Manufacturers End User Training Courses

[Henry Wilt]

Has anybody on here ever been on a training course provided by the manufacturer of your camera? If so what level of proficiency do they expect of the attendees?

OK, I should really qualify this a bit, specifically I am looking to find out about Canon courses (in relation to EOS 500D) but I would imagine they are the pretty similar for all manufacturers. My wife has finally summoned up the courage to go on this course but is scared because she "knows nothing at all", her words not mine.

Any information or experience of this at all would be gratefully received.

PS. Sorry if this is in the wrong section but I wasn't sure if it should be here, in the Canon Cameras section or where really.

[OsmosisStudios]

Never heard of manufacturers giving courses on their own gear, but stands to reason as they'd be the ones to know it best.

[windrider86]

I know Olympus offers brief tutorials on thier cameras off of their web site. They also send out newsletters with tutorials in them.
Have you checked out Canon's web site ? Another possibility would be to check out You Tube

[Henry Wilt]

Originally Posted by windrider86

I know Olympus offers brief tutorials on thier cameras off of their web site. They also send out newsletters with tutorials in them.
Have you checked out Canon's web site ? Another possibility would be to check out You Tube

Canon Global website has the newsletters, tutorials etc. but I am talking about a course that is actually run at Canons premises. Canons Thai website, or at least the link regarding the training is only in Thai, which figures as the the course is only run in Thai (which is why I didn't take the opportunity to attend, my Thai isn't good enough to understand photographic terms!). I could get my wife to read it or even ring them but I worry that if it/they talk about something she doesn't understand she will "bottle" it again. She really does worry about anything that sounds like schooling, stemming, I think, from the fact she had to leave school at 11yo to go and work with her parents to help support her brothers and sisters.
Maybe this is something that is only available in Asia or Thailand, hence no-one has heard of it.

Thanks for the suggestions though.

[toasted75]

Nikon launched a dslr intro course in Australia last month... supposed to be adding more advanced courses soon.

Nikon School Launch

[Henry Wilt]

I just re-read my last post and am worried that I might have given a bad impression of my wife.
Despite the fact she left school so young she can speak 7 languages fluently (Thai, Laos, Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokien, Malay and English), all self taught, and is a fantastic chef (one of the most popular on the island of Penang, Malaysia when we lived there), mostly self taught.
Sorry, I had to put that right. I am very proud of her and her achievements and wouldn't want anyone to get the wrong impression of her. Her self confidence is very low mainly because Thai society judges people on the level of schooling they have achieved, therefore she believes the general consensus is correct regarding people like her who left school so young and she must be stupid. She is far from it but has real problems accepting that, hence her nervousness to attend what she sees as "school".