My new camera

Mr Hyde · 05-30-2007, 01:55 PM

I got home from work today and found that the UPS fairy had left me a present on my doorstep. I ordered a K10D last week and it arrived today. I opened the box and made sure all the items were accounted for. This dSLR thing is new for me so when I ordered the camera I bought the kit lens (DA 18-55 F3.5-5.6). I installed the lens and flippped through the manual. I'm just waiting now for the battery to fully charge so I can fire it up. The manual says up to 180 minutes for a full charge but it seems like forever.

Since I'm new to dSLR and the only training I had in film SLR was back in high school, can you experienced folks suggest a few books to help me ease back into things? Perhaps it will keep me from asking silly questions

**NaClH2O** · 05-30-2007, 05:13 PM

There are prolly a gazillion books on photography, and everybody has favorites. But two pretty general books I found helpful were The Basic Book of Photography by Thomas Grimm, and Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. The first one is a bit more basic than the second, but there's good info in both and its fairly well presented. Neither book is "purely digital" in fact the Grimm work is more oriented towards film, but it covers the basics (which are the same pretty much) very well.

NaCl(but don't worry about silly questions, we love silly questions! well maybe not love... )H2O

Mr Hyde · 05-30-2007, 06:46 PM

Thanks for the suggestions

I'm open for some others if anyone else has any ideas

jnorth · 05-31-2007, 02:32 PM

Refresh yourself best by shooting, shooting and shooting, once of course you have learned what features are available to you and how to get to them on the camera. The core principles aren't all that different from SLR to DSLR and the advantage is that you can shoot till your eyes bleed to get down a technique or 10 without having to pay a photolab a penny for practice shots. Plus the exif data means you don't need to spend as much time taking notes in a book of what your shooting/learning.

Another thing would be to carefully think through your storage or archiving of images. I have tons of images from doing multi-media presentation along with a good number of my own digital photos. There was never a good system implemented when I started and that simply put translates to a mess on my harddrives. Might I suggest
The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers
The book itself covers a primary workflow from the camera to your archives, from there you can modify. The site has a forum and the topics cover some variants to the books workflow. Even if you don't adopt the whole process it is indepth enough to allow you to work out your own system with your own preferred tools.

Mr Hyde · 05-31-2007, 09:58 PM

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm getting rather frustrated with the new camera so far. The problem is that ever since I got it I can hardly use it. I've been getting home late from work every day and when I get home I have a ton of chores to do. The wife had back surgery last week so I'm doing my best to help her as much as I can. The end result is little to no free time. Tomorrow my kids are having a dance recital... I cant wait to see how the K10D performs

Mike Cash · 06-01-2007, 07:20 AM

One suggestion would be to carry the camera with you practically everywhere you go. I do almost 100% of my shooting while at work.

I am reminded of what John Mellencamp said in a recent interview on "The Bob & Tom Show" regarding song writing. I'll have to paraphrase. He was talking about people who complain they can't find anything to write about, and said, "Look out your window. How can you not find something to write about?"

Having a camera constantly within arm's reach changes the way one looks at the world and makes one much more observant, I think.

Mr Hyde · 06-01-2007, 09:39 PM

I totally agree with you about having the camera with me all the time. But to do that I'll need a nice case to store it in. I havent got that far yet. So far I've bought the camera and kit lens, the DA 50-200 Zoom, the battery grip, and two spare batteries. I have a bunch of 1 and 2 gig SD cards laying around. Now I just need something noce to put all my stuff in. I'm open to suggestions.......

Oh, and by the way, I never got a chance to take any pictures of my kids during their dance recital. They had a policy of no cameras allowed. I asked why and got two totally lame answers. First I was told that there would be a problem because the music is copyrighted. I reminded the person that it was a CAMERA and could not record music. Then I was told that it would cause a view obstruction for those behind me. I explained that the camera would only be in front of my face and couldnt possibly be an obstruction any more than my head would be. she looked at me like I was speaking a diferent language so I gave up and put it back in my car......

05-30-2007, 01:55 PM	#1
Mr Hyde Veteran Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: NJ, USA Posts: 760	My new camera I got home from work today and found that the UPS fairy had left me a present on my doorstep. I ordered a K10D last week and it arrived today. I opened the box and made sure all the items were accounted for. This dSLR thing is new for me so when I ordered the camera I bought the kit lens (DA 18-55 F3.5-5.6). I installed the lens and flippped through the manual. I'm just waiting now for the battery to fully charge so I can fire it up. The manual says up to 180 minutes for a full charge but it seems like forever. Since I'm new to dSLR and the only training I had in film SLR was back in high school, can you experienced folks suggest a few books to help me ease back into things? Perhaps it will keep me from asking silly questions

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05-30-2007, 05:13 PM	#2
NaClH2O Site Supporter Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Bronx NY Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 5,631	There are prolly a gazillion books on photography, and everybody has favorites. But two pretty general books I found helpful were The Basic Book of Photography by Thomas Grimm, and Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. The first one is a bit more basic than the second, but there's good info in both and its fairly well presented. Neither book is "purely digital" in fact the Grimm work is more oriented towards film, but it covers the basics (which are the same pretty much) very well. NaCl(but don't worry about silly questions, we love silly questions! well maybe not love... )H2O

05-30-2007, 06:46 PM	#3
Mr Hyde Veteran Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: NJ, USA Posts: 760 Original Poster	Thanks for the suggestions I'm open for some others if anyone else has any ideas

05-31-2007, 02:32 PM	#4
jnorth Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Vancouver BC Posts: 230	Refresh yourself best by shooting, shooting and shooting, once of course you have learned what features are available to you and how to get to them on the camera. The core principles aren't all that different from SLR to DSLR and the advantage is that you can shoot till your eyes bleed to get down a technique or 10 without having to pay a photolab a penny for practice shots. Plus the exif data means you don't need to spend as much time taking notes in a book of what your shooting/learning. Another thing would be to carefully think through your storage or archiving of images. I have tons of images from doing multi-media presentation along with a good number of my own digital photos. There was never a good system implemented when I started and that simply put translates to a mess on my harddrives. Might I suggest The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers The book itself covers a primary workflow from the camera to your archives, from there you can modify. The site has a forum and the topics cover some variants to the books workflow. Even if you don't adopt the whole process it is indepth enough to allow you to work out your own system with your own preferred tools.

05-31-2007, 09:58 PM	#5
Mr Hyde Veteran Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: NJ, USA Posts: 760 Original Poster	Thanks for the suggestions. I'm getting rather frustrated with the new camera so far. The problem is that ever since I got it I can hardly use it. I've been getting home late from work every day and when I get home I have a ton of chores to do. The wife had back surgery last week so I'm doing my best to help her as much as I can. The end result is little to no free time. Tomorrow my kids are having a dance recital... I cant wait to see how the K10D performs

06-01-2007, 07:20 AM	#6
Mike Cash Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Japan Photos: Gallery Posts: 6,950	One suggestion would be to carry the camera with you practically everywhere you go. I do almost 100% of my shooting while at work. I am reminded of what John Mellencamp said in a recent interview on "The Bob & Tom Show" regarding song writing. I'll have to paraphrase. He was talking about people who complain they can't find anything to write about, and said, "Look out your window. How can you not find something to write about?" Having a camera constantly within arm's reach changes the way one looks at the world and makes one much more observant, I think.

06-01-2007, 09:39 PM	#7
Mr Hyde Veteran Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: NJ, USA Posts: 760 Original Poster	I totally agree with you about having the camera with me all the time. But to do that I'll need a nice case to store it in. I havent got that far yet. So far I've bought the camera and kit lens, the DA 50-200 Zoom, the battery grip, and two spare batteries. I have a bunch of 1 and 2 gig SD cards laying around. Now I just need something noce to put all my stuff in. I'm open to suggestions....... Oh, and by the way, I never got a chance to take any pictures of my kids during their dance recital. They had a policy of no cameras allowed. I asked why and got two totally lame answers. First I was told that there would be a problem because the music is copyrighted. I reminded the person that it was a CAMERA and could not record music. Then I was told that it would cause a view obstruction for those behind me. I explained that the camera would only be in front of my face and couldnt possibly be an obstruction any more than my head would be. she looked at me like I was speaking a diferent language so I gave up and put it back in my car......