dSLR ultimate newbie question . . .

[BirderSean]

my wife and I are researching dSLRs. We've used P&S camers for awhile, but recently our canon SD550 met an unfortunate demise.

From my ancient history of using an SLR film camera, I recall that settings included f-stop, film speed and shutter speed, correct? Three simple things to manipulate in order to capture a stunning image. . .

I am feeling overwhelmed by the amount of "settings" that dSLR seem to have. Do they fundamentally operate in the same manner with the same three adjustments, or does one really need all the features/settings/etc that come with these???

Can someone please help shed some light on how these things operate? or point me to a link for a "how to" or "beginner's guide".
thanks.

[Claymore]

my wife and I are researching dSLRs. We've used P&S camers for awhile, but recently our canon SD550 met an unfortunate demise.

From my ancient history of using an SLR film camera, I recall that settings included f-stop, film speed and shutter speed, correct? Three simple things to manipulate in order to capture a stunning image. . .

I am feeling overwhelmed by the amount of "settings" that dSLR seem to have. Do they fundamentally operate in the same manner with the same three adjustments, or does one really need all the features/settings/etc that come with these???

Can someone please help shed some light on how these things operate? or point me to a link for a "how to" or "beginner's guide".
thanks.

Hi,
Don't worry about it, today digital slr's can be VERY easy to use (even I can work one:eek!:) or you can experiment with lots of settings/gizmos etc. You will be amazed at the quality they produce even when set to fully auto which is like a point and shoot compact. There's many great books giving advice available on Amazon etc. The main thing to remember when choosing an slr is for birds you really need 300mm + lenses to fill your frame in a garden, ok you can crop the pictures which will bring the birds closer but you do lose some quality doing that. Will you be sticking with Canon? also what sort of money do you want to spend? The hardest thing with digital slrs etc is actually deciding which model to buy, once you have one you will easily get used to the digital format.
Cheerio
Brian:t:

[AC/DC]

Yes, except the digital equivalent of film speed is ISO. Leave things like white balance to auto and picture style to standard until you understand them fully. I don't know how much help it will be, but I wrote a sort-of beginners guide a little while ago:
http://sl-photography.110mb.com/advicearticle.html

[RJL2005]

my wife and I are researching dSLRs. We've used P&S camers for awhile, but recently our canon SD550 met an unfortunate demise.

From my ancient history of using an SLR film camera, I recall that settings included f-stop, film speed and shutter speed, correct? Three simple things to manipulate in order to capture a stunning image. . .

I am feeling overwhelmed by the amount of "settings" that dSLR seem to have. Do they fundamentally operate in the same manner with the same three adjustments, or does one really need all the features/settings/etc that come with these???

Can someone please help shed some light on how these things operate? or point me to a link for a "how to" or "beginner's guide".
thanks.

If you are familiar with the "old" settings then digital should be easy! Ignore all the the presets, switch to manual and you'll be sorted. It took me a couple of years to realise this!

If you google the key words you'll find loads of good stuff to help you!

Cheers
Rhod