[Photo-SIG] New to the list

[Brian Engle]

Thanks for the links, Dave. I'll definitely check the bookstore tomorrow 
for the Magic Lantern book. So far I've been able to get by with the 
"dumb user" features like auto-focus, but I'd really like to get into 
some of the details so I can get the most from my pictures. I'll 
definitely be reading through Steve's forums, too. I've already found 4 
or 5 posts that are pretty informative and answered a couple of the 
questions I had.

Dave Lundy wrote:
> englebt at woh.rr.com wrote:
>> Greetings,
>>
>> I kept hearing mention at the Linux SIG meetings about the fine people 
>> in the digital photography sig, but before today I didn't have a 
>> digital camera worth mentioning. I've had a couple of the regular 
>> point-and-shoot cameras in the past, and got along ok with them. I've 
>> got a child on the way and figured if I wanted some quality pictures, 
>> I'd probably have to upgrade from the cheezy digital-zoom only cameras 
>> to something with a little more power. On the recommendation of a 
>> couple of photographer friends, I picked up a Canon Digital 
>> Rebel/300D. However, once I started reading through manual and dinking 
>> around with it, I realized I have no idea how to use it.
>>
>> At that point, I remembered the friendly neighborhood Photo SIG I'd 
>> heard such good things about, and figured it would probably be in my 
>> best interest to at least join the mailing list. Any chance there's 
>> someone here that wouldn't mind giving a quick crash course in 
>> photography for someone that knows plenty about computers but next to 
>> nothing about cameras? I've got so much new vocabulary I'm trying to 
>> pick up, I don't want to get so caught up in trying to figure out 
>> shutter speeds and focusing technologies that I don't even get a 
>> chance to take a good picture. 
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>> --Brian
> 
> 
> Welcome aboard, Brian.  I just got a D-SLR (Nikon D80) myself a little
> over a month ago.  At least one of our members has a Canon Digital
> Rebel, but I'm not sure if it's that particular model.  Still, I
> suspect most of the controls are pretty similar between models.  Since
> I've been using digital cameras since the summer of 2001, I had
> expected that the move to a D-SLR would be pretty easy, but I've found
> that it's considerably more complex than I had imagined.  There is a
> "Magic Lantern" series of books for specific digital cameras that have
> generally gotten pretty good reviews.  You might visit one of the
> local book stores and browse it a bit to see if you think it would
> help you.  The SRP is about $20 and Amazon sells it for $15.  See
> <www.amazon.com/Magic-Lantern-Guides-Digital-Photography/dp/1579905897>
> 
> By the way, our next meeting is Thursday, April 26.  I won't be able
> to attend this month's meeting, but I'd be happy to offer my
> assistance in a couple weeks.  In the mean time, I would suggest
> visiting the forums at Steve's DigiCams, in particular the Canon D-SLR
> forum <www.stevesforums.com/forums/view_forum.php?id=37> and the
> Newbie Help forum <www.stevesforums.com/forums/view_forum.php?id=9>.
> Membership in Steve's forums is free and I've found lots of friendly
> helpful folks in the forums I've frequented.