Nikon D80 and ISO Settings

[daviddilworth]

I've been taking bird photos for about a year. I'll be the first to admit I don't know my camera. I've had it set to ISO 100 all this time. I use a Tamron 200-500 zoom almost exclusively. Light is always an issue. I met someone on the trail last weekend who suggested I raise the ISO to 400.

I use a Nikon P4 on a Nikon Fieldscope 82mmED and I went over all my photos and found that they are all at ISO 50. I live in Washington State and lighting is often a challenge. Is raising my ISO on my cameras going to help me with my lighting problems and how far can I raise it without getting noise? I hate noise! Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Keith Reeder]

Increased ISO equals increased noise - that's an unavoidable fact of life - but some cameras are better than others in that regard.

My Canons live at 400 ISO and above, and yep, there's noise sometimes - but I can always fix it with Neat Image without losing detail: if you can do this with D80 images, all well and good.

One thing the D80 has that I miss on Canon cameras is proper Auto ISO - you might well be advised to give that a go.

[Jaff]

My D80 lives at 200 ISO, even on bright days. I'll switch it to a lower one when I'm taking a shot that allows me the time to fiddle around with the exposure. I rarely venture above 400 ISO unless the situation really warrants it.

Attached shot was done at 800 ISO to give you an idea.
Jaff

[bkrownd]

With my D80 I use ISO 200 under clear skies, and ISO 400 under overcast skies. ISO 800 when I'm desperate to get a photo in the fog, but color trueness really starts to suffer then.

I've attached my ISO 800 photo, too. ;)

[daviddilworth]

Thank you to those who have responded to my question. I'll do some experimentation.