advice please

[saturn5]

When im taking photos close to sunset time they seem to come out quite sharp in detail

but when it is getting near dark they come out grainy .I'm using a minolta dimage z2 and have tried umpteen settings but cant get rid of the grainy look,am i missing something obvious.You'll see the difference between this photo and the skinny moon pic in the prevoius topic.

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

The grainy look is most probably noise caused by the camera using a higher ISO setting as it gets darker. The only way round this is to set it in manual and increase the exposure time (if thats even possible with your camera).

Kaptain Klevtsov

[saturn5]

Thanks for that kaptain,yes my camera can do that,its my first "goodish" camera and i have to be honest

and say i sometimes miss a point and click camera.I do use it on auto but i am trying to use it manually as often as possible,no point paying for extras if you dont use them.

Would i be correct in saying that the iso setting should be as high as possible (400 on my camera)when taking dso photos.

On some photos ive seen the iso at 1600 but thats been on digital slr's, namely that canon 350d or 400d i think.It must be the dogs b******s because nearly everyone seems to have one or are planing one.

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

You need to get the ISO as low as possible, 200 or even 100 if possible, to get the noise down.

Kaptain Klevtsov