50mm Settings

[LoveMyRebel]

Is there a setting on my Xti that is best when using my 50mm?

[nowonder]

Originally Posted by LoveMyRebel

Is there a setting on my Xti that is best when using my 50mm?

Well, it depends what you are trying to accomplish...

Lets say you are trying to get that great DOF that the lens is known for. What you want to do is put the camera in Aperture Priority mode (Av on the settings dial), and then dial the camera down to F1.8.

Enjoy

--nw

[dcclark]

The lens merely focuses light and projects it onto your sensor. The settings you use depend entirely on what you want to photograph, and how. Can you tell us more?

[Trader]

Originally Posted by nowonder

Well, it depends what you are trying to accomplish...

Lets say you are trying to get that great DOF that the lens is known for. What you want to do is put the camera in Aperture Priority mode (Av on the settings dial), and then dial the camera down to F1.8.

Enjoy

--nw

Using f/1.8 will give you a blurred background not great DOF.

[inkista]

Depends on whether you think a thin DoF is great, or a huge DoF is great.

With the 50mm f/1.8 II, you have the ability to open up the aperture to f/1.8 which will let you use a faster shutter speed in lower light without a flash and will give you a very thin DoF, which will throw the background out of focus. BUT. Shooting wide open with any lens is going to rob you of some sharpness, and is likely to have more vignetting and chromatic aberration than if you stop down a little. It also makes focusing accurately really critical because of the thin DoF.

Take a look at the dpreview test results for the 50mm f/1.8 II. Spin the aperture wheel and look at how the image quality of the lens changes. The sharpness and CA get much better past f/2.8.

Most beginners are enchanted by the floaty look of the thin DoF, and tend to shoot with it wide open all the time. After the honeymoon period is over, you may want to watch out that you're not forming the habit of using f/1.8 unthinkingly, but that you're actually choosing it, knowing that you're making an IQ tradeoff in doing so. You have an entire continuum of aperture settings available to you with any lens, and it'll be a trade off of DoF vs.the sharpness as to which one will serve any individual photo best. It's not unlike using higher ISO settings and the noise tradeoff.

Similarly, using your 18-55 kit lens, @55mm and f/5.6 all the time is doing exactly the same thing.

[LoveMyRebel]

Lessons learned, I made the mistake of dialing back to 1.8 for a shoot and lost the sharpness I was hoping for.

I really need a good book or tutorial for my camera, any have anything to recommend. I am a hands on learner so just reading the manual that came with my camera is falling a bit short. I want more...

I am learning alot here but I need something to help it all absorb. Any suggestions?

[ericw]

Originally Posted by LoveMyRebel

I am learning alot here but I need something to help it all absorb. Any suggestions?

Practice makes things absorb. Maybe make a list of things you're learning and set out to practice each of them individually? Different strokes...

[inkista]

For general photography stuff, just keep hanging out here, and other photography forums and Flickr discussion threads. Nothing like seeing what other folks are doing to fire off ideas.

But for learning Canon hardware, specifically, the POTN board has a lot of very knowledgeable people about the specifics of Canon gear of all kinds. And the Canon website has a digital learning center page. There's also a set of old XT tutorials that might come in handy for learning some basics.

[nowonder]

Originally Posted by Trader

Using f/1.8 will give you a blurred background not great DOF.

Sorry, you are correct, I mean to say "great shallow DOF".

my bad.

--nw

[kleidascope]

Originally Posted by LoveMyRebel

Is there a setting on my Xti that is best when using my 50mm?

This is for a video for the XSI. It is awesome and will really expedite the learning of the mechanics of the camera. I believe (someone will correct me if I'm wrong) the featurs of the XSI and XTI are really similar. I've only glanced at an xti breifly, but it seemed like the function buttons were really close.
http://michaelthementor.com/store/in...e8c4b8e8415a72