I have never been sucessful using manual focus with this camera. It's always best to rely on auto focus. If you must manual focus, remember to press the shutter half way down and look in the view finder for the dot or signal that you have acheived a good focus. Also, there are a host of ways to set up the camera to auto focus. There is single point all the way up to 9 points of focus. If your subject focus' fine on the first shot, but not on the second time you try it, maybe the sensor in the camera is focusing on something else that has more contrast or something in front or behid the subject. In that case, you might want to change to single point focus so that the subject you put the point on, no matter what, is in focus.

On a different note, I've noticed that sometimes people that use a different brand of equipment make comments on subjects that are all about a certain different make or brand of equipment than they use. That's ok when generalizations are kept general but it's very difficult for someone to understand when terms are used that are brand specific. i.e. Canon uses IS or Image Stabilization and Nikon something else. (I can't remember) I'm not ragging on anyone for anything said here, just thought I'd make a comment about some of the threads I've read that are confusing to me and I'm sure, some other people as well.

Read the above quote carefully. It really does explain a lot about focal lengths to consider. I see now that you have a Canon XS body and that has a 1.6 crop sensor. That means that your camera, compared to a full frame sensor, will be 1.6 times closer in focal length. An example is your 18-55mm lens is exactly that on a full frame bodied camera, but on your XS the focal length is more like 28-88mm. If you use your 18-55 lens and that focal length isn't wide enough at 18mm (actually more like 28mm) then canon has a wide angle zoom that is 10-22mm for crop sensor bodies. It's a little pricey but worth it. It has L series quality glass but since it's focal length is desiged for crop sensor bodies and it is too wide for a full frame body, they didn't give it the "L" series designation. (an assumption on my part) It uses 77mm filters so the front glass is quite large for gathering light. I got one that was pre-owned for $600.

Select the image you want to email in Organizer, or select several by holding the cntl while you click on the images you want, then on the right side find the tab "Share" and you will see your options. You can select the size you want the photos to be so they aren't too large to email, you can add a message, and then you tell it the email address to send to. If you don't enter an email address it will still resize the image(s) and then open your email program and then you can enter the email address or use your emails contact list to enter multiple addresses. Remember, you must go to preferences first to let Elements know what you use to send emails. I hope this helps.

Correct! After being a registered Elements user for a while I finally got an offer for an upgrade to CS5 for $300. But since I signed up for a class at the local college I got the Student/Teacher edition for less. I purchsed it at Staples for $179, got a $5 cupon, so ended up with $174.99 + tax. I installed it, scanned my college ID, uploaded it to Adobe and they sent me a code to unlock it and fully register it. Did I mention that it's the Extended version I got for less than $200?

The 40D was designed back when the CF cards were mostly used and SD's weren't. The adapter is about $20 at Fry's. But Bob may be on to something about price. The 40D doesn't take very large images like the newer bodies so a smaller CF card in like maybe a X166 speed may be adequet. A 4GB card is probably all you need and you can get those cheaper than the adapter.

Elements 6 came with my Canon printer and I liked it so much that I upgraded to Elements 9. It's easy to use and has a pretty nice RAW editor. What I like most about Elements 9 is the Organizer. I like it better than PS CS5's Bridge. I use Elements 9 Organizer to keep my images sorted out and from the Organizer I can launch PS CS5 Editor or the RAW Editor.

Elements 9 does most of what CS5 does but has less sliders and adjustments. It also won't do some of the things CS5 can do that professionals do before sending images in for printing. In Elements they might call something by a name that is different than what it's called in CS5. Some tasks in Elements can only be done to the background layer while in CS5 the same task creates a new layer. A lot of suttle differences. Color management is not as good in Elements but most of us that aren't pros don't need all that fancy color management. I'm just starting to learn CS5 but I just finished a book for Elements called Photoshop Elements 9 the Missing Manual. In this book they often tell you the differences between the two. It explains what CS5 can do that Elements can't. I hope I didn't make any mistakes and appologize if I'm not accurate about something.

Thanks. I look forward to learning more about DSLR photography.

I use PSE 8. Go to File - New - Blank File. Doesn't matter what size. I paint the background a solid color. It's easier to see your work that way. That should work for you. It shouldn't save until you're ready. And for Alt0169 make sure you hold down Alt and type 0169 using the numbers on the lower right of your keyboard. When you release the Alt key it should automatically put the copyright sign in.

This worked in PSE9 - I just tried it.

They should work fine on a 40D. SD cards, even class 10 cards, are too slow for a 7D body that does 8 fps. I'm not sure how many fps the 40D is but if it's less than 4 fps you should be fine.

I downloaded the pdf for this flash today. I have my manual but I like to use pdf's because I can "search" faster to find my answers.

Hello - My name is Bud and I'm 56. I've been into photography as a hobby for many years. I once had my own dark room where I developed 35mm B&W prints. That was a lot of fun but hard work and slow. Thank God for digital photography. I started out with a 1 megapixel camera when they first became available but have mainly stuck with point and shoot camera until about a year ago when I purchased my first DSLR - Canon T2i. Since I have quite a bit of time on my hands I try to take pictures or use Photoshop every day. I am interested in learning more about everything to do with digital photography including better picture taking, using Photoshop CS5, and creating my own web page - which I have not done yet. I hope to learn many things from this forum. Thanks. Bud aka JeepDaddy