I just bought the XTI have some questions that I cannot get resolved in the book.
First. I am looking to get RAW plus Jpeg option but do not see it. I am only doing Green box and P modes right now to get used to the camera.

Second. I am taking pics indoor with the flash and they still look a tad dark. Now I can turn up the exposure to 1.5 or 2 and that fixes it but I do not want to keep it at that all the time. What is a proper way to check exposure? I would hate to loose the option to be able to turn up exposure when it is already maxed out on basic use.

I'm not sure about how to change the image quality. I'm a nikon man my self, but ill ask my buddy who uses a Canon.

As for the flash...the onboard flash on the camera won't be that powerful. It does its job, but just not well. If you need to have a descent flash for indoor photography i'd suggest getting a flash cannon (funny i know) that attaches to the hotshoe of the camera. Probably the Canon 430ex would do the job. If money is an issue you could go for the 220ex however there are very few features on the flash its self


430ex

220ex

Pg 60, 156 in your manual for RAW + Jpeg settings.

As for the flash being too dark, that depends greatly on your settings and environment. What ISO are you shooting at? A higher ISO needs less light than a very low ISO does. How far away is the subject? What aperture are you using? The larger(small depth of field), the less light you'll need. What shutter speed? The built-in flash isn't the best, but should get you by.

I found out that Auto cannot do Raw. Which I did not see in the manual but figured out. I am taking the camera into Canon to get calibrated correctly as my other cannon with same settings takes much better photos. I still love my XTI.

what?? Are you real sure XTI can't shoot RAW+jpeg in auto mode? And I don't think Canon will "calibrate" the camere. They will tell you it comes like that and if the XTI can load a custom curve, I would suggest you to search over the web on canon's fan forum where you can download curves and load one into your camera using your canon software. I do the same thing with my Nikon camera

Canon will calibrate the camera if they test it and it is getting unsatifactory results. I took outside photos this weekend in the sun and they are underexposed (dark) I had to tweak it for best results and for a sunny day it should have strong shadows not all dark on a neutral pic. I used my other canon and with same settings and they came out correctly.

I will ship them both sample pics as the customer rep said and the camera/ lens and they will investigate. Other than that this camera is awsome.

I had the same problem with my Nikon D70s when I first started using it. Turns out it was a problem on my end and nothing wrong with the camera. Make sure your settings are correct before going that route. You might find differences unless it is the same exact camera model. It took a little adjustment to get used to my camera but I am doing fairly well. IIRC, RAW+jpeg captures a low/basic quality jpeg as well as the RAW image. Can't really justify taking up even that small amount of space for a low quality jpeg when I can just process the RAW and get the result I am after with post processing.

You do have two "exposure" settings you can set--normal exposure compensation and flash exposure compensation. If you turn up the FEC, the flash will emit a more powerful burst of light.

Thanks. I am still learning the camera settings but it good to learn from others too. I bought the field guide and using it along with the manual. This is a great camera. I am now sticking to using the 50mm 1.8 for a while.

The 50mm 1.8 is a great lens. It stays on my xti almost all the time. Stop the lens down to 3.5 and it gets even better!