Need help with Christmas camera :) Canon Rebel T3

[Vicky Trainor]

Well, Santa (aka Hubby) must have thought I had been a very good girl this past year. He gave me a Canon EOS Rebel T3 camera. It also came with 2 lenses - EF-S 18-55mm f/2.5-5.6 IS II and EF75-300mm f/4-5.6 III

To say I am in well over my head is an understatement. My "experience" with cameras have been the Olympus Digital StylusTough point and shoot camera and other type of point and shoot cameras. I've always wanted a really good camera so that I could get some great action shots. After looking over the manual, I am thinking I need to find a class or someone with experience to teach me how to use my new camera.

Lots of you have posted camera info and I'm going to go back and search for those threads. Meantime, if anyone has any suggestions or tips on how to make my new ownership of a terrific camera go well, I'd appreciate it!!

Merry Christmas!!!

[JAM]

I'm quite new to photography, too. The book, "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson was a big help in understanding camera settings and exposure. Here's a link to Amazon for the book: http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-...nding+exposure

I also ordered a book about how to use my specific camera (I have a Nikon) that was very helpful - much better than trying to read the manual.

Good luck! I can hardly wait to see some pics.

[KwickLabs]

Here's a link to the Canon Photography Forums. When I finally moved up this provided a wide variety "how to" and "why" explanations. The learning curve is challenging.....but fun.

Canon Forums (link)

[T. Mac]

Vicky,

Congrats on the camera. I really like the Canons. Good place to start learning how to use them is: http://www.learn.usa.canon.com/home/home.shtml
And a pretty good video on getting started can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9qeU3mVSIY

T. Mac

[TIM DOANE]

Often if purchased at a camera shop they offer classes for free. I went to one that foucused on getting away from auto modes and it was great.

[DarrinGreene]

Vicky, Congrats that's a nice camera! We have one and get beautiful photos without much expertise at all. You can use the automatic modes for pretty much everything and get great pics, until you learn more. You'll find the action mode most useful, I would guess, as it shoots rapid fire adjusting for focus on each shot as the object moves. Have fun!

[TonyRodgz]

I got a Canon t3i for Christmas too. I just ordered Canon Rebel EOS t3i / 600D : From Snapshots to Greatshots by Jeff Revell from Amazon. The reviews were very good. I also need help with it. I got a good advice from the salesman, use class 10 Extreme SD cards.

[Todd Caswell]

Congrats Vicki, I for the most part learned "online" but a class sure would have helped speed up the process, there is a huge amount of info on the web. The first thing for you will be to get comfortable with your new camera and what all the letters on the dial mean, next will be to understand ISO , apperature, shutter speed, white balance Ect. so you can get the most out of your new camera and get away from the "auto" settings. I almost always shoot on AV apperature priority, this allows me to adjust my apperature to get the desired shutter speed for the situation, and to control my depth of field. The other thing that your going to find when you get away from the auto settings is that the 2 lenses that you have will not do a very good job indoors, unless you choose to shoot with a flash all the time. Those two lenses are fine for outdoor stuff but you will need a faster lens for indoor or low light situations. The good news is for just over $100.00 you can get a 50mm F1.8 that is sharp as a tack. I'll try to find some of the stuff that helped me understand the camera and the lingo in the begining.

[Todd Caswell]

Here's a few things that might help.

http://www.goldfries.com/photography...rture-and-iso/

http://www.wikihow.com/Understand-Your-Digital-SLR

http://entry-level-dslr-camera-revie...finitions.html

[Vicky Trainor]

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate the help!

I used the auto settings to take some photos of my grandkids opening Christmas gifts. Haven't put them on the computer yet, but they looked pretty good on the camera view area