Camera settings

Can anyone help with the setting on my Nikon P90.
First will tell you what pictures I'm going to take.
I am off to a grave yard, a real old one in deepest Southampton.
The setting I use most often is 5 megapixels, but was thinking trying 12 megapixel, and as it is going to be bl--dy cold out there did not wont to fiddly with settings.
Any tips would be good, I'm going tomorrow if it is not raining.

Re: Camera settings

If you are talking megapixels, you want to use either the highest setting, or the highest you can get away with on your memory card, bearing in mind image file size against mem card size - which is usually a compromise of the two.

Re: Camera settings

Thanks Graham, it says I will get 640 pictures on the high setting, will give it a try.

Re: Camera settings

What lighting conditions will you be shooting in, bright sunlight, or dusk can make a difference. Try googling Nikon Camera simulator, plenty of sites that let you play around online trying different settings to see the results.

Re: Camera settings

Quote "The setting I use most often is 5 megapixels, but was thinking trying 12 megapixel," unquote


ZX81

Please take below as advise and not criticism. I do realise that your camera may suit your needs very well
As lot I have learnt from my own mistakes please consider carefully

normal DSLR cameras start at 12mp anyway. I have to say I am rather shocked at the quote of 2mp 16.9mode . try getting a decent size A4 picture printed at 2mp and it would be pixelated so much you could almost count the dots.

Consider my Nikon D800 in Tiff mode and you get around 107 MP mark or more which puts into perspective how bad 2mp is.

Even my camcorder shoots stills at 16mp and that is mainly a video work camera


So with your camera my advice would be only shoot at
12mp and forget the rest if you want decent pictures


I did see in the reviews that it has it can manage an even more impressive 1.5 frames per second (which is staggeringly slow), and keep it up for approximately 17 shots.

i can see how on earth anyone can quote anything without linking to memory card speed

The reason why I mentioned this is when i first got into digital photography I made the same mistake. Yes i have made many and learn't from them. the worst is the card reading speed denoted on the memory card as MB/s. This has nothing to do with the GB card size which is a mistake many make.

You will be really struggling with a 15MP/s card

You would be hitting the barrier ever 2/3 shots as the card can't absorb the picture at the same rate the camera is trying to sent to it. so everything stops until the card can accept the next picture.

What never ceases to amaze me is people go out and buy very expensive cameras and lenses costing thousands of pounds, then get the cheapest memory card on the market

The minimum I would recommend would be 60MP/s irrespective of it being an 4/8 or 16 MP card to name but 3
I personally like to work with a class 10 (forget about class 4 no good for video work) 90 MB/s 16 GB cards

with that 90MB/s card the CF version with my NiKon D300 and battery pack attached I can fire of as many continuous shots at 8 FPS and the camera has not "frozen" yet.

So many times I have been asked why there is such a difference in price between cards with the same GB. The answer i always give is look at the MB/s and class of card first and the GB second, and you will get the answer.

Although I have been "into" photography for at least 60 years I am still at the learning stage as new products keep coming onto the market. Yes I still make obvious errors (me not having my thinking cap on) but hopefully not as many as before.

Photography is not who has the biggest most expensive latest to the market camera and lens, it is about the person behind the camera that makes the difference.
Yes experience does count but even someone with their first camera can get excellent shots.

little true story

when i had my business my manageress and I sometimes had the chance to go out on a days photography trip. Yes OH was glad to get me out of her hair for the day, and we are still all great friends.

Well one one trip were had just finished taking photos etc in an owl sanctuary and gone into the site cafe for a coffee.

On the next table was a middle age gentleman who had bought a Nikon camera the day before and it was the first time trying it out. OK so far?

Then the voices raise and he was yelling to his wife " I told you Nikon were no good I should have got a Canon ,this Nikon is dead useless bit of junk"

So Dawn my manageress who was nearest lent across and said her boss (me) had a Nikon which she sometimes used so maybe she could help

So he handed it to her almost threw it and she looked at it and asked where the battery was?

Yes you guessed it he had not put it in the camera let alone charge it up first.

With that he must have felt a right idiot and marched out of the cafe blaming his wife for not telling him about adding the battery.
Needless to say we both had to smile and raise our eyes to the sky

Again another little story

I had just got my first proper DSLR camera a Nikon D70s with a kit 18-70mm lens.

So on a different day we toddled off to the local zoo. I had not got much idea about shutter speed with apature and ISO and how they interlinked with each other. Yes I was a complete plank with it to start with

Anyway I was dead keen to get some pictures when the so called " know it all" passed by and in a loud voice said to his wife " Yes I think I will go to f8 at 70mm with ISO of whatever"

Talk about another idiot pretending to know it all and we both looked at each other and the same thought crossed both our minds. PRATT he more than likely had it in auto mode

Re: Camera settings

AS others have said there are so many variants when taking a photo to say which is correct for any given outside shots comes with experience.

Re: Camera settings

Some links that may be of help.

Post 5 is worth a read.

http://forums.steves-digicams.com/ne...-settings.html

http://dryreading.com/camera/index.html

Im still using my Nikon Coolpix 4300 as my DSLR went to heaven, the spec on your P90 far exceeds mine so although still an older model it will take decent photos.

Re: Camera settings

I must admit the advise is over whelming but will do my best, I have never been a photographer but always been interested, I was asked to take photos of a evening art and talk by local artist and some of my pictures went in the local rag, my only claim to fame, they must of been desperate.
At the moment it is bucketing down with snow so may have to put off the trip out.

Re: Camera settings

I think that when and if you really get interested in photography you will enjoy it.
I planned for my retirement about 5 years beforehand camera equipment wise and slowly built up what I thought I would need. There is a big photography site on the web but does seem to be leaning towards the more technical side and not so much on the photographs.

I personally think that when you seriously start thinking about composition- lighting - angles- camera settings etc etc it takes the enjoyment out of the reason for doing it in the first place.

Also too many people rely on serious editing for the slightest defect too much and forget the better in camera shot the less editing needed.


I have to say that video work is what I am tending to do more as one can show what is around what you are taking a photo of against just a fixed image.