Lesson one for Sue

Hi Sue,

Has your new camera arrived yet??

I took my first pictures this evening. Just out in the garden, a couple of Robins (American Robins which are really Thrushes) up in the tree. Once I had downloaded them onto my computer I realized that I now want a zoom lens so I can get even closer shots, so what would be the right zoom lens to go for first?

Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself here. I will do some book reading tomorrow and on Thursday I will take a few more pictures.

This is exciting!

Lyn, Sue has a DSLR. It has interchangeable lenses. So no zoom button.

Sue, the most common lenses for a DSLR is, 18 to 70mm and 70 to 300mm. That should cover anything that you would normally want to take.

By the way, if you havnt got one, get a card reader. Using the software that came with your camera your photo's will load quicker into the computer.A big plus is, when you connect the camera to the pc, you use the camera battery, flattens the battery very quickly. Using the card reader you are not using the camera batteries, and they load much faster. You didnt say what lense came with your camera

Sue,

If you get the 70-300mm, be sure to get a tripod.  Will help to prevent camera shake.

Let's see, the lens I got was a EFS 18 - 55mm which at the moment doesn't mean a thing to me. I'm figuring that it's smaller than the 70 - 300mm.

So, should I be looking for a 70- 300mm and a tripod?

If you go for the 300mm end of the lense a lot, yes, a tripod is a good bet.

What peope dont seem to realise is that, due to the size of the censor, You multiply the focal length of the lens by 1.5. That means that your 70 to 300mm lense is in effect a 105 to 450mm lens. Any shaking of the hand is also magnified, like looking through binoculars.

Your 18 to 55mm lense is equal to 27 to nearly 81mm. That is if you compare it to a 35mm film camera. The rule for handholding the camera and lense combination is the same as for film cameras. All the info should be in your manual that came with the camera. If you need more help, Email me with your question and I will try to give you an easy answer.

You guys are all being so helpful.

I will be reading today, and writing questions as I go.