Noise in P-mode in Nikon D80

[ekaterin]

Hello!
I bought a Nikon D80 camera for some time ago and as all nice girsl should do, I've read the manual. There was that using P-mode is optimal for lazy photogs or if you don't have time or if you want to use close to auto mode. So I went out to take some pictures in the nature and...I got NOISE with capital N. The strangest thing is that I don't get any noise shooting in auto-mode in the same light and using the same subjects. The picture in auto-mode is perfect. I tried everywhere with A, P and S-mode outside/inside och still and moving objects (who knew my cat could ran THAT fast), but still same thing... noise on anything (P, A, S) but Auto-mode. I checked the ISO and it was set to auto or 200.
Can it be so that camera overwrites the ISO-setting? Please give advice.. I am starting to get desparate here...

 

[PhotoXopher]

Well for one it was shot in 1600 ISO, the D80 isn't worth much past 800 tops in my opinion (as far as noise goes).

Learn your camera and what it's capable of, and get out of 'P mode' so you can make the most of what you have, which is one heck of a camera body.

You can also set your max Auto ISO setting to 800, that should help as well.

 

[Baaaark]

Yikes. On lots of cameras, auto mode will auto EVERYTHING, including your ISO. It may be 200 whenever you aren't in auto, but auto whenever you are. If that's the case its probably bumping it up to 800 or so when you go out and take pictures in at dusk.

 

[ekaterin]

So you advice is to try to lock ISO to max 800 and monitor it very closely and skip auto iso?..

 

[Baaaark]

So you advice is to try to lock ISO to max 800 and monitor it very closely and skip auto iso?..

This is a good idea.

 

[PhotoXopher]

No.

I wouldn't purposely shoot at 800 ISO, I would try and shoot at 400 or less on a D80. I wouldn't shoot at 800 if I didn't have to and I wouldn't go over it period. Use flash if you have to (if it's allowed where you are shooting of course). The closer to base ISO you can get the better your images will turn out so most of it depends on what you are shooting and the conditions you are shooting in.

If you want to stay in semi-auto mode then set your max ISO to 800 in the Auto ISO setting.

Personally I think you would benefit more learning what all those settings do and how aperture, shutter speed and ISO play together. Try setting your camera on manual mode and change one setting at a time on the same scene so you can see what happens. That's the beauty of digital, you can learn so much by just TRYING things - the feedback is instant.

 

[kundalini]

It's been a while since I've used it, but I tried to not raise ISO on my D80 beyond 400 and shot mostly at ISO100, unless I had to have the shot. I also found mine to meter a bit hot when shooting in bright daylight, so I generally set the Exposure Comp to -0.3 to (mostly) -0.7.

The D80 is a great little camera, but it really doesn't handle high ISO too well.

As others mentioned, the sooner you are able to handle more control of your settings, the sooner you begin to enjoy a SLR. Apeture Priority is a good place to start.