Nikon NEWBIE I have a nikon f80 and have never used an SLR before.Reading through the manual made me go cross-eyed.... I am using a 400 film and taking pictures of things such as portraits, landscape, sunsets, etc. The recent film I developed was terrible, no sharpness, looked as though the picture had been taken 10 years ago.  Can you recommend possibly an auto setting that I could use?? How does the ISO work, and what should it be set at with different films??I know I need to book myself in for a photography lesson or two, but just to get me by. HELP!!

ISO 100 speed for landscape and try and use a tripod or an aperature that makes the shutter speed higher than 1/60. That s about the minimum shutter speed for handheld amature shooter. The A is for aperature priority. That means you set your aperature with the closest ring to the the body on the lens,the smaller number is a bigger aperature and has the largest depth of field (like a blurred background when you shoot a flower, very usefull when you want to call attention tou your subject) The large numbers are smaller aperatures, useful in landscape or other shot where you want everything in focus no matter what their distance is to the shutter plane. When in aperature priority, the camera changes the shutter speed automatically to compensate for the amount of light its sensor is picking up considering the aperature you wat. It is not foolproof, but 99% of your shots will come out.
Shutter priority is the opposite. You set a hard shutter speed like 1/1000 for a racecar or flying birds, and the camera will "stop up" or "stop down" the aperature automatically to get you a good exposure. Full manual lets you decide both, usually by trying to get the "needle between the lines" (in an old anolog Pentax K1000 SLR) you could move the needle with the shutter speed knob and move the lines withthe aperature ring. Any combination within the bracket would give you a decent shot. the shutter speed is inversly porportional to the aperature setting. A high shutter speed with a low F-stop would get the same exposure as a low shutter speed and a high F-stop, but the pictures would look very diffferent with its varied focal plane. You could also move the bracket by changing the film speed, but that is not recommended for amateur shooters, just set it and forget it. Your D80 has many automatic or programs. Just use one of those and youll get great shots all the time. It is that "smart". Happy shooting.
P.S. all the settings are available on modern digital cameras too for more artistic shots than f5.6@1/250..boring....

Hello,

If photo are "no sharpness" could be the lens is dirty or image was not in focus.

Try this:
Set object at 10 feet from the camera. Get a ruler to check, if needed.
Turn the focus ring to 10 feet(3 meter) and look in the viewfinder. Image should be sharp, if not. You have eye or camera's lens problems.

Then:
Try ASA/ISO 200 film(rated for daylight) for shooting outside with good light.
Set camera ASA/ISO to 200
Set camera to "P"
Set lens to highest F Stop (the bigest number-22 or 32). And locked it.
On a bright day, you should get a reading of A (aperaure) = 16 or higher and S (shutter speed) = 250 or 500.

Set ISO to equal film speed. Higher speed film (Higher ISO) is not recommended for portraits and landscapes. The lower the better, always.

Enjoy.
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Put simply the ISO number is how sensitive the film is to light, the higher the number the more sensitive the film. The ISO on the camera sets the exposure system to give the proper exposure for that film (the f/n80 usually sets the ISO automaticly). Also the higher the ISO the more grainy the picture, I would recommend using ISO 200 film for the pictures you describe. I would set the camera to the P setting it is a good all-around setting.