Canon^® EOS^® Rebel T6/1300D For Dummies^®

Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Trademarks: Wiley, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and may not be used without written permission. Canon and EOS are registered trademarks of Canon, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ.

For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. For technical support, please visit https://hub.wiley.com/community/support/dummies.

Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016944313

ISBN 978-1-119-29564-8 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-29565-5 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-29566-2 (ebk)

Canon® EOS® Rebel T6/1300D For Dummies®

To view this book's Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and search for “Canon EOS Rebel T6/1300D For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the Search box.

Introduction

How This Book Is Organized

This book is organized into four parts, each devoted to a different aspect of using your camera. Although chapters flow in a sequence that’s designed to take you from absolute beginner to experienced user, I also tried to make each chapter as self-standing as possible so that you can explore topics that interest you in any order you please. The next sections offer a brief preview of what you can find in each of the four parts.

Part 1: Fast Track to Super Snaps

This part contains chapters that help you get up and running:

Chapter 1 offers a brief overview of camera controls and walks you through initial setup and customization steps.
Chapter 2 explains basic picture-taking options, such as shutter-release mode and image quality settings.
Chapter 3 shows you how to use the camera’s simplest exposure modes, including Scene Intelligent Auto, Creative Auto, and scene modes (Portrait, Sports, Close-up, and so on).

Part 2: Taking Creative Control

Chapters in this part help you unleash the full creative power of your camera, showing you how to adjust exposure, color, and focus and also how to take advantage of movie-recording features.

Chapter 4 covers the all-important topic of exposure, helping you to understand such fundamentals as f-stops and shutter speed and also exploring ways to deal with exposure problems.
Chapter 5 explains your camera’s focusing features and also shows you how to manipulate depth of field (the distance over which focus appears sharp in a photograph).
Chapter 6 details your camera’s color controls, including the White Balance and Picture Style options.
Chapter 7 provides a quick-reference guide to shooting strategies for specific types of pictures: portraits, action shots, landscape scenes, and close-ups.
Chapter 8 explains how to record and play movies.

Part 3: Working with Picture Files

As its title implies, this part discusses after-the-shot topics.

Chapter 9 covers picture playback features, including options for customizing what you see on the screen in playback mode. I also explain how to understand exposure-evaluation tools known as histograms.
Chapter 10 explains how to rate, protect, and delete photos and then helps you transfer pictures from your camera to your computer or smartphone. This chapter also introduces you to the free Canon photo software and discusses ways to process files that you shoot in the Raw format and prepare pictures for online sharing.

Part 4: The Part of Tens

In famous For Dummies tradition, the book concludes with two top-ten lists containing additional bits of information.

Chapter 11 reveals ten ways to customize your camera that aren’t covered in earlier chapters.
Chapter 12 takes a look at ten features that, though not found on most “Top Ten Reasons I Bought My Camera" lists, are nonetheless interesting, useful on occasion, or a bit of both.

Beyond the Book

When you have a minute or two to go online, visit www.dummies.com and enter the text “Canon EOS Rebel T6/1300D For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the search box. Along with information about the book, you should find a link to a Cheat Sheet, which provides a handy reference guide to important camera settings and terms. You can print the Cheat Sheet and carry it in your camera bag or download it so that you can read it even if you don’t have Internet access.

Getting Up and Running

Preparing the Camera for Initial Use

After unpacking your camera, you have to assemble a few parts. In addition to the camera body and the supplied battery (be sure to charge it before the first use), you need a lens and a memory card. Later sections in this chapter provide details about lenses and memory cards, but here’s what you need to know up front:

Lens: Your camera accepts Canon EF and EF-S model lenses. The 18–55mm kit lens sold as a bundle with the camera body falls into the EF-S category; some retailers are also offering a deal that includes the 75–300mm Canon EF lens. If you want to buy a non-Canon lens, check the lens manufacturer’s website to find out which lenses work with your camera.
SD (Secure Digital), SDHC, or SDXC memory card: The SD stands for Secure Digital; the HC and XC for High Capacity and eXtended Capacity. The different labels reflect how many gigabytes (GB) of data the card holds. SD cards hold less than 4GB; SDHC, 4GB to 32GB; and SDXC, greater than 32GB.

With camera, lens, battery, and card within reach, take these steps:

Turn the camera off.
Attach a lens.

First, remove the caps that cover the front of the camera and the back of the lens. Then locate the proper lens mounting index on the camera body. Your camera has two of these markers, one red and one white, as shown in Figure 1-1. Which marker you use to align your lens depends on the lens type:
- Canon EF-S lens: The white square is the mounting index.
- Canon EF lens: The red dot is the mounting index.
Your lens also has a mounting index; align that mark with the matching one on the camera body, as shown in Figure 1-1, which features the 18–55mm EF-S lens. Place the lens on the camera mount and rotate the lens toward the lens-release button, labeled in the figure. You should feel a solid click as the lens locks into place.
Install the battery and memory card into the compartment on the bottom of the camera.

Hold the battery with the gold contacts facing down and the Canon label oriented toward the back of the camera. Then slide it into the compartment and gently push it in until the battery-release switch closes. I labeled the switch in Figure 1-2. (To remove the battery, you must first push the release switch.)

Orient the memory card as shown in Figure 1-2 (the label faces the back of the camera). Push the card gently into the slot and close the cover.
Turn the camera on and adjust the settings.

When you power up the camera for the first time, the monitor displays a screen asking you to set the date, time, and time zone. To adjust the values on the screen, use the Set button and the four keys surrounding it — known as cross keys.

Press the left or right cross keys to highlight an option box; press Set to activate the box. Press the up/down keys to change the value in the box and then press Set again. Lather, rinse, and repeat until you adjust all the settings. Highlight the OK box and press Set.
Adjust the viewfinder to your eyesight.

Tucked above the right side of the rubber eyepiece that surrounds the viewfinder is a dial that enables you to adjust the viewfinder focus to accommodate your eyesight. Officially known as a diopter adjustment dial, it’s highlighted in Figure 1-3.

If you don’t take this step, subjects may appear sharp in the viewfinder when they aren’t actually in focus, and vice versa.

Here’s how to properly adjust the viewfinder: Remove the lens cap, look through the viewfinder, and press the shutter button halfway to display data at the bottom of the viewfinder. Then rotate the diopter adjustment dial until the data appears sharpest. The markings in the center of the viewfinder, which relate to autofocusing, also become more or less sharp. (In dim lighting, the built-in flash may pop up when you depress the shutter button halfway; just close the flash unit after you complete the viewfinder adjustment.)

FIGURE 1-1: Align the mounting index on the lens with the one on the camera body.

FIGURE 1-2: Insert the memory card with the label facing the back of the camera.

FIGURE 1-3: Rotate this dial to set the viewfinder focus for your eyesight.

That’s all there is to it — the camera is now ready to go. From here, I recommend that you keep reading the rest of this chapter to familiarize yourself with the main camera features. But if you’re anxious to take a picture right away, I won’t think any less of you if you skip to Chapter 3, which guides you through the process of using the camera’s automatic shooting modes. Just promise that at some point, you’ll read the pages in between, because they actually do contain important information.

Exploring External Camera Features

If you’re new to dSLR photography, some aspects of using your camera, such as working with the lens, may be unfamiliar. But even if you’ve used a dSLR before, it pays to spend time before your first shoot with a new camera to get familiar with its controls. To that end, the upcoming pages provide an overview of the T6/1300D’s external bells and whistles.

Topside controls

Your virtual tour begins on the top of the camera, shown in Figure 1-4. Here’s a guide to the many bits and pieces found there, starting in the upper-right corner and traveling clockwise:

Red-eye reduction/Self-timer lamp: When you set your flash to Red-Eye Reduction mode, this lamp emits a brief burst of light prior to the real flash — the idea being that your subjects’ pupils will constrict in response to the light, thus lessening the chances of red-eye. If you use the camera’s self-timer feature, the lamp lights during the countdown period before the shutter is released. See Chapter 2 for more details about Red-Eye Reduction flash mode and the self-timer function.
Shutter button: You no doubt already understand the function of this button. But you may not realize that when you use autofocus and autoexposure, you need to use a two-stage process when taking a picture: Press the shutter button halfway, pause to let the camera set focus and exposure, and then press the rest of the way to capture the image. You’d be surprised how many people mess up their pictures because they press that button with one quick jab, denying the camera the time it needs to set focus and exposure. The beep you may hear is the camera telling you it was able to focus and is ready to take the photo.
Main dial: You use this dial when selecting many camera settings. (Specifics are provided throughout the book.) In fact, this dial plays such an important role that you’d think it might have a more auspicious name, but Main dial it is.
Flash button: Press this button to raise the built-in flash in the advanced exposure modes (P, Tv, Av, and M).
On/Off switch: I won’t insult your intelligence by explaining what this switch does. But note that even when the switch is in the On position, the camera automatically goes to sleep after 30 seconds of inactivity to save battery power. You can adjust this timing via the Auto Power Off option on Setup Menu 1.
Mode dial: Rotate this dial to select an exposure mode, which determines whether the camera operates in fully automatic, semi-automatic, or manual exposure mode when you take still pictures. To shift to Movie mode, rotate the dial so that it aligns with the movie mode icon, labeled in Figure 1-4. Chapter 2 provides an overview of the still photography exposure modes; Chapter 8 covers movie recording.
Viewfinder diopter-adjustment dial: Use this dial (shown close-up in Figure 1-3) to adjust the viewfinder focus to your eyesight.
Flash hot shoe: This is the connection for attaching an external flash and other accessories such as the GP-E2 GPS Receiver.
Focal plane indicator: The focal plane indicator marks the plane at which light coming through the lens is focused onto the camera’s image sensor. That’s important only if you need to document the specific distance between your subject and the camera, as you might if you were doing forensics work, for example. Basing the subject distance on this mark produces a more accurate measurement than using the end of the lens or some other point on the camera body as your reference point.
Speaker: When you play a movie that contains audio, the sound comes wafting through these little holes.

FIGURE 1-4: Here’s a guide to controls found on top of the camera.

Back-of-the-body controls

Traveling over the top of the camera to its back, you encounter the smorgasbord of controls shown in Figure 1-5.

FIGURE 1-5: Having lots of external buttons makes accessing the camera’s functions easier.

Buttons with a white icon perform shooting mode functions; buttons with blue icons are used in playback. Some buttons sport dual colors, meaning that they come into play for both functions.

Throughout this book, pictures of some buttons appear in the margins to help you locate the button being discussed. So even though I provide the official names in the following list, don’t worry about getting all those straight right now. Note, however, that some buttons have multiple names because they serve multiple purposes depending on whether you’re taking pictures, reviewing images, recording a movie, or performing some other function. In this book, I take the approach used in the camera instruction manual, which is to reference the button according to the name that relates to the current function. Again, though, the margin icons help you know exactly which button you’re to press.

With that preamble out of the way, it’s time to explore the camera back, starting at the top-right corner and working westward (well, assuming that your lens is pointing north, anyway):

AF Point Selection/Magnify button: In certain shooting modes, you press this button to specify which autofocus points you want the camera to use when establishing focus. (Chapter 5 tells you more.) In Playback mode, covered in Chapter 9, you use this button to magnify the image display (thus the plus sign in the button’s magnifying glass icon).
AE Lock/Index/Reduce button: During shooting, you press this button to lock autoexposure (AE) settings, as covered in Chapter 4, and to lock flash exposure (FE), a topic I discuss in Chapter 2.

This button also serves two image-viewing functions: It switches the display to Index mode, enabling you to see multiple image thumbnails at once, and it reduces the magnification of images when displayed one at a time.
Live View/Movie-record button: Press this button to shift to Live View mode, which enables you to compose your pictures using the monitor instead of the viewfinder. When shooting movies, you press this button to start and stop recording. (You must first set the Mode dial to the Movie position.)

After you shift to Live View or Movie mode, certain buttons perform different functions than they do for viewfinder photography. I spell out the differences when showing you how to use Live View and movie features throughout the book.
Exposure Compensation/Erase button: In the P, Tv, and Av exposure modes, you press this button while rotating the Main dial to adjust exposure compensation, a feature that enables you to tell the camera to produce a brighter or darker photo on your next shot. If you shoot in the M exposure mode, you press the button while rotating the Main dial to change the aperture setting (f-stop). Chapter 4 discusses both issues.

During playback, press this button to erase pictures — thus the blue trash-can symbol, the universal sign for “dump it.” See Chapter 10 for details.
Q (Quick Control) button: Press this button to display the Quick Control screen, which gives you one way to adjust picture settings. See “Changing Settings via the Quick Control Screen,” later in this chapter, for help.
DISP button: In Live View, Movie, and Playback modes, pressing this button changes the picture-display style. When menus are displayed, pressing the button brings up the Camera Settings display, also covered later in this chapter.
Set button and cross keys: Figure 1-5 points out the Set button and the four surrounding buttons, known as cross keys. These buttons team up to perform several functions, including choosing options from the camera menus. You use the cross keys to navigate through menus and then press the Set button to select a specific menu setting.

In this book, the instruction “Press the left cross key” means to press the one to the left of the Set button, “press the right cross key” means to press the one to the right of the Set button, and so on.

During viewfinder photography — that is, when you’re using the viewfinder and not the monitor to frame your shots — the cross keys also have individual responsibilities, which are indicated by their labels:
- Press the up cross key to change the ISO setting. Detailed in Chapter 4, this exposure-related control determines how sensitive the camera is to light. You can adjust this setting only when shooting in the P, Tv, Av, and M exposure modes. (If the Mode dial is set to one of those modes and nothing happens when you press this cross key or any other buttons, give the shutter button a half-press and release it to wake up the camera.)
- Press the right cross key to adjust the AF mode. This option controls one aspect of the camera’s autofocus behavior, as outlined in Chapter 5. Again, you can access this setting only in P, Tv, Av, and M shooting modes.
- Press the left cross key to change the Drive mode. The Drive mode settings enable you to switch the camera from single-frame shooting to continuous capture or self-timer/remote-control shooting. See Chapter 2 for details.
- Press the down cross key to change the White Balance setting. The White Balance control, explained in Chapter 6, enables you to ensure that colors are rendered accurately. The White Balance setting is also off-limits unless the Mode dial is set to P, Tv, Av, or M, but Chapters 3 and 6 show you some options for modifying colors in some of the other shooting modes.
For Live View and Movie shooting, the cross keys perform actions related to autofocusing; I get into those details in Chapter 5.
Playback button: Press this button to switch the camera into picture-review mode.
Menu button: Press this button to access the camera menus.
Wi-Fi indicator: This lamp lights to indicate an active Wi-Fi connection. Chapter 10 explains the Wi-Fi feature that enables you to transfer pictures to a smartphone or tablet. Chapter 12 details the other Wi-Fi possibilities, which include using your phone or tablet as a wireless trigger for the camera’s shutter button.
Card access light: This light glows while the camera is recording data to the memory card. Don’t power off the camera or remove the memory card while the light is lit; you may damage the card or camera.

Front-left features

The front-left side of the camera sports three important features, labeled in Figure 1-6:

Lens-release button: Press this button to disengage the lens from the lens mount so that you can remove it from the camera. While pressing the button, rotate the lens toward the shutter-button side of the camera to dismount the lens.
Microphone: This cluster of holes leads to the camera’s microphone. See Chapter 8 for details about choosing microphone settings.
Connection ports: Hidden under the cover labeled port access door in Figure 1-6 are inputs for connecting the camera to various devices. Figure 1-7 labels each connection.
- Remote-control terminal: You can attach a remote-control unit such as the Canon Remote Switch RS-60E3 wired controller here.
  
  The RS-60E3 currently sells for under $30 and is a worthwhile investment for long-exposure shooting (such as nighttime shots and fireworks). By using the remote control, you eliminate the chance that the action of your finger on the shutter button moves the camera enough to blur the shot, which is especially problematic during long exposures.
- Digital terminal (USB and GPS connection terminal): You use this terminal to connect the camera to a computer via the supplied USB cable for picture downloading. (Chapter 10 offers details.) This terminal is also used for attaching the optional Canon GP-E2 GPS (Global Positioning System) unit, which mounts on the hot shoe and connects here.
- HDMI terminal: For playback on a high-definition television or screen, you can connect the camera via this terminal, using an optional HDMI male to mini-C cable. You’ll pay about $50 if you buy Canon’s version, the HTC-100 cable. Shop around for better deals if you like.

FIGURE 1-6: When recording movies, be careful not to cover the microphone with your finger.

FIGURE 1-7: Inputs for connecting the camera to other devices are found under the cover on the left side of the camera.

If you turn the camera over, you find a tripod socket, which enables you to mount the camera on a tripod that uses a ¼-inch screw, plus the chamber that holds the battery and memory card. Also found in the chamber is a connection that enables you to operate the camera using electrical power instead of battery power. To take advantage of this option, you need to buy either the AC Adapter Kit ACK-E10 or both the DC Coupler DR-E10 and the Compact Power Adapter CA-PS700. See the camera manual for specifics on running the camera on AC power.

Ordering from Camera Menus

Only a handful of camera settings can be adjusted by using the external buttons and controls. To access other options, press the Menu button, which displays a menu screen similar to the one shown in Figure 1-8. The following sections tell you what you need to know about the menu system.

FIGURE 1-8: You see all these menus only when the Mode dial is set to P, Tv, Av, or M.

Understanding menu basics

Menus are organized into the categories labeled in Figure 1-8. Notice that the icons that represent the menus are color coded: Shooting menu icons are red; Playback menu icons are blue; Setup menu icons are gold; and the My Menu icon is green. (Chapter 11 explains the My Menu feature, which enables you to create a personalized menu.)

The number of dots above the icon tells you the menu number — one dot for Shooting Menu 1, two dots for Shooting Menu 2, and so on.

The highlighted icon marks the active menu; options on that menu appear automatically on the main part of the screen. In Figure 1-8, Shooting Menu 1 is active, for example.

To display all the menus shown in Figure 1-8, you must set the Mode dial to P, Av, Tv, or M. In other modes, you see only a handful of menus because you have limited control over camera operation in those modes. Additionally, when you set the camera to Movie mode, three of the four Shooting menus are replaced by Movie menus, which offer movie-recording options, and a limited version of Shooting Menu 1 is bumped to the right to make room for the Movie menus. The menu icon for the Movie menus changes to a movie-camera symbol to indicate the shift. In addition, Movie mode does not display the My Menu icon.

To cycle through menus, rotate the Main dial or press the left or right cross keys. After landing on a menu, press the up or down cross key to highlight the feature you want to adjust. Then press the Set button to display the available options. Use the cross keys to select a setting and press the Set button again.

When you’re ready to exit the menus and start shooting, press the shutter button halfway and release it, or press the Menu button.

Navigating Custom Functions screens

When you select Custom Functions from Setup Menu 3 — a menu available only in the P, Tv, Av, and M exposure modes — you delve into submenus containing advanced settings. Initially, you see a screen similar to the one shown on the left in Figure 1-9.

FIGURE 1-9: The Custom Functions menu screens are divided into several important areas.

Some explanation may help you make sense of these screens:

Custom Functions are grouped into four categories: Exposure, Image, Autofocus/Drive, and Operation/Others. The category number and name appear in the upper-left corner of the screen.
The number of the selected function appears in the upper-right corner. Custom Function 1 is indicated in Figure 1-9.
Settings for the current function appear in the middle of the screen. The blue text indicates the current setting. The default setting is represented by the number 0.
Numbers at the bottom of the screen show you the current setting for all Custom Functions. The top row of numbers represents the Custom Functions, with the currently selected function indicated with a tiny horizontal bar over the number. The lower row shows the number of the current setting for each Custom Function; again, 0 represents the default. So in the figure, all the Custom Functions are currently using the default settings.

To scroll from one Custom Function to the next, press the left or right cross keys. When you reach the setting you want to adjust, press the Set button to activate that option. Use the cross keys to move the highlight box over the setting you want to use and press the Set button again.

As with normal menu screens, you can exit the menus and return to shooting by pressing the Menu button or pressing the shutter button halfway and releasing it.

Displaying the Camera Settings screen

Anytime the menus are active, you can press the DISP button to bring up the Camera Settings screen, shown in Figure 1-10. (As a reminder, the text DISP appears in the top-right corner of the menu screens, as shown in Figure 1-8.)

FIGURE 1-10: Press the DISP button when the menus are active to view this screen.

This screen offers a quick summary of certain camera settings. The data displayed varies depending on the setting of the Mode dial; Figure 1-10 shows data that appears in the P, Tv, Av, and M exposure modes. If a setting can’t be adjusted in the current exposure mode, it disappears from the screen.

Moving from top to bottom, here’s your decoder ring to the screen:

Freespace: Indicates the amount of empty storage space on your camera memory card.
Color Space: Tells you whether the camera is using the sRGB or Adobe RGB color space, an option I cover in Chapter 11. (Stick with sRGB until you have time to explore that information.)
White Balance Shift/Bracketing: Indicates the amount of White Balance shift or bracketing, a color option covered in Chapter 6.
Live View Shooting: Tells you whether Live View is enabled; skip to the next section to investigate Live View.
Auto Power Off and Red-Eye Reduction flash mode: These two functions share a line on the screen. The first readout tells you the delay time selected for the Auto Power Off option, found on Setup Menu 1; the second symbol indicates whether the flash is set to Red-Eye Reduction mode, found on Shooting Menu 1.
Beep and Auto Rotate Display: The first setting determines whether the camera beeps after certain operations; you can turn the sound on and off via Shooting Menu 1.

The second symbol reflects the setting of the Auto Rotate Display option on Setup Menu 1, which determines whether pictures are rotated to their proper orientation during playback and when you view them on your computer (assuming the software you use can read the rotation data embedded in the image file). The symbol shown in the figure indicates that both rotation features are enabled. See the first part of Chapter 9 for more about this feature.
Date/Time: The last line of the display shows the date and time, which you enter via the Date/Time/Zone option on Setup Menu 2. The sun symbol at the beginning of the line indicates whether you told the camera to adjust the time automatically to account for Daylight Saving Time.

Of course, with the exception of the free-card-space value, you also can simply go to the menu that contains the option in question to check its status. The Camera Settings display just gives you a quick way to monitor some of the critical functions without hunting through menus.

To exit the Camera Settings screen, press the Menu button or press the shutter button halfway and release it.

Using the Monitor as Viewfinder: Live View Shooting

Live View enables you to use the monitor instead of the viewfinder to compose photos. You also must rely on the monitor for recording movies; the viewfinder is disabled for movie recording.

How you activate Live View depends on whether you want to shoot still photos or movies:

Live View for still photography: First, ensure that Live View shooting is enabled in the menus. Where you find the option depends on the setting of the Mode dial. In Auto, Creative Auto, and Scene modes, it’s found on Shooting Menu 2, as shown on the left in Figure 1-11. In the P, Tv, Av, and M modes, the Live View option is found on Shooting Menu 4, as shown on the right in the figure.

Why set the menu option to disable? Because it’s easy to hit the Live View button accidentally and switch to Live View when you don’t really want to go there.

After enabling the feature on the menu, press the Live View button. You hear a clicking sound as the internal mirror that normally sends the image from the lens to the viewfinder flips up. Then the scene in front of the lens appears on the monitor, and you can no longer see anything in the viewfinder. Data representing certain camera settings is displayed over the live image, as shown in Figure 1-12. You can press the DISP button to change the type of data that appears.

To exit Live View mode and return to using the viewfinder, press the Live View button again.
Live View for recording movies: Rotate the Mode dial to the Movie mode icon. Live View engages automatically, and you then press the Live View button to start and stop recording. (Chapter 8 has details on movie shooting.) To exit Movie mode, rotate the Mode dial to any other exposure mode.

FIGURE 1-11: If Live View mode doesn’t activate, make sure that the Live View Shoot menu option is enabled.

FIGURE 1-12: In Live View mode, picture data is superimposed over the live preview.

In many ways, shooting photos in Live View mode is the same as for viewfinder photography, but some important aspects, such as autofocusing, work very differently. Chapter 3 shows you how to take a picture in Scene Intelligent Auto exposure mode using Live View; Chapter 5 details Live View autofocusing options; and Chapter 8 covers movie recording.

LIVE VIEW SAFETY TIPS

Be aware of the following precautions when you use Live View and Movie modes:

Cover the viewfinder to prevent light from seeping into the camera and affecting exposure. The camera ships with a cover designed just for this purpose. In fact, it’s conveniently attached to the camera strap. To install it, first remove the rubber eyecup that surrounds the viewfinder by sliding it up and out of the groove that holds it in place. Then slide the cover down into the groove and over the viewfinder. (Orient the cover so that the Canon label faces the viewfinder.)
Using Live View or Movie mode for an extended period can harm your pictures and the camera. Using the monitor full-time causes the camera’s innards to heat up more than usual, and that extra heat can create the right conditions for noise, a defect that looks like speckles of sand. More critically, the increased temperatures can damage the camera. A thermometer symbol appears on the monitor to warn you when the camera is getting too hot. (Refer to the first screen in Figure 1-15 for a look at this symbol.) Initially, the symbol is white. If you continue shooting and the temperature continues to increase, the symbol turns red and blinks, alerting you that the camera soon will shut off automatically. But it’s not a good idea to keep shooting after the icon initially appears because image quality can degrade. Instead, turn the camera off and give it a chance to cool off.
Aiming the lens at the sun or other bright lights also can damage the camera.
Live View and Movie modes put additional strain on the camera battery. The extra juice is needed to power the monitor for extended periods of time. If you do a lot of Live View or movie shooting, you may want to invest in a second battery so that you have a spare on hand when the first one runs out of gas.
The risk of camera shake during handheld shots is increased. When you use the viewfinder, you can help steady the camera by bracing it against your face. But when you compose shots using the monitor, you have to hold the camera away from your body to view the screen, making it harder to keep the camera absolutely still. Any camera movement during the exposure can blur the shot, so using a tripod is the best course of action for Live View photography and movie recording.