I’ve pointed this out to enough people recently that I might as well make a blanket recommendation: if you are about to be or are a relatively new owner of a Canon SLR, digital or film, specifically an EOS (that’s Canon’s SLR series since 1987 right up to the new models), you’re interested enough to do a fair bit of reading beyond the manual and you don’t already know a lot about the technical details of photography, have a look at the Canon EOS Beginners’ FAQ by NK Guy.
Photography is a complex field, and it can be difficult getting started. There’s a lot of material out there aimed at beginners, but much of it is quite general and doesn’t get into a lot of the specifics of a given camera maker’s product lineup… There’s more specific material to be had, but a lot of it is quite advanced in nature. For example, Bob Atkins has an excellent Canon FAQ available, but it has little beginner material and has not been recently updated.
So that’s the purpose of this document. It’s information on Canon EOS SLR cameras and related products, aimed at the beginner and packed with a lot of typical questions that beginners actually ask.
Introduction to the Canon EOS Beginners’ FAQ by NK Guy.
Note that even if you already have a firmish notion of what aperture settings, shutter speed etc can do for you there’s still good material in this article on specific lenses and such that you probably don’t know unless you’re a Canon hound. It’s also written for a technically minded audience: I didn’t feel talked down to. It did start me wanting the Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro though (or perhaps the Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro with the Canon mount), so it has downsides.