magicgreen

I have finally got a Spanking brand new Canon eos rebel xti 400D Digital CAMERA!!!TODAY!!!!!!!

Now i have to figure out how to use it! OK everybody,Ya know............, I wanna post pictures!

Does anyone else have this camera????????

I want to basically point and shoot and this camera seems do do so much MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ive been on the sites, but with my pathetically lil' camera knowledge, alas im lost. So i turn to these members!

Basically i just want good shots RIGHT NOW, and i'll learn as i go.

Ive read through the manual.. ...So i got a lil' taste of that!
Anybody got any suggestions on a quick lesson?

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(Started growing bananas July 2007)
(Zone 6)

momoese

Until you get the feel for the controls and some basic photography knowhow your best bet is to leave it on auto. Charge the battery and lets see some pics!

Down the road you'll need to learn about the f-stops, apertures, ISO, depth of field, flash settings, focus settings, composure and so on. Do you have a way of uploading the images to your computer? Once you get them on your computer you can upload them here or to photobucket, flicker, pbase etc and share them with other people.

BTW, did I tell you that lol

mskitty38583

see i told you that hed get it for you. i would have had no pity on him if he didnt get it for you!!! lol. congrats on your new camera! would he have been here... if he didnt get it for you? ha ha ha wahoo you got a camera!!!!

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mskitty38583

btw... i got your seeds bagged and tagged. just have to take them to the po. will do that tuesday, so they can be on their way. im still sniffing my hands from that hand wash....

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Gabe15

Congrats!

I just got a Nikon D80 (emptied my bank account, but well worth it!), I love it! I took a photo class in high school so have experience with film SLR, the digital is not much different in many of the basic operations, so if you have ever used one of those it shouldnʻt be too hard to pick up. Iʻm going to the botanic gardens tomorrow, should have some good pics when I return.

As mitchel suggested, you can probably use the auto mode with acceptable results until you figure out all of the different settings you can play with. You can also play around with P mode, it will set the aperture and shutter speed for you, while you can (should be able to) play with things like ISO, flash modes, focus modes, or whatever else without having to worry too much about proper exposure.

Theres a lot to learn and the more you play with it and read, the better the pictures you will produce.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.

magicgreen

Iam learning this camera more and more! Even W/o the C/f .
This camera is sharp. I will have some lovely images soon.
I gotta get that memory card.






















& elec.
Hope to have my cf doohickey soon! As much as this thing cost, a memory card should have come with it- even if it was only 50 pics! MG
Shoot A Nikon D40 would of been less $
But this Canon camera is the WHIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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(Started growing bananas July 2007)
(Zone 6)

Gabe15

The reason memory cards are not included is because they vary so much in size/quality, and to throw in a cheap one would probably lose money because to make use of the all of the cameras specs, it needs a good memory card, most people would likely never use it.

When shopping, make sure you donʻt buy it based on storage capacity alone, the more expensive cards do have the advantage of speed (and overall quality/durability), the images can be written and read faster, meaning you spend less time waiting for the camera to process images and shooting and also less time spent waiting when transferring the pictures from the card to the computer. There are happy mediums of price and quality, so make sure you ask a lot of questions and shop around before settling on one.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.

harveyc

I've been using a DSLR for four years or so now and the only regrets is that I ended up with a nasty addiction for expensive lenses. Sort of like bananas, I guess.....I honestly have way more than I need (I think I have 7 lenses). LOL

I've been shooting with a Canon 20D for a few years now and trying to convince myself that I really should get the 1D Mk III (ISO 6400 would come in very handy some of the time). Not going to happen any time soon!!!

I shot in auto mode very little. I think it will hinder our learning process, to be honest. The best suggestion I can give is that you shoot in RAAW format all the time. You can learn from your mistakes but still do a much better job salvaging a decent photo if you shoot in RAAW.

Another suggestion is to get involved in a forum and learn, learn, learn! I'll share one photo I took at Yosemite in February 2005. It's actually 36 individual shots "stitched" (merged) together and covers about 180 degrees from left to right. The original file is 2GB....but this is only 179KB. http://www.ImagesInChrist.com/images...ePano4023b.jpg

Best of luck!

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Gabe15

now that is one nice photo! i was thinking about doing something like that with the mountains around here.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.

mskitty38583

and the sky came to the mountians in the morning and kissed them, greeting them in the new day. lovely!!

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bencelest

That's one lovely picture Harvey!

Benny

PS
Can you teach me how I can take a decent picture when my kid is playing basketball?
It seems that all of the pics I take is in a blur.
Forgive me if I am a novice in camera pict taking but can you show me the pict taking 101?.

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Banana Nut

harveyc

Tip #1, tell them to stand still when you take your shot! LOL

I'll send you an e-mail and find out what camera you have to help with what settings you use. You might have to get another job and spend a ton of money on expensive equipment!


On another note, something Gabe mentioned on memory cards warrants a comment. I've usually spent the extra money on more expensive high speed cards but it really isn't something I have been able to justify. Downloading images from standard cards to a computer isn't that slow anyways and even if it takes a minute longer you can use that to get a cup of coffee. The primary need for high speed cards is for sports photographers as they are often taking 8-10 shots per second and need their camera to be able to clear its memory buffer onto the card so they can take the next set of action shots. Even when I've shot basketball games I'm usually only taking 2-4 shots at a time and the buffer easily handles that. Don't get caught in the hype.

Also, a warning to new DSLR owners: Learn to clean your sensors!!! I don't really have any experience with some of the newer models that shake the dust from the sensor, but I honestly can't imagine they can shake all of the dust off since I have a hard time cleaning all of it off manually. While I like Canon gear, I will never forgive Canon for sending me a brand new 20D with a filthy sensor just days before I was leaving for a trip to Portugal. There was probably 50-100 specs of dust on the sensor.

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magicgreen

Harveyc, thankyou for the advice. I have joined p-base and another camera forum. Iam learning. I havent gotten my memory card yet. Glad i didnt, cuz ive learned a tad more from your post!
This canon rebel xti 400D has that sensor, that shakes the dust! And since you mentioned that......How did you clean the sensor?
As for shooting a fast moving object(alot of grandkids) would i adjust the camera speed to determine what type pic i like by trial and error?
Or is there a general speed for this?
Magicgreen

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(Started growing bananas July 2007)
(Zone 6)

bencelest

Harvey:
I have 2 cameras 1 is Lumix panasonic DMC-LZ7 7.2MP 6X optical zoom and konica minolta Dimage Z6 6 MP 12x optical . I just emailed you more info. I also have 2 gig mem card on each.

MG:
How do you join a camera forum?

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Banana Nut

magicgreen

Maybe we need a camera forum, as well as the compost forum huh Jarred?
Explanations here about both of them are clear explanations! Magicgreen

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(Started growing bananas July 2007)
(Zone 6)

harveyc

This is good information on cleaning your sensor, though there are other methods that are popular as well. http://www.pbase.com/copperhill/ccd_cleaning

My favorite camera forum is www.fredmiranda.com, though I know it all by now (joking big time!) and don't visit it much these days. Another good forum is www.dpreview.com but there is a lot of rude folks there that I don't care for.

In general, if you're shooting with a 50mm lens (or at that range on a zoom lens), you'll want to shoot at roughly 1/80 of a second (round up to 1/100). The rule of thumb is actually 1/50 but your sensor has a 1.6 crop factor which means that a 50mm lens effectively is working for you as a 80mm lens (your sensor only catches a portion of the image being captured by the lens). That's a rule of thumb for relatively still objects and you'll want something faster than that for faster actions, but you need to balance it out with what available light you have (natural or flash).

There are many good brands of flash memory cards. I've usually bought SanDisk and have never had a problem. I've usually bought the high speed cards since I've had the "follow the herd" mentality, but that's not necessary.

You can get memory cards very cheap these days. I paid something like $125 for 2GB a few years ago. Here is a great deal. http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/mess...yword1=sandisk

I also recommend going through www.fatwallet.com whenever you shop online, but that's another matter!

Best wishes,

Harvey

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natedogg1026

Gabe, Could you please shoot some pics of the plants in Hawaii? I'd love to see some shots of nana's growing wild! Heck pics of anything. TC lab, Nana's, the ocean, your plants, whatever. Thanx--nate

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Banana's are a safe addiction. Right?Maybe I need classes.

Gabe15

Nate, here are some pics from back in August. When I go back in a few weeks Iʻll get lots more.

Hawaiian Bananas

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.