About 5 years ago I bought a Nikon D80, then my health went south and the camera sat unused until now. Just curious as to what ISO setting you guys can use before noise (granularity) becomes noticeable? This is a 10 mp camera and pix will be shown on a 32 inch HD 1080 TV.
I am hoping to get enough strength back to use it for the upcoming fall colors.

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Regards, Ron
USASA 1965/69

are what we used to call film speed...ASA is the American setting but the same as the International, ISO, if memory serves me correctly Kodachrome was 25 ASA... SLOW Ektachrome came in a variety.. 64.200 ASA, 125 - Plus X, Medium and Fast was Tri X - 400 ASA. Tri X could be "pushed" to 1200 but it was "grainy"

You need high shutter speed for low light situations or when a very fast shutter speed is needed.

In the old days, if your meter went south, you could look around and use your ASA (ISO) as the shutter speed, and then the f-stop was based on the light situation. Bright sunlight was f16, shade, f8, cloudy, f11, snow, f22. While not perfect, it would give you an image you could work with. For your leaf peeper shots, in the bright sunlight, an ISO of 125-200 should give you a shutter speed that is fast enough to minimize camera motion. If you use the "program mode", I think you will be very happy with the images.

If you are shooting black cats in coal bins then you will need all the ISO you can get and will have a "noisy" image.

Glad you are getting better and will be able to enjoy the change of seasons!

Go to Nikon D80-Slr Review: Sample Pictures

This has sample photos using the D80. Scroll down until you see the M&M toy in the photos. He takes the same photo at ISO 100 up to 1600. Click on the image for a full size image and compare the granularity. This is a good site to compare cameras before you buy.

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Corripe Cervisiam

The D80 has a sensor that is similar to my "old" D200 - It can take excellent photos, but personally I could not tolerate the "noise" in photos above ISO 400 - better to stay at 100 or 200. I have shot some - when I absolutely had to - at higher ISO's and applied some noise reduction later when processing the photo (I use Noise Ninja). Here's a shot from a few years back when I was using the D200 exclusively - a shot of our niece in a soccer game under lights @ ISO 1250 with NR applied - not too bad (1/500 @ f/2.8) - at this size it looks ok, but I wouldn't want to make an 11x14 out of it.



Sensors have come a long way in recent years - my D700 can easily shoot at 1600 or 3200 without a problem. Here's a shot of our other niece playing under lights (she is on right) that I shot with the D700 at ISO 12500 (believe it or not) the field was not as brightly lit - 1/500 @ f/4.5:

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Lou

I use a Pentax K10D for most of my digital work and it is similar with 10.2 mp although I think it uses a different sensor than the D80. I generally start to see noticeable noise at an ISO of 800 although that doesn't mean that photos are useless at that setting. If you're trying to make poster size prints, it may make a difference but for something around 8x10 it will probably be ok. If you're worried about shooting speed, see what kind of Nikon mount prime lenses will work with the D80. Generally prime lenses will be much faster than zooms. As an example, my Pentax 18-55 zoom kit lens at 55mm when wide open has an f-stop of f5.6. This is quite slow when you consider that I can use a 50 year old Pentax 50mm Takumar that will open up to a f-stop of f1.4, a Takumar 35mm lens at f2 and even a 28mm lens at f2.8. So prime lenses will let you shoot at a lower ISO although they don't have the versatility of a zoom. Once you find out which of the Nikon mounts fit your camera, look for them on e-bay. And here's a tip about that. Quite often, you can find lenses cheaper when mounted on a camera than the lens by itself. I've bought $100 lenses for $40 or $50 simply because they were mounted on a less than desirable camera. It doesn't always work that way but it does happen. The final advantage of old lenses is they are made of metal and glass rather than plastic and plastic! So most are built like tanks.

CW

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