hi greg,
thanks for taking time out to respond. you are correct with the lens 18-55. The f stop i used was f5.6 which may explain the darkness. At the time I was playing around with the iso settings and exposure time and more or less forgot the f settings
I could however see quite a bit of noise on the higher iso settings. perhaps this won't be the case with the focal length more open. But i will definitely open it up next time and reduce the exposure time to 20 sec from 25 when at 18mm.
thanks again.
Russ