Bought my wife a camera for Christmas

[ichett]

No offense or anything, but buying a dslr camera to shoot manual is such a waste of money.

I completely disagree with this statement. Sure you are paying for bells and whistles, but to me manual is the only way to go on a digital slr.

I have to disagree with it too. When using the auto settings, you are relying on the camera to make decisions based upon what it's programmed to do. It's been my experience that it more often than not, gets it wrong...especially when you start to edit your photos and bringing out details in the picture that the camera couldn't during it's processes. Sometimes you might want a slightly over-exposed picture to soften it up, especially when shooting portraits. You can't do that in auto mode.

Okay, I should clarify. Yes AUTO Setting is NONSENSE. They should remove the AUTO function on prosumer level DSLRs. Just last week, I was at a convention and a blogger/journalist started taking some shots. She was using a D700 and it was obviously set to AUTO. The flash kept popping up so instead of switching to a different mode, she held down the flash and started taking pictures. At this point I wanted to cry. I shoot with Aperture priority, it lets me set the aperture and ISO and lets the camera calculate the shutter speed. This way, I have control over how my photos and have speed. I paid over $2600 for my cameras, I'm going to work my cameras. Unless I'm in studio conditions, I never shoot Full manual.
As for Lenses Manual Focusing is junk on DSLRs, at least for canons it is. Modern lenses are built with superfast and super accurate focusing technology, why not use what you paid for?

Just my $.02

 

[NCost]

As for Lenses Manual Focusing is junk on DSLRs, at least for canons it is. Modern lenses are built with superfast and super accurate focusing technology, why not use what you paid for?

Just my $.02

I'd have to disagree w/ this as well. I have over $7k in gear and shoot manual focus from time to time. It's like anything else, you have to learn to do it right. Any new Canon lens is fine for manual focus.