Flash Pops up in bright light

[socamb]

I just purchased a Nikon d3000.
It is a bright sunny day. i have the camera in auto mode using the 55-200 zoom lense.

from time to time the flash pops up, even in bright sunlight.

if i put the camera in P mode, it does not seem to happen.

am i missing something?

 

[tirediron]

Which mode do you mean by 'Auto'. In Nikonese, "P" (Program) is the fully automatic mode, unless they've changed things for the D3000. My guess however is that there may be a dark area in the scene that the camera is metering which is causing the flash to trip in

 

[DennyCrane]

The smart-ass, smug answer would be "Stop shooting in auto mode", but I'll get back to that...

Is there a landscape mode? I know that at least on Canons, that's one of the auto modes that's designed for outdoor use that will NOT pop the flash up. Give that a try and you shouldn't have any flash.

...but, I'd really work towards getting away from auto modes entirely and learn to use the manual modes. Try aperture priority. Set your ISO and your aperture and the camera will decide your shutter speed for your settings. Then move on to full manual. Make use of the cameras light meter.

 

[robdavis305]

On nikon the p stands for program mode, it has a setting that says auto.

 

[robdavis305]

You can take average pics in auto mode but who wants to be average? If you want average I would assume that you would have gotten a point and shoot camera instead of the D3000. You need to by the book Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson and learn how to take it off auto mode and then you can really start having fun setting depth of field and more settings that can really bring out some awesome photos.

 

[loratliff]

The flash will never pop up in Program mode. Program mode is virtually identical to Auto, except no flash and you are able to set your white balance and ISO manually.