I am now an SLR owner..

now help me figure out what all this mumbo jumbo means! :) I need a photography book. I have no idea about ISO, f aperture, shutter speeds, etc etc to get that 'impressive' shot. I bought my wife a sony alpha 300 for our anniversary from circuit city and it came with an 18-70mm lens and a 55-200 mm lens. So far we are taking some really nice pictures, but if anyone could recommend some SLR book for dummies or something, that'd be great. After I get back from vacation I'll put up some pics. I've probably got about 100 photos on the card right now that are just 'test' photos. Taking pics of the same thing while messing around with all the different settings.

http://www.circuitcity.com/rpsm/oid/...undleDetail.do

Congrats. Those Sony's really have the best LCD "live view" implementation right now and it is very close to a "point and shoot" camera.

I've just read this book and it's pretty good. It's a little brief but they show many sample pics with settings. There's not much jargon which is good.
http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-...3146839&sr=8-1

I'm picking this one up this week.
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Photog...3078315&sr=8-2
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Photog...3078498&sr=8-4

PS. I borrowed both of these from the library since I'm cheap.;)

Similar thread:
http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/s...=1#post6947761

I need the same. I just bought my first SLR, a Canon 40D with a 50mm/f1.4 with USM and a 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 with IS and USM. Plus an 8GB card. Friggin $700 just in 2 lenses and these are just the standard lenses!

I've started looking into it and so far I've realized I have a LOT to learn. ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speed, OH MY!

Ooooo 40D...my dream camera.:D

thanks..I totally forgot to even check the library LOL and I regularly check books out from there..matter of fact I have a new Margaret Weis hardback just released that is waiting there for me to grab. I'll look for those there too.

Heh, when I saw this thread in the new posts listing I thought someone meant they just got a Mercedes SLR.

Very nice camera though.

I am looking at picking up the Sony Alpha a200, what is the difference between the 200 and 300?

The A200, A300 and A350 have a lot in common. They all share essentially the same body, controls, features and accessories, but the higher-end models add something new to the mix. The A200 is the base model with a 10.2 Megapixel sensor and a fixed screen. The A300 keeps the same sensor, but adds Live View and a tilting screen. Finally, the A350 takes the A300 and simply swaps its 10.2 Megapixel sensor for one with 14.2 Megapixels.

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Originally Posted by soupnazi

The A200, A300 and A350 have a lot in common. They all share essentially the same body, controls, features and accessories, but the higher-end models add something new to the mix. The A200 is the base model with a 10.2 Megapixel sensor and a fixed screen. The A300 keeps the same sensor, but adds Live View and a tilting screen. Finally, the A350 takes the A300 and simply swaps its 10.2 Megapixel sensor for one with 14.2 Megapixels.

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Been doing some research and thats what I can up with too. I am conflicted though. DSLR is so tempting but I am looking for something less modular and more portable. I have been looking at the Olympus 570uz. Such a hard decision to make!

soupnazi is correct..that's all the difference is. I opted for the 300 over the 200 b/c I knew my wife would like the point/shoot functionality as it is similar to her Nikon coolpic she's used for a while.

I finally got my 55mm-200mm zoom lens in from circuit city..it takes some great pics! Can't wait for the kids soccer season to start back up :)

The A300 is a cropped sensor right? Is the 55-200 your only lens? If so, don't you miss not being able to take wider shots?

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Originally Posted by Astros Fan

soupnazi is correct..that's all the difference is. I opted for the 300 over the 200 b/c I knew my wife would like the point/shoot functionality as it is similar to her Nikon coolpic she's used for a while.

I finally got my 55mm-200mm zoom lens in from circuit city..it takes some great pics! Can't wait for the kids soccer season to start back up :)

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I am considering the A300 because of the live view too, I am just going to have to convince Circuit City to give be 12% off like I could get at best buy if they carried the camera, which they do not. If I do go DSLR I will probably pick up a Tamron 70mm-300mm zoom lense. How good is the lense that comes with the camera?

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Originally Posted by PCJ

The A300 is a cropped sensor right? Is the 55-200 your only lens? If so, don't you miss not being able to take wider shots?

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It comes with an 18-70mm lens, and just about any Kinoca-Minolta lens will fit a Sony DSLR so there are plenty to choice from.

Nice Astro :) I may have to graduate some day from my A570 some day;)

I need to unload the CF card in it and post some pics for ya.

Here's some tips.

Shutter speed: A general rule of thumb for sharp pictures is that your shutter speed should equal the focal length of the lens you are using. ie using a lens of 100 mm your shutter speed should be at least 1/100s. When using a support (tripod etc) this negates this "rule". Now when you want to get artsy, you can play with shutter speeds to give specific effects (blur for example)


ISO = essentially the sensitivity of the sensor to light which sort of equats to film speed. This has an effect on shutter speeds. Be careful with using high iso settings because it can induce noise/grain into your picture. However, this is not a bad thing in the cases of artistic photography. Can be adjusted to compensate for low shutter speeds.

Aperture or f stop: this is an interesting one which takes some time to get used to. It is the diameter of the lens opening. f/2.8 is a larger opening than f/11 which allows more light to enter the lens. However the photo taken at f/2.8 will look alot different than that taken at f/11. Google hyperfocal distance for more in depth discussion on this.

My camera is set to aperture priority in probably 95% of the photos I take. Essentially you can isolate the subject from the background using a large (f/2.8) aperture setting whereas a f/11 aperture setting will have more the background in focus. The plane of focus is different.

cheers.

Thanks for the tips, that explains a lot. :)

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Originally Posted by tituswolf

It comes with an 18-70mm lens, and just about any Kinoca-Minolta lens will fit a Sony DSLR so there are plenty to choice from.

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just curious, are those sony DSLR maken by Minolta team? Like brother and sister?

I have my eyes on the entry level Nikon D40x, is it a good DSLR? Any other suggestion?

Finally uploaded some pics from vacation with the camera.

Check out the water droplets on the picture of my daughter. I liked the picture of the fish my wife found when we walked the beach at night, and to keep it game related there's a pic of my son preparing to duel the Elite 4 in his Diamond Pokemon game LOL. The fish picture is cool on my home pc b/c I can blow it up. I should just crop out a pic of him, but these were all taken with the default lens. Since that time I got my 75-200mm lens in which is pretty nice. My wife "accidentally" formatted the CF card after a recent excursion to go pick blueberries and I got some nice pictures of some birds zoomed in and blueberries and stuff...but they are lost :(


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