first day with my XSi :D

my canon rebel xsi camera came yesterday (05-06-08). . .however i decided not to open it just then.
my b-day was today, so i decided to wait till today (and let me tell you. . .it was not fun waiting knowing it was right there in that big brown ups box lol).

opened it up today.
wow :) i love this thing.
i kept hearing people complain about the canon xti (the model canon came out with before they made the xsi) being too light, cheap feeling, and small.
my first impressions of the xsi are the complete oposite.
it's got a very good solid feel. it is light, but not so light that it feels cheap. . .it's got a very solid weight to it.
and it's comfortable for me, so no complaints about it being too small from me so far.

i know nothing about photography. . .so first thing i did was put it into full auto mode, and took some test shots.
it takes very sharp pictures, and the autofocus on the 18-55mm kit lens it came with is pretty fast, and acurate (it has problems focusing on objects not well lighted. . .good thing manual focus is so easy.)
the autofocus on this lens is pretty loud (at least i think so). . .hehe but i realy like hearing it focus, makes it sound more like a high end camera to me :p.

i also tried out the live view mode.
it's an awesome option. . .very glad i decided to get a camera with this feature.
i plan on doing alot of macro photography (i really need a good tripod) and i really think i'll get alot of use out of live view.
i especialy like being able to zoom in to make focus adjustments.
i also really like that i can put a 3x3 grip over the live preview (think a tic tak toe board). . .will help me figure out the rule of thirds i keep hearing all over the net.

i look quite a few shots. . .at first i put it in full auto mode (the camera tries it's best to guess the best white balance, iso, shutter speed, appature, etc).
then i got brave and have spent the rest of the day shooting in full manual mode (hoping to force myself to understand what some of the settings do).
hehe this camera is really intimidating. . .there's just so much to learn. . .and i feel so lost.
the 2 biggest things i'm stuck at are appature (f stops) and shutter speed.
i have the basics down. . .what i don't understand is how they effect each other, or what appature i should be at (should i shoot this picture at f/11. . .or should i go higher?) or if i have a high f stop (narrow appature), what should i put the shutter speed at?
i'll get the hang of it eventualy though. . .but it is pretty dam confusing.

i was playing with the camera as it was getting dark tonight (set the iso at 1600, opened the appature as wide as it'd let me, and set the shutter speed at 1 second) and i'm blown away with how well it was able to do.
i took a test shot of my dad's car without using the flash, and it had no problems getting the shot.
hehe the shot was really blurry rhough because i was hand holding the camera (hehe have i mentioned that i really need a tripod? lol).

i'll post some photos up tomorow; i'm using my phone to type this or i'd post some right now.



and i mu updated total for my canon xsi:

$311.15
of
$1,066.90

-posted with my lg voyager.
till next time,
thnx.