Noisy picture

mattimoo

Hi,
I've had my D3200 for a couple of weeks and I'm thoroughly enjoying the experience. When I download to the computer, nearly all of the photo's look noisy, even when I have the camera set at ISO 100. Blowing the picture up is completely out of the question as it just looks pixilated (my wife's little compact is actually better!). What am I doing wrong?

ohyeahar

My guess is that you have Auto-ISO on. And while you've set your ISO to 100, the camera is actually boosting it due to insufficient light.
Check the EXIF data of your pictures to verify.

mattimoo

Cheers! I'd actually just figured it out moments before I read your reply. It was one of those "aahhh that's why" moments. Every other photo was at ISO 6400! Many thanks for your reply, it certainly reinforced the answer though I'm sure I'll be posting yet another question very shortly!

ohyeahar

Cool, glad you figured it out. Auto-ISO can be a great tool (especially in Manual mode), but you should monitor it to make sure the camera is not bumping it up to undesirable levels.

By default, the lower right corner of your viewfinder shows how many shots you have left according to the free space on your memory card. In the Custom menus, you can set that to show your ISO instead. So if you have Auto-ISO on, you can watch the ISO get adjusted as you move your camera around.

Ajberkebile

How do I see the the custom menu so that it shows my ISO on the bottom left instead of the picture count? I can't seem to find the setting.
Thanks.

ohyeahar

I just realized that the D3200 doesn’t have a Custom Settings menu like the higher end Nikon bodies. Sorry!

I read that if you set the Fn button to adjust your ISO, the ISO setting will show on the viewfinder. I’m not sure if you can hold that button during Auto-ISO to watch the ISO value change according to the camera’s light meter.

bruto

When you are set to auto ISO, the display will still show ISO when you push the Fn button, but it will show only your own setting, not what the camera chooses. You can see that only in the picture data after you shoot.