Tap: Tap a finger on the monitor. (Figures and instructions throughout the book indicate exactly where to tap.) Drag: Using light pressure, drag your finger across the screen. On some menu screens, for example, you can drag up or down to scroll through a list of options. Swipe: Drag one or two fingers quickly across the screen. You use this gesture, known in some circles as a flick, to scroll through your pictures in Playback mode, just as you do when showing off your photos on a smartphone. Pinch in/pinch out: To pinch in, place your thumb at one edge of the screen and your pointer finger at the other. Then drag both toward the center of the screen. To pinch out, start in the center of the screen and swipe both fingers outward. Pinching is how you zoom in and out on pictures during playback.
Adjust (or disable) the touch-screen response: You can choose from three settings, accessed via the Touch Control option, found on Setup Menu 3 and shown in Figure 1-12. Standard is the default, setting the screen to respond to a “normal” amount of pressure. Don’t ask how the Powers That Be decided what that pressure level is — just know that if your normal pressure doesn’t evoke a response, you can change the setting from Standard to Sensitive. Choose Disable to make the touch screen totally inactive.
Silence the touch screen: By default, the touch screen emits a tiny “beep” with every tap. If you find that annoying, choose the Beep option, found just beneath the Touch Control option on Setup Menu 3. The option that keeps the beep silent is Touch to Silence — silence indicated by a little speaker with a slash through it. The Disable setting turns off both touch-screen sounds and the beep the camera emits when focus is achieved.
FIGURE 1-12: Control the touch-screen response through this menu item.
To keep the monitor in good working order, follow these precautions:
Don’t use force when adjusting the monitor position. Although the monitor assembly is sturdy, treat it with respect as you adjust the screen position. The monitor twists only in certain directions, and it’s easy to forget which way it’s supposed to move. So, if you feel resistance, don’t force things — you could break the monitor. Instead, rely on that feeling of resistance to remind you to turn the screen the other way.
Use only your finger to perform touch-screen functions. Use the fleshy part of your fingertip, not the nail or any other sharp object, and be sure that your fingers are dry because the screen may not respond if it gets wet.
Don’t apply a screen protector. Canon also advises against putting a protective cover over the monitor, such as the kind people adhere to their smartphones. Doing so can reduce the monitor’s responsiveness to your touch.
Watch the crunch factor. Before positioning the monitor back into the camera (whether face in or face out), use a lens brush or soft cloth to clean the back of the camera where the monitor folds in so there’s nothing on it that could damage the monitor.
Clean smart. To clean the screen, use only the special cloths and cleaning solutions made for this purpose. (You can find them in any camera store.) Do not use paper products such as paper towels because they can contain wood fibers that can scratch the monitor. And never use a can of compressed air to blow dust off the camera — the air is cold and can crack the monitor.
Viewing Shooting Settings
Your camera offers several displays that present the current picture-taking settings. The next sections explain the displays that are available during viewfinder photography. See the later section “Switching to Live View Mode” for information about displaying similar data when you use Live View, the feature that enables you to compose photos on the monitor instead of through the viewfinder.
Displaying the Quick Control screen
Shown in Figure 1-13, the Quick Control screen appears on the monitor when the camera is in shooting mode — that is, when you’re not viewing menus, checking out your pictures in Playback mode, and so on. The screen displays different data depending on your exposure mode and whether features such as flash are enabled. The left side of Figure 1-13 shows the screen as it appears in Scene Intelligent Auto exposure mode; the right side, Tv mode (shutter-priority auto-exposure).
FIGURE 1-13: The data displayed on the Quick Control screen depends on your exposure mode.
Display and hide the Quick Control screen. By default, the screen appears automatically when you turn on the camera and then turns off if no camera operations are performed for 30 seconds. You can turn the display on again by pressing the shutter button halfway and then releasing it. To turn off the display before the automatic shutoff occurs, press the Info button (on the back of the camera, just below the power switch). Press the Info button twice to cycle back to the Quick Control screen. You can adjust the timing of the automatic shutdown of this screen and others via the Auto Power Off option on Setup Menu 2. We provide the details near the end of this chapter, in the section devoted to that menu.
Keep an eye on the battery symbol and the shots remaining value. A full battery like the one in the figure means that the battery is charged; as it runs out of power, bars disappear from the symbol. The shots remaining value indicates how many more pictures will fit in the free space available on your memory card. This value depends in large part on the Image Quality setting, which determines the resolution (pixel count) and file type (Raw or JPEG). If those terms are new to you, the next chapter explains them.
You can replace the Quick Control screen with an electronic level by pressing the Info button. This feature is useful when you use a tripod and want to ensure that the camera is level to the horizon. When the horizontal line appears green, as shown in Figure 1-14, you’re good to go. Press Info again to return to the Quick Control screen. You can enable or disable the level and Quick Control screen from Setup Menu 4, as described in the Setup Menu 4 section later in this chapter.
FIGURE 1-14: Press the Info button to toggle between the Quick Control display and an electronic level.