I wonder why such odd settings

I set my D90 to P mode and took a few shots of my garden, and noticed the camera
picked F 6 and 1/500 second, at ISO 200, 125mm lens, sunny day.

What's odd? Well F 6 is the maximum opening of that lens! You'd think with
enough light to get 1/500 second, it would pick something with more DOF.

The more I think of it, the more I realize I'm always setting the D90 to A
mode...

Maybe there's a setting I don't know about? Does Nikon love narrow DOF?

I'm not worried, just curious.

On 2009-05-17 19:41:40 -0700, said:


I set my D90 to P mode and took a few shots of my garden, and noticed
the camera
picked F 6 and 1/500 second, at ISO 200, 125mm lens, sunny day.

What's odd? Well F 6 is the maximum opening of that lens! You'd think with
enough light to get 1/500 second, it would pick something with more DOF.

The more I think of it, the more I realize I'm always setting the D90 to A
mode...

Maybe there's a setting I don't know about? Does Nikon love narrow DOF?

I'm not worried, just curious.

P Mode is not Auto.
It is "Programmed" Automatic. Simplisticly selecting "P" mode the
camera will automatically select shutter speed and aperture (& ISO if
you have Auto ISO enabled), but if you adjust with the command or
sub-command dials, it will make the balanced adjustment for selected
effects. So if you adjust to open up the aperture the shutter speed
will be balanced. This is sort of like combining Aperture Priority and
Shutter Priority into a ganged control. Then is you turn off Auto ISO
you can add another element.
As far as the camera picking something with greater DOF, when you first
select P Mode it is going to go to a middle of the road average
setting. You can adjust this balance with the command dials. You want
greater DOF stop it down and the speed will adjust.

Personally for most shooting I use A Mode.
--
Regards,
Savageduck

wrote:
I set my D90 to P mode and took a few shots of my garden, and noticed the camera
picked F 6 and 1/500 second, at ISO 200, 125mm lens, sunny day.

What's odd? Well F 6 is the maximum opening of that lens! You'd think with
enough light to get 1/500 second, it would pick something with more DOF.

It's not _that_ odd. The standard for eliminating motion blur is a
shutter speed of 1/(focal length). With a 1.6x crop factor you've got
a 200mm equivalent. Maybe Nikon just figures that motion blur is
worse than shallow depth of field.

--
Ray Fischer

wrote:
I set my D90 to P mode and took a few shots of my garden, and noticed the camera
picked F 6 and 1/500 second, at ISO 200, 125mm lens, sunny day.

What's odd? Well F 6 is the maximum opening of that lens! You'd think with
enough light to get 1/500 second, it would pick something with more DOF.

The more I think of it, the more I realize I'm always setting the D90 to A
mode...

Maybe there's a setting I don't know about? Does Nikon love narrow DOF?

I'm not worried, just curious.

Just program shift to a smaller aperture and higher speed. Did you ever
read the manual? Better, abandon P mode and use A: you decide initially
what your DOF should be.


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wrote:
I set my D90 to P mode and took a few shots of my garden, and noticed the camera
picked F 6 and 1/500 second, at ISO 200, 125mm lens, sunny day.

What's odd? Well F 6 is the maximum opening of that lens! You'd think with
enough light to get 1/500 second, it would pick something with more DOF.

I don't think cameras are that smart. The matrix metering is too smart
for it's own good but never heard of a camera that could figure out what
you describe.


The more I think of it, the more I realize I'm always setting the D90 to A
mode...

Yep!


Maybe there's a setting I don't know about? Does Nikon love narrow DOF?

I'm not worried, just curious.



--
Paul Furman
www.edgehill.net
www.baynatives.com

all google groups messages filtered due to spam

On Sun, 17 May 2009 20:15:29 -0700, Savageduck
wrote:

On 2009-05-17 19:41:40 -0700, said:


I set my D90 to P mode and took a few shots of my garden, and noticed
the camera
picked F 6 and 1/500 second, at ISO 200, 125mm lens, sunny day.

What's odd? Well F 6 is the maximum opening of that lens! You'd think with
enough light to get 1/500 second, it would pick something with more DOF.

The more I think of it, the more I realize I'm always setting the D90 to A
mode...

Maybe there's a setting I don't know about? Does Nikon love narrow DOF?

I'm not worried, just curious.

P Mode is not Auto.
It is "Programmed" Automatic. Simplisticly selecting "P" mode the
camera will automatically select shutter speed and aperture (& ISO if
you have Auto ISO enabled), but if you adjust with the command or
sub-command dials, it will make the balanced adjustment for selected
effects. So if you adjust to open up the aperture the shutter speed
will be balanced. This is sort of like combining Aperture Priority and
Shutter Priority into a ganged control. Then is you turn off Auto ISO
you can add another element.
As far as the camera picking something with greater DOF, when you first
select P Mode it is going to go to a middle of the road average
setting.

That was my point - the camera did NOT pick a middle of the road setting, it
went to the end.

You can adjust this balance with the command dials. You want
greater DOF stop it down and the speed will adjust.

Personally for most shooting I use A Mode.

On Mon, 18 May 2009 10:11:28 -0400, Alan Browne
wrote:

wrote:
I set my D90 to P mode and took a few shots of my garden, and noticed the camera
picked F 6 and 1/500 second, at ISO 200, 125mm lens, sunny day.

What's odd? Well F 6 is the maximum opening of that lens! You'd think with
enough light to get 1/500 second, it would pick something with more DOF.

The more I think of it, the more I realize I'm always setting the D90 to A
mode...

Maybe there's a setting I don't know about? Does Nikon love narrow DOF?

I'm not worried, just curious.

Just program shift to a smaller aperture and higher speed. Did you ever
read the manual? Better, abandon P mode and use A: you decide initially
what your DOF should be.

I know how cameras work, (I had my first 35mm in 1966)... I wasn't asking... I
was just wondering why the camera would pick the end of the F stop range rather
than a more 'average' type of setting. Do you think the camera simply starts at
one end of the range and waits for you to adjust?

On Mon, 18 May 2009 11:24:55 -0400, wrote:

On Sun, 17 May 2009 22:41:40 -0400, in rec.photo.digital.slr-systems
wrote:


I set my D90 to P mode and took a few shots of my garden, and noticed the camera
picked F 6 and 1/500 second, at ISO 200, 125mm lens, sunny day.

What's odd? Well F 6 is the maximum opening of that lens! You'd think with
enough light to get 1/500 second, it would pick something with more DOF.

The more I think of it, the more I realize I'm always setting the D90 to A
mode...

Maybe there's a setting I don't know about? Does Nikon love narrow DOF?

I'm not worried, just curious.


In my experience with a CP-990, CP-5700 and D-70 the Programmed mode
tends towards more open, shorter exposures. You can see the chart for
you camera in the fine manual. I agree with everyone else and say
forget programmed and shoot aperture priority mode. If you still
want to ensure fast shutter speeds you can enable auto-iso and set a
minimum shutter speed. if you care to go down that route.

Thanks for a good answer.

In article ,
wrote:

I know how cameras work, (I had my first 35mm in 1966)... I wasn't asking... I
was just wondering why the camera would pick the end of the F stop range
rather
than a more 'average' type of setting.

because that's probably going to produce a better photo for most
situations. it's an automatic mode, after all.

if you think you can do better, you can adjust what it picks with the
wheel, or pick aperture or shutter preferred mode instead. or, pick an
appropriate scene mode, such as landscape which should maximize depth
of field.

wrote:

I set my D90 to P mode and took a few shots of my garden, and noticed the camera
picked F 6 and 1/500 second, at ISO 200, 125mm lens, sunny day.

What's odd? Well F 6 is the maximum opening of that lens! You'd think with
enough light to get 1/500 second, it would pick something with more DOF.

Does the D90 have modes which control the kind of selections made in
auto (and P mode), such as landscape, sports, night, portrait, etc.?
If so, it matters which mode the camera was in. So if your camera has
such modes, which one was it in?

--
Chris Malcolm