cleaning up*
Closeup: http://www.thinix.com/_images/istock_monitorgrain.jpg

Camera: Olympus E-20N
Shutter Speed: 1/50 sec
F/Stop: f/2.2
ISO: 80
Flash: Not Used

I've experimented with different ISO settings, different F/Stop values, and different flashes, including using a diffuser, with no luck. I don't like to blame bad photography on the camera, so I'm open to suggestions if there is anyone here who knows how to take good photos. I'm set up with a light kit using 600w tungsten bulbs, and have also experimented with setting the lights up at different angles, and differing levels of intensity and distance from the subject.

I'm nearly ready to give up and go be a garbage man for a living.

Use a tripod or back away from the subject, the lens probably can't focus that closely. There is a limit ya know. ;)

For film at least, using a lower film speed (ISO) reduces the film grain.

Might be the early morning high but that doesn't even look like a photo to me ...

You can try to dim the lights, set up a tripod and using the same ISO and fstop, get a light reading off the monitor, then overexpose it a stop.

yeah everything I have to say is use a tripod, that's the only way to go...
and put the iso to 50...

But it's pretty much up to the camera.
Even if I have a tripod and use iso 50 on my canon A70, I will have more grain than I would have running with a nikon 70D and taking photos...

Tripod was being used. I have other images where I focused on different areas of the monitor also:

http://www.mattstanzel.com/images/monitorgrain2.jpg (Note the base of the monitor)

And 80 is the lowest ISO the camera will do.

All I can see is the JPEG artifacts from the compression, do you still see noise in the camera RAW?

Yeah, the noise is still in the RAW files. Here is a JPG saved at highest quality:

http://www.mattstanzel.com/images/monitorgrain3.jpg

maybe your lens is dirty and of course you have noise, its way uber too dark pimp up the lighting j00 foo.!

Too dark??!! I'm using 600W Tungsten bulbs. Hell, it don't much no brighter dan dat mang! Of course, in the ones I've posted, I did have the lighting set to soft, rather than tight on the subject, but I had to because of the reflective surface of the monitor.

Maybe it is the camera: http://www.steves-digicams.com/2001_reviews/e20n_samples.html
See the candies image, shows the same type of grain.

And also here:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Olympus/oly_e20.asp
Click the "Sample Gallery" link to see sample images

heh mattboy I downloaded one of your golf pictures before and didn't even know it was yours.!

Sweet, keep downloading them. I finally got some higher resolution ones last fall, but no "People golfing" shots until later this spring.