So what Happened here? Help sought.

Last night whilst outside smoking a saw an image that needed capturing.  My mind said perfect lowlight (moon and incandescent street light glow) and so I got the E500 and 14-45 loaded onto the tripod and snapped away with Auto ISO, MF and two shutter speeds, 4 sec exposure and 8 second exposure, all triggered by timer.

Suffice to say at first glance in camera the 8 second exposure was the best and that proved to be in processing.  And all images looked great at processing size on the PC UNTIL I zoomed up to 100% and lo and behold, NOISE!!  But not your normal noise in darker areas, this was scattered coloured dots all over the image.  I'd have said pixelating but the incidents are random and no clear pattern.

So what do I have.  I had the flash activate for the very first part of the exposure so am I picking up bugs and dust in the atmosphere between me and the subject or is it worse, camera issues?

Thanks for your time and comments in advance.

Thane

--
The digital image is a dozen or so words
positioned carefully to paint a picture
that challenges the eye
and tricks the mind
into thinking, light is a title
and the palette a taste bud
worth tasting.