RAVES: Canon XSi Digital Rebel DSLR Camera

We've have this camera for about a month and a half now. We purchased the camera, at the advice of many people who have had it or its predecessors for quite some time, without any lenses. Even in retrospect, it was a good decision.

We were able to borrow the kit lens (18-55mm) that comes with camera when purchasing the more expensive kit. The original owners of the kit lens had already upgraded and didn't have a need for the kit lens anymore. We saved a bit of money and will be able to invest that into more suitable lenses. I've already discovered that I really like an extended zoom. I'm already leaning towards a telephoto lens, after having borrowed the new Canon 55-250mm lens. I found that lens to be just short of things I wanted, but a vast improvement to the kit lens, especially with the built-in image stabilization. I think, ultimately, we'll have a telephoto lens and a macro lens (for closeups) in our bag. If I can find a lens that can do both closeups and basic group shots well enough, then I'd like to keep the bag to holding just 2 lenses. At the end of the day, the "right" lens(es) will come out of deciding what I really want to shoot on a regular basis. I think there will always be some opportunities for shots that will only require a particular lens once or twice. As long as I cover the majority of what we like to shoot, I'll be content.

The quality of the shots is a vast improvement over our old point and shoot cameras. Just framing the shots is much easier. Even with the kit lens, zooming is much easier to control. I haven't started shooting in RAW mode yet, but even the JPEGs are much cleaner. I'm planning on learning how to do post-production work on the pictures, which is when I'll start shooting in RAW.



The battery lasts longer than I thought it would. The camera is much smarter about sleeping than our old cameras. Waking it up from sleep is much faster. Also, even though this model has the Live View mode, I only use the I think I'll still purchase a spare just in case.

Overall, I'm still learning how to use the camera. It's been both a joy and a learning experience. I've heard from many people that taking a basic photography class really helps in learning how to make the most of the camera. That's the next step.

TIPS & TRICKS: Word 2008 Documents Not Opening

Recently, I found that my installation of Word 2008 was not opening documents properly. Specifically, I found after double-clicking on a Word file, especially one residing on a network share, Word would launch normally. But, the only thing that would come up was a new blank document. I would close the new document and the file still wouldn't open. The only way I could get it to open was to go up to File (in Word) > Open.

That was quite annoying and, apparently, some of my users thought so too. Luckily, my boss found a fix. And, even more fortunate, the fix is bundled in the latest update for Office. The version is 12.1.1. Make sure to run your Office updates to get this. There are two ways: 1. launch an Office application and go up to Help > Check for Updates to run the Microsoft AutoUpdate tool; or 2. Go to Library\Application Support\Microsoft\MAU2.0 and launch Microsoft AutoUpdate.