First SLR camera today... Rebel... many questions :)

[Sean Dempsey]

Hello, I got my first SLR camera today, a Canon Digital Rebel. This was the best camera I could afford realistically, and since my previous camera is a 1-megapixel Kodak DC265, I think I'll be okay.


I am still charging the battery, but I did manage to take about 11 shots after charging it for about 10 minutes. I have some questions:

- The images are the resolution at 3072x2000 whatever, but they are only 180dpi. That seems concerning to me. It was on the Large/Fine format. I had hoped they would be a higher resolution since I plan on doing alot of printing at large dimensions (I am getting a epson 2200 which does 13x19). I couldn't find the RAW setting, would that make my resolution higher or am I stuck at 180dpi?

- I don't know what anything means but zoom and focus... so is there a website that has guides for people who need to learn the basics of setting apature, white balance, depth of field, shutter speed, flash settings and all that? All I have ever known was a point and shoot Kodak, so these things are all a mystery to me.

If anyone can helpe me that would be great. I will have many more questions to come.

[Liz]

Welcome Sean.......

I have the digital Rebel also and it is an awesome camera......there is a big learning curve, but it's easy to being with "auto" everything. I can't answer your first question - hopefully someone else will help you, but here's a website you might be interested in. I understand these are wonderful short courses. I haven't used it, but know others who have.

http://www.shortcourses.com/bookstor...canonrebel.htm

Liz

Hello, I got my first SLR camera today, a Canon Digital Rebel. This was the best camera I could afford realistically, and since my previous camera is a 1-megapixel Kodak DC265, I think I'll be okay.


I am still charging the battery, but I did manage to take about 11 shots after charging it for about 10 minutes. I have some questions:

- The images are the resolution at 3072x2000 whatever, but they are only 180dpi. That seems concerning to me. It was on the Large/Fine format. I had hoped they would be a higher resolution since I plan on doing alot of printing at large dimensions (I am getting a epson 2200 which does 13x19). I couldn't find the RAW setting, would that make my resolution higher or am I stuck at 180dpi?

- I don't know what anything means but zoom and focus... so is there a website that has guides for people who need to learn the basics of setting apature, white balance, depth of field, shutter speed, flash settings and all that? All I have ever known was a point and shoot Kodak, so these things are all a mystery to me.

If anyone can helpe me that would be great. I will have many more questions to come.

[Photo-John]

That 180 dpi setting doesn't really matter. The only setting that matters is the actual pixel dimensions your shooting at. The 180 dpi is only a display setting. You can pretty much ignore it.

Shooting in RAW won't give you more resolution, it just gives you more post-capture control and no file compression. It will deliver the best potential quality, but it might be a good idea to just shoot JPEGs while you're getting started. That will simplify your learning curve.

Congratulations on the new camera! You've just entered a wonderful new photographic world.

[Sean Dempsey]

Thank you both, that makes alot of sense. My friend has a Nikon D100, and though the Rebel has a higher megapixel rating, he claimes his images are 300dpi, but now I see the difference.

I will not use RAW anymore, for a while. I only have a 256 meg card, CF1, and it is very slow. A RAW image takes about 3 seconds to write to the card. I can only get 4 shots in succession before it has to write. I am thinking of getting a 1gb Lexmark 40x card... those seem to be pretty fast.

I have been reading my manual more, but there is alot to learn for someone not used to REAL photography. I still have no idea what the settings DO, I get what they are, but not how to use them to get results I want.

So if someone get's bored, it'd be great if you could maybe give me some simple explanations of what these are and how they work, and how they work together:

ISO

Apeture

Shutter Speed

Fstop

white balance

exposure


I am giving myself a week and a half to learn what that stuff means, shouldn't be too hard. I Am sure "field application" takes years to learn, but at least I'll know what to do if I want... say, a motocross action shot at night... or a wedding shot in the sunlight with the background totally blurred... or a panorama with a huge depth of field.. I know what it all means, but I have no idea what settings get those results.

Thanks again!!!

[ustein]

Consider one of my e-books to get you started in the digital workflow:

http://www.outbackphoto.com/booklets/booklets.html

Get the 1GB card soon and use raw again.

Uwe

[Photo-John]

Sean-
Uwe's E-book will help. In the meantime, so we don't have to teach you the basics, start looking at the glossary on this site. That should help you start to understand the basics. And the Canon SLR manuals usually have a pretty decent basic primer on the various controls and settings that the camera has.

Photography Glossary >>

[Norfindel]

The Dots Per Inch is a relation beetwen the size in pixels vs. the real size of an image. If you have a 3072x2000 image and print it in 120 dpi, it will be printed in 3072 / 120 = 25,6 by 2000 / 120 = 16, 6 inches. If you print in more dpi, it will be smaller, and if you print in less dpi, it will be bigger, thats because a pixel would be bigger (if you zoom something in photoshop, you could see the effect of this).

Thats also means, two 3072x2000 images with different dpi really have the same quantity of pixels, so none of them is "better" than the other because of this.