New to digital SLRs

[snappingturtle]

Hi,

I am getting a Canon EOS digital rebel. I work for my college as a photographer. I am very new to these. I need to know more basics about these cameras and lenses. If you can help me in anyway, I would greatly appreciate it.

At the same time, I have one question about zooming in. Is it true that the more you zoom with a lens in optically, the fuzzier the subject gets even with the high shutter speed?


Thanks,

Hugh

[jseah]

Shooting with a digital SLR is the same as shooting with a film SLR.

Yes, it is true that as you zoom in, a faster shutter speed is required. This is because at longer focal lengths, any camera shake is much more evident and will require a faster shutter speed to prevent a blurry shot.

[brennan]

Look in pbase for people who's work you would like to emulate and chech out their profiles to see what they are shooting with. If you want to shoot sports and I want to shoot insect life we should not be shooting with the same equipment.
That said I have had my d300 ( it sounds cooler than digital rebel ro kiss don't ya think?) since September and while it lacks the bells and whistles of a 6K camers it is my favorite toy/tool. You will enjoy it.
As for the zooming question, each lense has it's sweet spot where it likes to be, like an f-stop, the lense will do best towards the middle of it's range since it is by it's nature a compramise between two primes. Some designs and each build in a design cover that range with more grace than others. A 6K canon L lense on a D1 body will get you a sharper picture than a $340.00 75-300 on a 300d. That said since you are shooting for a college paper, take either of these setups and put their shots on the crappy stock and print in the third rate ink that my college paper was pinted with and you will not see the slightest difference.

[gschmickle]

Another piece of advice which is specific to digital camera shooting is to understand and utilize a picture's histogram. The following link is to an article which gives a good overview of histograms.

http://www.bythom.com/histogram.htm

Trying to judge for correct exposure only using the LCD display to view the picture will sometimes lead to surprises when you download and view on your PC monitor. With proper histogram usage, you should be able to increase your number of keepers. I've only played briefly with a 300D, but I know you can see the histogram in playback mode by pressing the info button. I'm not sure if you can set it up to be displayed during the quick review after each shot but if you can, you should.

Guy

[bobtrips]

If you're moving from film to digital one important change to make in your shooting is to be very careful not to overexpose. Film is more forgiving of overexposing and will hold some detail where with digital you 'hit a wall' where a white area is a white area and no amount of editing will produce any detail.

Digital, on the other hand does a better job of capturing detail in shadows. Where the deep shadow area of film would be pure black, one can pull considerable detail from the areas that initially look too dark.

When outdoors, places where the range of bright/dark is great I try to bracket as often as possible. I often find the underexposed frame more usable than the 'normal auto-exposed'. I don't think that I've ever found a use for the overexposed frame.