so i got the new dslr. but i dont know if i got the good deal or it i bought my sis the nicer one. i bought me a nikon d3100 brand new with a bag and the 18-55 kit lens but it also came with the 55-200 kit lens plus got a tripod with it and a 32gb sdcard. i know i know its not the top of the line but man i really dig it. anyhow my lil sister wanted a good cam for graduation, keep in mind she has no exp with photography but shes way intelligent and a free mind. She doesnt want to limit herself to one particular style. So for my two lens, bag, tripod kit setup, all brand new, i paid around 450. I found my sis a canon eos rebel xsi came with aftermarket bag and the 18-55 kit lens, but they shorted her the charger. i got one priority mail should be here tues. and also i should have mentioned hers is used but i know who used it...immaculate condition, like seriously mint. overall between me and my mom we paid around 400 for the rebel for my sis for her graduation gift..... guys did i rip myself off by gettin her the rebel and the d3100 for me? Really i just didnt do much for her growing up considering the 11 year age difference and I really wanted to help her out and get her a good starter camera. Y'all think I did alright by her? If not then give me serious insight and I'll give her my all new setup and take the used from her. I just want her to be happy with grad gift and be able to use it. Any input would be appreciated

my beautiful lil sis. After what i put her thru growin up, this girl deserves the world i just can't afford to give it to her. its me and her. no other family will help

Absolutely touching, my friend. For starters, I'd try moving this thread to the photography board. They're the camera nerds. Best of luck.

thanks man i really didnt know where to put that without gettin my head ripped off for puttin it in the "WRONG FUCKIN SPOT!!!" i just really wanna know if she'd b better off with my setup and vise versa

I keep editing. Either one will seriously be great. You can get by with a $100 P&S camera when mounted with a tripod and touched up in photoshop. Everything I've posted here has been a P&S camera.

Either camera will probably be everything she needs. I'd like to encourage you to also give her a tripod if you can - it makes a HUGE difference.

She is cute, I'll give her a tripod...

Posted by disaster film Either camera will probably be everything she needs. I'd like to encourage you to also give her a tripod if you can - it makes a HUGE difference.

appreciate that thought I was gonna give her my old p&s and she is really wanting a nice one. I told her, it aint the fiddle, its the fiddler that makes the magic

Posted by A Through Z Explorations She is cute, I'll give her a tripod...

Eeeeeeeeeasy now....lol no man I dont understand it, out of my whole family my little sister turned out to be beautiful

Posted by iHumpNuns Eeeeeeeeeasy now....lol no,* man.* I don't* understand it, out of my whole family,* my little sister turned out to be beautiful.*

It was all in good fun with that comment, buddy. My simple way of saying "Welcome to UER! Enjoy the laughs." without an "lol".

I bet she just loves that picture of her..

Yeah, she told me she's gonna get me back for it. Normally I wouldn't worry, but she's got a twisted sense of humor. Like, glue your eyelids shut while you sleep, kinda twisted.

Posted by iHumpNuns Yeah, she told me she's gonna get me back for it. Normally I wouldn't worry, but she's got a twisted sense of humor. Like, glue your eyelids shut while you sleep, kinda twisted.

Sounds like my kind of woman.

I'm a Nikon guy but in my experience the entry level DSLRs of both Nikon and Canon have been neck and neck for a long time. I'm not sure but I think the Rebel is more on par with the Nikon D5100. I could be wrong about that. When I last compared the two companies it was for a different generation of cameras and the Nikon won out mostly because I already had lenses and because stills were slightly better while the Canon's video was slightly better. I think either way you've got a decent camera to work with.

The next step is to set it to "M" for Manual and never again set it to "A" for Auto. You do that for long enough and you'll get good at making the picture look the way you want it to.

Well I had to use the a setting, and s setting as training wheels, but I'm getting there.

Been using m set to do night and low light shots. finally figured out the proper settings to take low lights and have them come back decent.

The horrible orange shots are becoming a thing of the past. sis is coming over tomorrow so I can help her learn about aperture and shutter speed and it's cause n efect.

Then she's going put with me n my buds tomorrow night so i can show her the way to use man. setting to achieve great low light shots. I showed her this site and she is amazed that a lot of you aren't pros. She said a lot of work she's seen on this site is way high quality.

She wants to start her hobby. Speaking of low light, i did some of my first tonight and they came out ok since my remote won't be here till later today. i'm kinda a shaky guy. She's happy with her grad gift tho. I'm glad, she deserved more than a couple "way to go" cards.

I'd recommend a few things. If you haven't already, get a tripod. It's really the only way to go if you are going to take shots at 1/30 or longer.

If you haven't received the remote yet, there's another very useful option your camera has. There should be a setting for Exposure Delay Mode. I use this frequently. It basically is a setting that when you press the button, the shutter opens but waits about a second before it actually starts capturing light. This allows you to take your hands away from the camera and also prevents blur caused by the shock that the shutter itself actually creates.

The lower the f-stop number the more light is let in but the area that is in focus will be shallower.

The longer the shutter speed, the more light is let in but again anything longer than about 1/30 (or 1/60 if you are really shaky) needs a tripod.

The higher the ISO the more light is captured but causes grain and quality is lessened.

It's all a balancing act and once you understand how changing one thing over another affects the picture, it becomes fun to make the camera do what you want.

Have fun!

The higher the ISO the more light is captured but causes grain and quality is lessened.

I'm no camera expert, but isn't it the other way around? High ISO captures less light, and the noise is a symptom of using such low-light to extrapolate the space around the highlights? Low ISO comes out a lot clearer because lots of light is collected to form a very detailed image.

I'm happy to be wrong if I'm wrong. I'm an infinite learner too.

Nope sorry The higher the ISO number the more light is captured and the more grain. It's the same for film but for different reasons. Basically each pixel becomes more sensitive to light by using an amplifier.

Here's a random website that might explain it better:
http://everydayele...sure-affect-noise/

You can still get noise for the reason you suggested but typically lower ISO produces much less grain and noise. I'm not exactly sure of all the technical reasons for this but google can help.

You can also use the "reduce long exposure noise" setting on the camera (I think the d3100 has that) but it will usually double the time to take a picture since after you finish exposing, the camera takes that same amount of time to process the pic. Sometimes it's worth the wait.

Rev is right back in the olden days of film an ISO standard was used to rate the "speed" of the emulsion on the film ie the speed at which the film reacted to exposure to light

faster film reaction = higher ISO number, I remember when 400 was as fast as it got over the counter film like Tri X Pan and it was pretty grainy too

Tons of help guys, I can't thank you all enough,