This sample is a great example of why you want a clean image in the first place. By cleaning up the noise, you've lost a lot of detail. Of course, with a head shot, a soft focus look is usually desired, as it blurs the skin nicely.

I spent last week shooting with an Oly SP350, and the noise almost killed me. With the Rebel XT, I'm used to noise starting to be noticeable at 800 ISO, but with the SP350, the 100 ISO shots showed plenty of noise in the shadows. It still makes nice pictures when used properly though.

Matthew