For those interested in digital photography, you can find a good set of very comprehensible suggestions on the Lens & Shutter website. Judging by the photos you see on Facebook, I would say that the one on flash use is the most essential piece of reading for most amateur digital photographers. As highlighted in Philip Greenspun’s good free tutorial, awareness of light is critical to all good photography.
Reading about photography frequently makes me miss my tripod, which is back in Vancouver. (It makes a cameo in a relatively bad photo of Astrid.) I should get a little one so that I can actually aim my camera when I use it in timer mode on a solid surface, rather than just shooting straight up or at whatever angle the surface allows.
PS. Despite my love of wide angle, and hence aversion to digital SLRs with small sensors, my heart is definitely softening towards something like the Rebel XTi. That said, my dSLR fund is only worth about 36% of the price of that kit, and seems unlikely to expand prior to my departure from Oxford.
I’d say the most obvious tip is to turn off automatic ISO on your camera. The relatively cheap ones tend to do a rotten job of selecting one.
At C$699.99 with 18-55mm(27-80) lens, the Nikon D50 seems like a better deal. That said, it is only 6 MP and it won’t work with your existing lenses.
Re: mini tripod
You could probably pick one up on eBay for a couple of Pounds. Those camera shops are brigands when it comes to such small but necessary things.
£10 for two grey cards? Gasp!
Good idea. I bought a mini tripod on eBay for £1.99. I will let you know how it works out.
The French WIkipedia is much racier than its English counterpart.
I say, and I say again. I bought an 18-35 (which also works on full frame), and will produce 28mm equivolency on an APS-C sensor, for 160$.
For about the same as a pro 18-35 lens (mine is certainly not pro), you can get wide angle zooms. If you do love wide angle, do not move to nikon. This is because the Canon 10-22 is a far better lens than the nikkor 12-24 because it is wider but more importantly because it has monumentaly low distortion figures. So, get the XTi, and save for the 10-22.
That certainly is rather more risqué than most of the pages you see on the English site.
Tristan,
Right now, it is certainly more the $1000 price tag than the 1.6x multiplication standing in the way of me getting a dSLR.
Thanks for the link. I’m always fighting with my digicam over exposure.
Here is a thread on Metafilter about using Powershot A series cameras in low light.