new to dslr

[portegee]

I just picked up a canon rebel t1i tell me what you all think of this camera it's going to be a Bday gift for the ol lady. I got what they called the monster kit with an 18-55mm autofocus IS lens, wide angle lens, telephoto lens, and a bunch of other stuff. Let me know any experience you guys have
thanks

[Rhythm of Life]

Its a good camera. Depending on how much video you shoot you might have considered the xsi.

Make sure you have a good SD card, I'd get at least a class 6.

[portegee]

by class 6 do you mean a 6 gig? Thanks for the info

[Ricky-Ray]

The Canon Rebel series has always been a good starter/beginner camera. Get a couple of extra memory cards and you should be good to go.

[i1800collect]

by class 6 do you mean a 6 gig? Thanks for the info

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sd_card#Speeds

* Class 2: 16 Mbit/s (2 MB/s)
* Class 4: 32 Mbit/s (4 MB/s)
* Class 6: 48 Mbit/s (6 MB/s)
* Class 10: 80 Mbit/s (10 MB/s)

[Prospector]

Good camera to start on. Now go shoot....

[ke6guj]

nothing wrong with that camera. My family uses Nikon, but that is like Chevy v. Ford, both work, both have fanboys, etc.

One thing to realize is that camera technology gets better all the time, and the camera bodies can almost be considered disposable and will be upgraded from time to time. But the lens and flashes you'll keep for years.

best thing you can do with that camera is to just use it. Play around with the settings and see what different settings do to a pic. See how apature, shutter speed, white balance, etc affect the shot.

[portegee]

Thanks for the tips, it's a gift so won't be able to do anything till this sunday. We're throwing her a surprise Bday so lots of friends and family to take pics with.

[sholling]

It's a good camera.

[ke6guj]

Thanks for the tips, it's a gift so won't be able to do anything till this sunday. We're throwing her a surprise Bday so lots of friends and family to take pics with.

in that case, make sure that the battery is fully charged when you give it to her.

[portegee]

in that case, make sure that the battery is fully charged when you give it to her.

Thanks I didn't even think about that

[ocabj]

Is this her first SLR?

If so I suggest getting her a copy of Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. It's an older book, but it has long been the defacto standard for people who aren't familiar with the fundamental triangle of exposure: aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and how they work together.

Have her watch the Mark Wallace / Snapfactory videos:

http://www.youtube.com/snapfactory

Particularly all the "Digital 1-on-1" segments where he explains lots photography fundamentals.

As far as all the lenses you got her, it's probably a good idea to get her to use one good solid prime lens like a 50 f/1.4 instead of zooms. A fast 50mm on a crop sensor body like the T1i will be an excellent low light portrait lens. The fact that it's a prime and not a zoom will teach your wife how to compose and frame by moving herself instead of staying stationary and adjusting a zoom ring.

Don't get caught up in buying many lenses until you know what you want/need. I went through several lenses and am currently down to only two:

Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L
Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8L IS II

Pretty much everything I've shot this year has been with those two lenses. Though I do have two bodies, crop and Full Frame via the Canon 7D and 5D Mark II, respectively, which does give me wider effective focal range with those two lenses above.

So depending on what kind of photography your wife wants to do, don't get buck wild with lenses purchases.

Though I definitely suggest getting her at least one Speedlite. Eventually, she'll be in a situation where she'll need to use bounce flash or a fill flash outdoors and the on-camera flip up flash is just too harsh (no spread, very focused). Photography is about capturing light (since an exposure is controlling what light hits the camera's sensor to create the photo). If she's going to take a lot of portraits, the lighting is the most important thing. And if you're going to use flashes/strobes, then the quality of the lighting and light modifiers is more important than the quality of the camera or glass.

You can check out http://www.jocabphoto.com, particularly the glamour photography stuff, to see what I've been able to accomplish with basically one camera, one lens, and one off-camera light (Canon 5D, Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II, Alien Bees B1600 strobe).

Anyway, I'm sure your wife will enjoy the camera. The lower cost of entry level dSLRs have definitely helped create a boom in photography in a digital world.

[portegee]

^ That is some amazing work, and really good advise. The main reason we need an adjustable lens is for sports. Our daughter play basketball, volleyball, and swims, so we can't alway get closer to the shot. I definatley will check out those books as well as post questions here since there seems to be a wealth of knowledge on this subject. The kit did come with a flash, not sure on the make. Thanks alot for everything

[Rhythm of Life]

Don't get caught up in buying many lenses until you know what you want/need. I went through several lenses and am currently down to only two:

Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L
Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8L IS II

Sometimes you gotta go buck wild and try new lenses. You might find a new style of photography you love.

[ocabj]

Sometimes you gotta go buck wild and try new lenses. You might find a new style of photography you love.

At which point you're better off renting. Granted, when I bought and sold my previous lenses, I didn't lose much money because the cost of lenses had gone up the past year after I bought them.