Day 1 With Your New Camera

It's pretty exciting to open all your new gear. Of course you want to do than start shooting some pictures? STOP! You can wait a few hours for those images to sit on your sensor. If you are like me, once you start shooting you will want to keep shooting. Here are some things you should do before you start shooting, If you have had your gear for awhile and not done these things, set aside some time and git ‘er done!

#1 Record what you have. Most of what you just purchased has serial numbers. Photography gear gets stolen, damaged and lost. Use your smart phone to take photos of the serial numbers on the camera and lenses. These are usually on the base side of the lens, the faces of your lenses and any other equipment you have purchased. Also take pictures of the labels on any packaging for your gear. Transfer all of these pictures to your computer and a separate hard drive or labeled thumb drive. It’s also a good idea to write the serial numbers down in a separate file and print out the file (laptops get stolen or crash as well).

#2 Follow the setup instructions that come with your camera. This may involve some or all of the following:
Format the memory card (install card/s in memory slot first)
Set Date and Time
Set Location geotagging (if this is an option on your camera)
Set your name and copyright info (if this is an option)

#3 Install the strap on your camera. While this is optional and many advanced photographers find that straps get it the way, especially in windy conditions, straps are a good safety feature to prevent dropping. Most lenses cost about $300-400 to repair if they hit the ground with any force. I know! Straps can also help reduce “snatch and run” thefts in touristy locations.

#4 Store your boxes! There may come a day when you want to sell or trade in your gear. Original boxes and manuals increase the value.

#5 Figure out how your gear will go in your bag. This is when you will notice if you have anything missing, but you will want to determine where each item goes. This particularly goes for small items like hex wrenches for your tripod and spare batteries. Think about how you will differentiate a drained battery from a freshly charged battery. Perhaps you have separate compartments or you can use labeled baggies for charged vs drained batteries. 

#6 If you have multiple lenses, know how to safely change lenses. Go ahead and practice this both on and off of a tripod. Don't drop anythign and minimize the time the rear lens cover is off of each lens.

#7 Look at the diagram in your instruction manual that shows all the controls on the outside of your camera. This may be as few a a couple of controls or more than a dozen controls depending on the camera you have chosen. You don’t have to know everything right away, but you do need to know how to change ISO, shutter speed and f/stop. If you have separate controls for manual and autofocus, find out how these work.

#8 Identify whether or not your lenses have electronic connections. You will see copper colored connectors on the back side of your lens if they are electronically controlled. With an electronic lens you (or the camera automatically) can set the f/stop and focus from the camera body rather than turning a lens ring. Read how to change from manual and autofocus in the your instruction manual. Discover if you need to change anything on the lens or camera to switch between manual focus and auto focus. Then practice this…indoors is okay. If there are no electronic connections from the camera to the lens (often in older prime lenses or inexpensive third party lenses) you will be setting f/stop manually with that lens ring. You can practice doing this while sitting while still sitting with the manual nearby.

#9 Go back into camera settings and set your image quality. If you are just practicing or taking family images, set to “jpg medium”.  Once you are serious about editing photos to make some wall hangers you want to be shooting in the particular raw format that your camera uses. At that stage you will shoot in both jpg and raw if you are not post processing yet. 

#10 Now you are almost ready to go out and shoot something. If you can’t wait, go ahead knowing there is a lot more to learn before you are skilled. Then come back in and review areas where you had problems. A good way to do this is to find a YouTube video on beginning instructions for your particular model of camera. Keep your camera in front of you and be ready to hit “pause” as you learn. 

The next article (April 2022) will cover focusing and settings once your lens is attached and you are ready to shoot, along with some exercises to advance you one step closer to the expert level as you take control of this computer we call a camera.

RS