Your camera requires a battery to power its onboard computer, light meter, image sensor, and other components. If you were following along in the previous chapter, then you’ve already charged and used the battery, so we’re going to cover some battery tips here:

As you already know, your Rebel XS uses a Secure Digital card. The XS is also compatible with SDHC, a newer format that has the same form factor as SD but that comes in higher capacities and offers speedier transfer. Note that you’ll need an SDHC reader for SDHC cards. Fortunately, an SDHC reader will read normal SD cards, so you need only one reader to read both formats.

When shopping for media cards, you’ll find a wide range of capacities and vendors and a correspondingly wide range of prices. What’s the difference between a 2 GB card that costs $19 and one that costs $49? Nothing at all, in terms of the number of images it will hold. However, that $49 card is probably much faster, which means your camera will be able to more quickly dump images to it.

As you already learned, the number on the right side of the viewfinder status display shows how many images the camera can currently fit in its internal buffer. As you shoot, the buffer fills, and the number goes down. It takes time for the camera to dump these images to the card, and while the camera is performing this transfer, you may not be able to shoot at all or to shoot a full burst of images.

So, with a speedier card, the camera will be able to dump its images more quickly, freeing up buffer space for more shots. How much this will matter to you depends on the type of shooting you do. If you plan on shooting sports or other action shots, where you’ll typically be shooting bursts, then you will want a speedier card.

Another way to look at it is that if you want to ensure the best chance that the camera will always be able to shoot, then get a speedier card. A 133x card (or faster) will deliver a very good level of performance in the XS. If you find that those cards cost more than you’d like to spend, then go for something less expensive, but understand that sometimes the camera might be tied up with storing images and so won’t be able to shoot.

You should already be familiar with the power switch and Mode dial on the top of the camera. We’ll be exploring all of the mode options throughout the rest of the book.

Figure 2-3. On the top of the camera you’ll find several essential shooting controls.

The front of the XS has minimal controls, but the few buttons that are there are ones you’ll use often.

Figure 2-4. The front of the camera has a few simple but important controls.

The left side of the camera (if you’re looking at it from behind) holds a rubber door that covers three ports.

Figure 2-5. The left side of the camera holds the USB port, which is used for transferring images; a port for a remote control; and the video out port, for connecting the camera to a TV.

These ports are used for connecting your camera to a TV to play back images, for connecting a wired remote, and for attaching your camera to a computer. We’ll look at all of these options in more detail later.

The port cover doesn’t snap closed; instead, you kind of have to mash it into its receptacle until it stays.

On the right side of the camera is the media slot cover, which you should already have used when inserting your media card.

Note that just below the media slot cover, on the rear of the camera, there’s a small light. Any time the camera is reading or writing data, this light will illuminate. If you open the door when an image is being written, the camera will beep and post a warning on the screen.

Figure 2-6. This lamp lights up whenever the camera is writing to the card. Removing the media card while this lamp is lit could wreck the images stored on the card.

Obviously, it is the back of the camera where the bulk of the controls are housed, alongside the LCD screen.

Above the LCD screen are the Menu and Display buttons, which are used to control what is shown on the camera’s LCD screen.

To the right of the screen is a circular array of controls, along with White Balance and Exposure Compensation buttons. These are the controls you’ll use in everyday shooting to change shooting parameters.

Earlier, we covered the diopter control, which allows you to adjust the viewfinder to compensate for your glasses prescription.

Figure 2-7. The bulk of the XS’s controls are on the back of the camera.

On the upper-right side of the camera are two additional buttons, which are used to change focus point selection and to control exposure lock.

These controls also have blue magnifying glasses beneath them. Blue icons indicate playback mode functionality. So, when reviewing your images, these two buttons turn into zoom in and zoom out controls. (Similarly, the White Balance button does double duty as a Print button.)

Finally, at the bottom of the camera, you’ll find the Play button, which you should already have used, and the Delete button, which we’ll cover in Chapter 3.

The bottom of the camera doesn’t have any controls, but it does have two important features. There’s the battery compartment, which you’ve already used, and there’s the tripod mount.

With the menu active, you can press the Disp button on the back of the camera to get a view of some important camera statistics.

Figure 2-11. Pressing the DISP button at any time gives you a simple status readout of the camera’s current settings.

There’s nothing on this screen that you can’t learn by going and looking at the settings of the individual parameters, but it can be a nice way to quickly get a look at some vital settings. You’ll learn more about each of these settings later.

Obviously, your right hand goes around the camera’s grip, with your forefinger positioned on the shutter button. To guarantee the most stable hold, your left hand should go underneath the lens barrel, where it connects to the camera.

Figure 2-12. Support the lens with your left hand to ensure a more stable hold on the camera.

Cradling the camera this way makes it easier to hold the camera for long periods of time and will help you hold the camera steady. With your forefinger on the shutter release, you should be able to easily reach the control buttons on the back of the camera with your thumb.

When standing, your most solid, secure stance is to have both feet firmly planted on the ground, about shoulder-width apart. Obviously, depending on the terrain, this may or may not be possible. The best way to ensure a stable hold is to always remember to keep your elbows touching your sides.

Figure 2-13. Elbow position is critical to achieving a stable, shake-free camera hold. Remember: your elbows should always be touching your sides.

“Elbows in” gives you a very sturdy platform for holding the camera. If you get in the habit of keeping your elbows against your side, eventually it will simply feel wrong to not have them pressed against you when shooting. In most cases, even if you’re on uneven terrain and having to change your foot position, you can still keep your elbows at your side. Elbows in also holds true when you’re seated.

When switching from landscape to portrait orientation, you still want to keep your elbows at your side to ensure a more stable position.

Figure 2-14. The elbow rule holds for vertical shooting, as well. The image on the right shows a much more stable position than the image on the left.

Finally, lift the camera all the way to your face. This may sound strange because you probably think you are, but many people lift the camera partway to their face and then push their neck forward to close the gap. In addition to giving you bad posture (and probably contributing as much to back pain after a day’s shooting as that heavy camera bag on your shoulder), it’s a much less stable position.

Figure 2-15. You’ll get a more stable shot, and have less neck pain, if you bring the camera all the way to your eye, rather than pushing your neck forward.

If you wear glasses, you are probably already familiar with the idea that a thicker lens provides more magnification. The same is true for your camera lenses—a longer lens provides more magnification.

Figure 2-16. The image on the left was shot with a short lens, while the image in the center was shot with a very long lens. Obviously, the image on the right is more magnified.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: 35MM EQUIVALENCY

If you’re coming from a 35mm film camera background, then you might already have certain ideas about focal length. For example, you probably think of a 50mm lens as a “normal” lens, that is, a lens with a field of view that’s roughly equivalent to the human eye.

In turn, you probably think of anything longer than 50mm as being telephoto and anything shorter as being wide-angle. To you, a 16mm lens is probably a super-wide angle, while a 400mm is a long telephoto.

The image sensor in the Rebel XS is smaller than a piece of 35mm film. All lenses project a circular image onto the focal plane, and a rectangular crop is taken from that to create the final image. But because its sensor is smaller, the XS cuts a smaller crop out of that circle.

Figure 2-17. On the left, you can see what a piece of 35mm film cuts out of the image projected by a lens. On the right, you can see the image that the XS captures. It has a much narrower field of view, as if you had been shooting with a more telephoto lens.

In practical terms, this means that, for any given focal length, the field of view of a lens on the Rebel XS will be narrower than that same focal length on a 35mm camera.

To put it another way, on the Rebel XS, a 50mm lens has the same field of view as an 80mm lens on a 35mm film camera.

To calculate the 35mm equivalency of any lens you put on the XS, simply multiply the focal length of your lens by 1.6. So, if you have an 18–55 mm lens—a lens that would be an ultrawide to normal lens on a 35mm film camera—you can think of it as a 28.8 to 88mm lens in 35mm terms.

Another way of thinking about magnification is to pay attention to the field of view. In the figure on the previous page, the center image has a much narrower field of view than the left image. As focal length increases, the field of view captured—that is, the distance from left to right—gets narrower.

On lenses, the “thickness,” or length of a lens, is measured in millimeters and is referred to as the lens focal length. A longer focal length means a more telephoto lens, which means more magnification and less field of view. So, a 300mm lens will be more telephoto than an 80mm lens. We’ll be speaking about focal length a lot throughout the rest of this book.

In general, lenses fall into two categories: prime lenses and zoom lenses. A prime lens has a single, fixed focus length. A zoom lens lets you change the focal length so that the lens can go from wide-angle to telephoto.

The advantage of prime lenses is that they’re sometimes sharper than the same focal length in a zoom lens. The advantage of a zoom lens is that a single lens can provide the focal lengths of a bunch of prime lenses. As you’ll see, choice of focal length is one of your most important decisions when composing a shot.

Twenty years ago, it was safe to say that zoom lenses were of markedly inferior quality to prime lenses. Nowadays, the difference is not nearly so great, and a good zoom lens can yield excellent image quality, especially when paired with a camera as good as the XS.

On most zoom lenses you’ll find three controls: a zoom ring, which lets you zoom in and out (which is the same thing as choosing a different focal length); a small switch for changing between autofocus and manual focus; and a focus ring, which lets you manually focus the lens.

On a prime lens you’ll have only a focus ring and an AF switch. You might have an image stabilization control. We’ll be covering all of these controls later in this book.

Figure 2-18. Here you can see the zoom ring (inner), focus ring (outer), and focus switch.

Obviously, with a big expensive piece of glass like a camera lens, dropping it is not a good idea. Your other concern with a lens, though, is keeping it clean and scratch-free. In the previous section, I mentioned the possibility of dust getting in the mirror chamber of the camera. If the dust alights on the sensor, then you’ll see visible smudges and smears in your image. Most sensor dust is actually delivered to the inside of the camera by the end of the lens, so one of the best things you can do for your camera and lens is to keep the lens clean.

Don’t put a lens in a pocket or bag without an end cap. The end of the lens will trap a lot of dirt, and when you next mount the lens on the camera, you’ll transfer a lot of this dirt and debris to the inside of your camera. To keep the ends of your lens clean, use a blower brush to blow any visible dust off of the glass at either end. You can get a blower brush at any camera store.

If there’s something on either end of the lens that you can’t get off with a blower brush, then you can resort to lens paper of some kind. Lens paper is also available at a camera store. Don’t ever try to clean your lens with your shirt or a piece of “found” cloth. While the cloth may look clean, you never know whether there’s some small abrasive particle that could scratch your lens.

Figure 2-19. Use a blower brush for cleaning dust off the ends of your lenses.

One of the best things you can do to ensure the long-term health of a lens is to put a protective filter on the end. A skylight or UV filter will not alter the light that passes through the lens but will provide a significant amount of protection. If the filter gets scratched, you can simply replace it. Even in the event of a drop, a filter can absorb a lot of the impact that would normally smash up the front of the lens.

When shopping for a filter, spend a little more money and buy a multicoatedfilter. Multicoated filters have special chemicals on them that reduce flare and other reflections and other image-damaging phenomena. If you’ve spent a lot of money on a lens, don’t hobble it with a cheap, low-quality filter.

Because you can remove the lens on the XS, the sensor chamber is exposed to the outside world in a way that it never is on a point-and-shoot camera. This means it’s possible for dust and other fine debris to get on the image sensor. And, because you don’t ever remove the sensor and replace it with another one—as you do with the film in a film camera—once there’s dust on the sensor, it’s there to stay unless you take action.

Pixels on your sensor are very, very tiny. Remember, 10 million of them are crammed into a space that’s smaller than a piece of 35mm film. Because they’re so small, it doesn’t take a very large piece of dust to obscure thousands of them. Sensor dust will appear in your images as dark spots or smudges.

Fortunately, the XS has a built-in sensor cleaning mechanism that can greatly reduce the chance of sensor dust problems.

Figure 2-20. Sensor dust will appear in your image as smudges, smears, or specs—as if there were something on your lens.

Sitting in front of the image sensor is a clear filter. So, “sensor dust” is actually dust that’s accumulated on this filter. By default, any time you turn the camera on or off, it vibrates this filter to shake any dust off. A piece of sticky material just below the filter traps the dust so that it doesn’t float around the sensor chamber.

Figure 2-21. When you turn off the XS, it automatically engages its sensor-cleaning mechanism.

While the built-in sensor cleaning is very good, you should still take precautions to keep your sensor clean. Try to avoid changing lenses in windy locations, especially if there’s sand or dirt nearby. Keep the camera end of your lenses clean—most sensor dust is delivered to the sensor by the camera lens. When you change lenses, have both lenses in hand before you start the change so that you can swap them as quickly as possible.

If you get some dust on the sensor that the built-in cleaning can’t handle, then you can take your XS to a Canon service center for cleaning or attempt it yourself using special cleaning products, such as those made by VisibleDust. The VisibleDust website, at www.visibledust.com, includes a full selection of sensor cleaning products and accessories.

Zoom lenses can make you lazy. They tend to encourage you to stay in one place and compose from there. As we’ll see later, there can be a great difference in images shot from different locations. But zoom lenses also keep you from having to visualize a scene for a particular framing. Here are three quick exercises that will get you seeing and thinking in a different way:

Obviously, with prime lenses—that is, lenses that don’t zoom—you get this type of shooting experience all the time. These exercises are a way for you to learn some of the advantages (and disadvantages) of shooting with a fixed focal length lens.