Canon Rebel XSi/450D Companion
writer: russell j.t. dyer; posted: aug 2009; revised: oct 2017; readers past month: 711
Review of Canon Rebel XSi/450D Companion
author: Ben Long
edition: 1
published: 2009
publisher: O’Reilly Media
isbn: 978-0-596-52086-1
pages: 287
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The Canon EOS Rebel cameras are basically entry-level DSLR cameras. They’re for people who want something better than the usual compact digital camera and may want to start learning about photography. For many owners of such a camera, this is their first camera with a changeable lens and the many features and controls that this kind of camera includes. If this is your situation and you recently purchased a Rebel XSi — known as the 1000D in Europe and elsewhere outside of the U.S. — you may want to get a copy of this book. If you look through the shelves of a large bookstore, you’ll find many books on photography. However, this book is a beginner book that is specific to your camera. It’s a good book with which to start.
There are twelve chapters to this moderate sized book. The reader is given some very helpful screen shots of camera menus, as well as the displays that one will see through the viewfinder (i.e., the eyepiece) and on the LCD viewer screen. There are full-color images showing the camera with easy to understand text and lines pointing to exactly what to press or turn to set various things on the camera. It makes learning how to use the camera much easier.
Getting to It
In the first few chapters, the author Ben Long teachs the reader about the camera in general: Chapter 1 shows the reader exactly what to do to get started taking pictures. It includes pictures of the switches on the camera and the standard lens, as well as screen shots of the menus and the viewfinder readings. This is a good chapter for a first timer. The second chapter is a little boring. However, it gives good information and provides a well illustrated tour of the camera. Knowing where everything is on your camera, as well as what everything does will make you more comfortable using it. There’s also information on the care and cleaning of the camera — good information for beginners.
The third chapter covers how to view images on the camera. Not being able to view images can be frustrating to a beginner. Long also goes over how to manipulate images within the camera. Many of these things you may figure out on your own. However, it’s still a good reference chapter. In the next chapter the author discusses media cards and how to copy images from them to a computer. This includes using the Canon utility program that came with the camera. He explains how to do this on Microsoft Windows and Macintosh computers, providing screen shots for both operating system interfaces.
Photography Basics
With the basics of using the camera behind the reader, the author turns his attention to teaching the reader about photography in general. This is appropriate at this point — assuming one is reading the chapters in order — because the reader will have been experimenting with the camera after the first four chapters and will now be wondering what to do to take better pictures. So, in Chapter 5, Long discusses the three basics components of exposure: ISO (i.e., sensitivity of the image sensor), shutter speed, and aperture (i.e., how wide the lens is opened). From there, in Chapter 6, the author explains how to take pictures using a non-automatic mode (i.e., Program mode). He covers the different methods of focusing, setting the camera’s sensitivity, and adjusting white balance (i.e., adjusting image coloring based on the type of lighting).
In the following chapter Long discusses the light meter and other exposure information provided by the camera. This is similar to the previous chapter or two, but more advanced. He gives advice on how to improve the camera exposure for the best lighting of the final images. In Chapter 8, the author steps away from camera specifics a bit and explains how to compose a photograph — where to position the subject of a photograph, or the camera for the best shot.
Other Stuff
The point of Chapter 9 is a bit confusing. Long talks about using the live view mode (i.e., using the LCD panel for taking shots instead of the viewfinder eye-piece). He also speaks a little about taking panoramic photos and images in low lighting or with a flash. The three topics of this chapter seem to be loosely pasted together under the topic of Specialty Shooting. Chapter 10 is about using the built-in flash and an external flash. There’s not much to this chapter, but maybe it’s enough for a beginner since Long explains how to deal with red-eye and how not to overexposure people with the flash. Those are the main problems of beginners. Actually, just convincing a beginner not to use the flash is plenty.
Chapter 11 is dedicated to explaining the image format known as RAW. He talks about the advantages, as well as some steps involved in using the RAW format. I use only RAW, but most beginners probably shouldn’t add it to their list of things about which to learn. The final chapter goes back to more camera specific information and explains how to customize the My Menu page of the camera’s menus. It also has a few pages on lenses: helping to decide which ones to buy besides the one that may have come with the camera. This is another chapter which contains unrelated information. I’m not sure why Long didn’t just make a separate chapter for lenses and provide more information on them. Of course, most beginners don’t think about getting another lens for quite some time, at least a year.
Overall Thoughts & Reading Guide
Again, if you just bought a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi (or 450D) and you’re new to using a camera with a removable lens like this, you should buy this book and read it. If you do buy this book, I recommend taking your time and starting from the beginning of the book. Play with the camera along the way. If you’re like most people, you won’t read a technical book all the way through. In which case you’ll never make it to the chapters I like the least. On that note, if you’re going to skip around and not read all of the book, I recommend skipping chapters 9, 11, and 12. If you want to lighten your reading load even more, you can probably skim chapters 3 and 4 — reading only what catches your eye.