by dittoz » Tue Jun 02, 2009 6:30 am
On a camera/lens like that, you'll probably find that the best shooting will occur when you set the ISO and AWB to auto (as Rotator suggested, ISO will probably land around 125-200 on most sunny days)
You'll have to play with the settings but I find most of my best quality will come around f8 or f9 on a 4-5.6 lens. If you are zoomed all the way in, edges often end up a bit soft so try to stay under the 150mm or so range. (use your computer to resize it later)
So far as shutter speed, again, you'll have to play with things on a given day, but I try to shoot above 1/2000th if light permits for stop action. Perfect stop action isn't always desireable though - sometimes a bat blur or a background/foreground blur adds to the image, in which case I sometimes go to 1/250th. The slower the shutter speed, the more light and (usually) the better the image quality...
That Xsi is a nice little camera for the money - I'm sure you'll enjoy it!
Being from NorCal, what do I know anyway???