The Huntingdon centre is a converted farm with ample parking for the courses and (if the the weather is helpful) some picturesque scenery around for some landscape practice sessions. The tutor on the day (Ian) was very friendly and although teaching around 25 delegates, made time to ensure we all understood the concepts. His joking style also helped me through some of the more complicated topics like depth of field and how to calculate which settings to use for which environment. At the start of the course he also took the time to enquire what we all planned to use our cameras for, and then to tailor some of the examples to these uses.

This initial course covered using the creative modes (P, Av, Tv, M and A-DEP) to get the most out of the camera. Also covered was why lens choice also played a large part in ensuring we got good pictures. The nice part was he did not try and thrust the need for us all to go out and buy the latest greatest L-series Canon lenses (hint – these can cost many £1000). He explained that whilst the kit lens is not the best in the world, it is still an excellent lens for the money (and probably will be for many of us for the foreseeable future). The basic explanation was that Canon – like most manufacturers – produce 3 types of lens – a budget lens (silver stripe) and top end lens (L-Series) and the middle of the range lens (gold stripe). As someone who has dealt with electronics (well computers) for a number of years, this theory holds and makes sense as it allows the manufacturer to produce a product for everyone from the entry level student through to the hot shot professional. I will probably be in the silver stripe range for quite some time until I am confident of my own skills and need a better lens on the camera.

As the course went on we covered many of the possible overrides and what changes to these makes to the camera (like changing the ISO speed to something much higher can introduce so much ‘noise’ as to make a photograph unusable. This helped refresh my memory from days gone by when I used a film SLR camera. After lunch the course (a light buffet is provided as part of the course) seemed to get easier – perhaps as I began to remember some of the terminology used and how different changes cause different effects. Ian also showed us some neat tricks to taking pictures from behind fences and also a very neat trick which actually produced a picture which appeared to show a ghost on the image.

Overall I was very impressed with the course, and have since booked to go on the second part of the course where some of the more advance overrides are covered. There are 2 further parts (3 – using the flash and 4 is software) which at present I do not really feel the need to take as I am not planning on using these features too heavily.

For those who are not lucky enough to have a discount voucher, it is possible to buy both part 1 and part 2 of this course for a discounted price, with an even larger discount available for those who want to book parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 together. I would highly recommend those new to digital SLR Canon photography to take at least part 1 of the course to help them get the most out of the camera. Personally I learnt more in 1 day here than I did in reading months of magazines and dedicated camera books (I have a couple of books dedicated to the 1000d/Rebel XS/Kiss F).