Grainy 5060 photos

[Ann Marie]

I just returned home from New Orleans where I tried out my new 5060 camera. I thought that before I got it wet, I would practice with it first above water. I am so disappointed with the quality of the pictures. I am not sure what I am doing wrong. I had the camera in AUTO mode. Most of my pictures have some degree of grain, no matter the time of day or night. I would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks

 

[Jason B]

What ISO do you have it set on? 400 probably will look grainy...80 should looks nice.

 

[justleesa]

if you click on your picture for the properties you will find what the ISO setting was. Take a look

 

[jcclink]

Digital noise is like film grain - the higher the ISO the more noise/grain.

 

[Ann Marie]

Thanks for the info. I will check out the ISO when I get home and change it.

 

[Ann Marie]

The infomation on the picture I have thumbnailed on post 1 is as follows:

Mode: P (Program)
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/30.0 second
F Number 2.8

I was hoping it was the ISO as that would have been easier to fix. Perhaps, I'll just have to practice with it more to see why I am shooting grainy images.

 

[justleesa]

hmmmm....was it with all pictures or only the night shots?

 

[KrustyTheClownFish]

Did you accidentally turn up the SHARPNESS (pg 134) control too high? That could cause grainy/noisy pics.

Your shutter speed is also pretty slow (due to the dark conditions). You might be able to improve the results by turning on NOISE REDUCTION (pg 137). This can remove some noise in the night shots.

The third thing I can think of is the metering. Your scene is mostly dark, and you probably used ESP metering (the default) which takes samples from the subject (center) and surrounding area. If you instead used "SPOT METERING" (pg 97), the camera would select shutter speeds, etc. based on the light received from the target area, and you might have better results.

You could also try shooting using the "Night Scene" mode to get better results without monkeying around with all the manual stuff. But Program mode does have its limitations when the lighting conditions are challenging.

The infomation on the picture I have thumbnailed on post 1 is as follows:

Mode: P (Program)
ISO 100
Shutter speed 1/30.0 second
F Number 2.8

I was hoping it was the ISO as that would have been easier to fix. Perhaps, I'll just have to practice with it more to see why I am shooting grainy images.

 

[Ann Marie]

hmmmm....was it with all pictures or only the night shots?

The night shots were the worst, but I thought some of the daytime shots were grainy too.

I really appreciate all of the suggestions. I am going to keep playing with the camera until I get everything right. I probably should have had the camera in the night mode. That would have probably made a big difference.

 

[orangeBloke]

As it's new and under warranty it might be worth paying a visit to Olympus to see if there's a problem with the camera, it just may not be setting itself properly. I had to take my 5060 in because it randomly changed the menus now and again (very annoying, especially underwater) so they upgraded the firmware on it and it's been fine ever since.

If there is nothing wrong with the camera they may be able
to put you straight on what the problem is, save you wasting too much time trying to figure it out.