Brand new to Photography with equipment Q's

A couple of months ago, I decided that the outdoors are absolutely amazing where I live and I would like to photograph. Well, I spent these months looking around at equipment trying to learn as much as I can and to decide on what type of camera I would like to start with. Luckily, I have a prof. who is also a professional photographer. I ran some ideas buy him and he pointed me towards a photography class that I can take. I get home and look up the class and go to sign up, until I realize the class requires a SLR camera. I don't sign up for the class because I knew I didn't want to spend that kind of money on a camera that I couldn't use properly until next semester. To my suprise, I show up to class the next day to have my prof. hand me a camera bag with a Canon EOS 620 and a 630 body with a 75-300mm lens. He told me that he had had these for several years and he thought I could make better use of them now. Now to my question. Where could I find some good information about these cameras? I know there not new, or even digital, but will I still be able to learn from these? Sorry for the long 1st post, but I am a little excited about this whole deal. Thanks in advance for the advice.

 

You could try this http://www.amazon.com/Canon-Eos-Hov...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196718503&sr=1-1

 

thanks for such quick responses. I'll get to reading. What do people think of these cameras now days? Is film photography still popular? I'm guessing the lens that was mentioned above is still made new? I saw a post somewhere on here about where to buy a camera, would that be a good place to look?

 

film photography has just recently (from what I can see) taken a slight climb in interest. Everyone got tired of ****ty digital pics...(cause they couldn't use a digital, and film is easier).

But seriously, you got lucky my friend. You can learn every single thing about photography you'd need to just by using a film body...
The only thing you'll have to learn about is white balance...but then again...you kind of control that on a camera using correction filters...so you won't have that much to learn.

Wish my profs gave me photography equipment lol. My photography teacher has old canon systems he doesn't even use anymore...he's also got an old pentax system...he shoots Nikon now religiously....wish I could convince him to gimme his stuff...lol

 

He completely caught me off guard? I am definately lucky indeed. I definately feel over my head though. The first thing I need to do is find a battery charger! I am hoping Wal-Mart carries one and if not the local Ritz camera store.

 

the manual says I need a six-volt lithium battery pack 2CR5.

 

ok, cool. I also have the orignal manuals that came with the camera and it seems that the part II of the manual has a good bit of information to get me started. Any advice on what type of film to use?

 

ok, again thanks plenty for the help. I am hoping to snap my first couple tomorrow if the weather is still reasonable.