Disney DSLR

[Groucho]

a. Will the camera take away from my "vacation time".. i.e. will I be so busy changing lenses..and carrying around my camera bags that my vacation experience will be affected?
b. Will I be able to let an average person use my camera to take a family group picture like I could with my P-N-S?
c. Is the learning curve so much that I will need to commit hours and hours of "practice time" with the camera to become really good with it?
d. Will I need to buy an external Hard Drive due to the "huge" sizes and numbers of pictures that I may be taking with my new "toy"?
e. Is it possible to just use the "kit" lens and a telephoto lens and be "happy" with all your gear.. or will one lens lead to another.. and another.. etc. etc??

I won't repeat everything that everyone else already said, but...

a. Like the others said, you can stick with a decent basic zoom lens. I recommend getting a lens hood for it if it didn't come with one and leaving the camera on all day with no lens cap. When you want to take a shot, just give a half-press of the shutter and it will be ready virtually instantly - you will find that you can take a photo much, much faster than you can with a PnS. Zooming is also much faster since you're rotating a ring vs pressing a button and waiting.

b. Yes but the danger is that the others might want to use your camera more. My wife took hers on a "girl's cruise" a couple years ago and one of them ended up buying my first DSLR because she fell in love with using a proper viewfinder and the mirror slap noise.

c. Generally DSLRs are easier to use then PnSs IMHO - by and large, they have the controls in the same place and you just look through the viewfinder, turn the zoom ring, and press the shutter. I find many PnSs to be more difficult because of many different menu and button styles between different cameras, and many options are hidden in strange places. The only real difficulty is that you have a smaller depth of field so you may have to learn (or re-learn if you did much film photography) about where the camera is focusing. Generally, the DSLR will take a better photo faster about 99.9% of the time.

d. If you shoot in Raw mode, you'll need a lot more space. If you don't ever expect to get too serious, then you can leave the camera in jpg mode - but if you think you may get more serious in the future, you may want to shoot in Raw or Raw+Jpeg and just store the Raws for now, and in the future you could go back and process the photos to get more out of them. This is especially true for special trips like Disney.

e. As has been mentioned, I'm a bad example but I very happily shot with my K1000 film SLR for many years with only two zoom lenses and a 28mm prime. Look at it this way - with a PnS, you're stuck with nowhere to go. With a DSLR, even if you only use one basic zoom lens and shoot in jpg mode, you may not be taking advantage of all that the camera can do, but you're still way ahead of where you'd be with the PnS.

 

[Coach81]

I won't repeat everything that everyone else already said, but...

a. Like the others said, you can stick with a decent basic zoom lens. I recommend getting a lens hood for it if it didn't come with one and leaving the camera on all day with no lens cap. When you want to take a shot, just give a half-press of the shutter and it will be ready virtually instantly - you will find that you can take a photo much, much faster than you can with a PnS. Zooming is also much faster since you're rotating a ring vs pressing a button and waiting.

b. Yes but the danger is that the others might want to use your camera more. My wife took hers on a "girl's cruise" a couple years ago and one of them ended up buying my first DSLR because she fell in love with using a proper viewfinder and the mirror slap noise.

c. Generally DSLRs are easier to use then PnSs IMHO - by and large, they have the controls in the same place and you just look through the viewfinder, turn the zoom ring, and press the shutter. I find many PnSs to be more difficult because of many different menu and button styles between different cameras, and many options are hidden in strange places. The only real difficulty is that you have a smaller depth of field so you may have to learn (or re-learn if you did much film photography) about where the camera is focusing. Generally, the DSLR will take a better photo faster about 99.9% of the time.

d. If you shoot in Raw mode, you'll need a lot more space. If you don't ever expect to get too serious, then you can leave the camera in jpg mode - but if you think you may get more serious in the future, you may want to shoot in Raw or Raw+Jpeg and just store the Raws for now, and in the future you could go back and process the photos to get more out of them. This is especially true for special trips like Disney.

e. As has been mentioned, I'm a bad example but I very happily shot with my K1000 film SLR for many years with only two zoom lenses and a 28mm prime. Look at it this way - with a PnS, you're stuck with nowhere to go. With a DSLR, even if you only use one basic zoom lens and shoot in jpg mode, you may not be taking advantage of all that the camera can do, but you're still way ahead of where you'd be with the PnS.

Thank you, sir! I fired my new camera up yesterday.. and snapped a few auto pics.. they came out really nice.. now I want to start learning how to work "under the hood" of it so to speak..

Thanks for your time, and expertise..

 

[Groucho]

Thank you, sir! I fired my new camera up yesterday.. and snapped a few auto pics.. they came out really nice.. now I want to start learning how to work "under the hood" of it so to speak..

Thanks for your time, and expertise..

One thing I forgot to mention - I would definitely not use "Auto" mode - use "P" mode instead. It works pretty much the same but gives you a little more control (some cameras lock out certain options in Auto mode) and the big thing is that the flash won't automatically pop up in "P" mode. Generally speaking, onboard flash is best used only when absolutely necessary; it should be up to you to decide when. In "P" mode, just pop the flash open and it will use it, close it when you're done.

 

[brack]

One thing I forgot to mention - I would definitely not use "Auto" mode - use "P" mode instead. It works pretty much the same but gives you a little more control (some cameras lock out certain options in Auto mode) and the big thing is that the flash won't automatically pop up in "P" mode. Generally speaking, onboard flash is best used only when absolutely necessary; it should be up to you to decide when. In "P" mode, just pop the flash open and it will use it, close it when you're done.

Good tip I never use auto but will use the "P" mode. The only "Auto" mode I use is the backlight flash mode for background detail in some low light shots.

 

[Coach81]

One thing I forgot to mention - I would definitely not use "Auto" mode - use "P" mode instead. It works pretty much the same but gives you a little more control (some cameras lock out certain options in Auto mode) and the big thing is that the flash won't automatically pop up in "P" mode. Generally speaking, onboard flash is best used only when absolutely necessary; it should be up to you to decide when. In "P" mode, just pop the flash open and it will use it, close it when you're done.

Ok.. going to go with P mode.. also planning on playing with "A" and maybe even "S" as well..

Thanks again..

 

[YesDear]

"A" Stands for aperture which is the opening of the blades or iris of the lens. The smaller the number the wider open the lens is. The aperture determines for the most part the depth of field. In aperture mode you set the opening on the lens and the camera will set the shutter speed. Apertures are expressed as numbers like 2, 4, 3.5, 5.6,8, 11. That is what you call your Fstop

"S" stands for shutter speed. The shutter is the "eyelid" that opens and closes exposure of the sensor on a digital camera. The smaller the number the faster the eyelid opens and closes. ( That description is figurative not literal) 1/60 is twice as fast as 1/30 etc. 1/125 is twice as fast as 1/60. In S mode you set the shutter speed and the camera sets the aperture.

Once you begin to understand the relationship between the two can can start selecting what type of picture you may want.

Go outside with at stationary object and try different apertures and shutter speed and pay attention to what type of image you get. I said outside so you can have a good light source.

 

[Coach81]

"A" Stands for aperture which is the opening of the blades or iris of the lens. The smaller the number the wider open the lens is. The aperture determines for the most part the depth of field. In aperture mode you set the opening on the lens and the camera will set the shutter speed. Apertures are expressed as numbers like 2, 4, 3.5, 5.6,8, 11. That is what you call your Fstop

"S" stands for shutter speed. The shutter is the "eyelid" that opens and closes exposure of the sensor on a digital camera. The smaller the number the faster the eyelid opens and closes. ( That description is figurative not literal) 1/60 is twice as fast as 1/30 etc. 1/125 is twice as fast as 1/60. In S mode you set the shutter speed and the camera sets the aperture.

Once you begin to understand the relationship between the two can can start selecting what type of picture you may want.

Go outside with at stationary object and try different apertures and shutter speed and pay attention to what type of image you get. I said outside so you can have a good light source.

Tried this today.. got this shot...was trying to get one of those cool close ups on this "flower" with the background blurred.. think it came out OK.. but I forgot what setting I was using

I was messing with "M", "S", and "A".. the "F" and the "A".. one time I think I went really high with the aperture.. 'cause I got a "white out" shot.

Anyway here is my "best" attempt.. please help me.. LOL

 

[YesDear]

Great first try. You shot the image at f6.3. Try opening the lens all the way open. Then focus closer on the flower. The mm was also at 55 mm what lens were you using? In that light do not worry about the shutter speed.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Hey Coach, if you right click on the picture (the actual file, not the one on the web page) and go to properties, one of the Tabs at the top is "Details" That will give you all the settings you used to take that shot. It's great for comparing 2 different results of the same subject. As for the "White Out" shot you took, check the "details" tab out. Did you maybe have it on "M" and maybe have the shutter open too long? I've done that. When I set the F# I accidentally adjusted the shutter and didn't realize it till it was way too late.

 

[Coach81]

Great first try. You shot the image at f6.3. Try opening the lens all the way open. Then focus closer on the flower. The mm was also at 55 mm what lens were you using? In that light do not worry about the shutter speed.

I was using the kit lens - 18-55mm

So by opening it all the way open you mean.. going LOWER with the F stop?

 

[Coach81]

Hey Coach, if you right click on the picture (the actual file, not the one on the web page) and go to properties, one of the Tabs at the top is "Details" That will give you all the settings you used to take that shot. It's great for comparing 2 different results of the same subject. As for the "White Out" shot you took, check the "details" tab out. Did you maybe have it on "M" and maybe have the shutter open too long? I've done that. When I set the F# I accidentally adjusted the shutter and didn't realize it till it was way too late.

Thanks for the info on how to check the photo stats!!!

Dunno about the white out.. I deleted it immediately!

 

[Groucho]

I was using the kit lens - 18-55mm

So by opening it all the way open you mean.. going LOWER with the F stop?

Yes, opening all the way up means using the largest aperture (biggest opening), which is represented with the smallest number.

Your kit lens probably can only go to F5.6 at 55mm; you can really isolate the background more by getting closer and using a larger aperture. With that lens, the closer you get, the larger you can open the aperture.

 

[Coach81]

Thanks Groucho.. tried that tonight.. indoors... the problem was.. I did not (want to) use the flash, and the exposure took about 10 seconds.. way too long to hold it steady and my test shot came out completely blurry.. I have so much to learn....