Decoding viewfinder data
A limited assortment of shooting data, such as the shutter speed and f-stop, appears at the bottom of the viewfinder, as shown in Figure 1-15. In the framing area of the viewfinder, you may see marks that indicate the portion of the screen that contains autofocusing points. (The appearance of the autofocus markings depend on your autofocus settings, which you can explore in Chapter 5.) In the first screen in the figure, the four black brackets represent the autofocusing area.
FIGURE 1-15: The default viewfinder display (left) can be customized to include a grid, electronic level, and flicker warning (right).
In the following sections, we walk you through how to display and customize the viewfinder.
Displaying viewfinder data
The markings in the framing area of the viewfinder appear automatically when you first turn on the camera; to display the shooting data, you must press the shutter button halfway. The display remains active for a few seconds after you release the button, and then the viewfinder display data shuts off to save battery power. To wake up the display, press the shutter button halfway and release it.
Adding a level and gridlines to the display
You can display gridlines in the viewfinder, as shown on the right in Figure 1-5, as well as a symbol that represents the electronic level. (When the lines at the sides of the symbol are horizontal, as in the figure, the camera is level.)
To hide or display these features, open Setup Menu 4 and choose Viewfinder Display. On the next screen, change the settings from Hide to Show. As you select each option, a preview appears at the bottom of the screen to remind you how enabling the feature affects the display.
Displaying a flicker-detection warning
When the Mode dial is set to an advanced exposure mode (P, Tv, Av, M, B, C1, or C2), the Viewfinder Display option offers a third setting, Flicker Detection. When the camera detects light sources that are blinking, which can mess up exposure and color, the word Flicker! appears in the area labeled in Figure 1-17. The biggest offenders are tubular fluorescent bulbs, which blink on and off so quickly that it’s difficult for the human eye to detect them. When you see this warning, you may want to enable the Anti-flicker Shoot option on Shooting Menu 5. This feature, covered in Chapter 4, also is available only in the advanced exposure modes.
Noting the bottom right number
The number shown at the bottom of the viewfinder — 39, in Figure 1-15 — represents the number of maximum number of burst frames. This number relates to shooting in the Continuous shooting mode, where the camera fires off multiple shots in rapid succession as long as you hold down the shutter button. (Chapter 2 has details.) Although the highest number that the viewfinder can display is 99, the actual number of maximum burst frames may be higher. At any rate, you don’t really need to pay attention to the number until it starts dropping toward 0, which indicates that the camera’s memory buffer (its temporary internal data-storage tank) is filling up. If that happens, just give the camera a moment to catch up with your shutter-button finger.
Reading the LCD panel
Another way to keep track of shooting information is through the LCD panel on top of the camera, shown in Figure 1-16. Don’t see any data in the panel? The camera is probably in sleep mode; give the shutter button a half-press to wake it up.
FIGURE 1-16: The top LCD panel is another useful situational awareness tool.
As with the viewfinder and Quick Control screen, the panel shows you the shots remaining value and battery status, as labeled in Figure 1-16.
Switching to Live View Mode
Your camera offers an alternative way of setting up shots called Live View, which disables the viewfinder and instead displays a live preview of your subject on the camera monitor. The following list explains the basics of using Live View:
Switching to Live View for photography: Set the Live View/Movie shooting switch, labeled in Figure 1-17, to the camera icon. Next, press the Start/Stop button to shift from viewfinder shooting to Live View mode. You hear a clicking noise and then the viewfinder goes dark and the monitor displays the live scene. By default, some shooting data appears as well, with the amount and type of information varying depending on your exposure mode and a few other settings. The figure shows the display as it appears in the Scene Intelligent Auto exposure mode when the default picture-taking settings are used for that mode.FIGURE 1-17: In Live View mode, a live preview of your subject appears on the monitor, and the viewfinder is disabled. If nothing happens after you press the Start/Stop button a few times, you may need to reset the Live View Shoot menu option to Enable. This is the default setting, but it’s possible you or another user changed the setting to Disable at some point. Where you find the Live View Shoot option depends on your exposure mode; in the basic exposure modes, the option lives on Shooting Menu 2, as shown on the left in Figure 1-18. In the advanced modes (P, Tv, Av, M, B, C1, and C2), go to Shooting Menu 4, as shown on the right.Why would Canon give you the option to disable Live View functionality? Because it’s possible to accidentally press the Live View button and switch to that mode when you don’t really want to go there.
Engaging Live View for movie recording: For movie recording, simply moving the Live View/Movie shooting switch to the Movie mode setting, represented by the red movie-camera symbol, engages Live View. You can’t use the viewfinder in Movie mode, so you can’t disable Live View shooting from the menu.In Movie mode, pressing the Start/Stop button starts and stops recording. To exit Movie mode, move the Live View/Movie shooting switch to the camera icon.
FIGURE 1-18: To use Live View, make sure this menu option is set to Enable.
In many ways, shooting