The Canon EOS Rebel T3i’s Business End

The back panel of the Rebel T3i (see Figure 3.7) bristles with more than a dozen different controls, buttons, and knobs. That might seem like a lot of controls to learn, but you’ll find, as I noted earlier, that it’s a lot easier to press a dedicated button and spin a dial than to jump to a menu every time you want to change a setting.

Figure 3.7.

[View full size image]

You can see the controls clustered on the left side of the T3i in Figure 3.7. The key buttons and components and their functions are as follows:

• Viewfinder eyepiece. You can frame your composition by peering into the viewfinder. It’s surrounded by a soft rubber frame that seals out extraneous light when pressing your eye tightly up to the viewfinder, and it also protects your eyeglass lenses (if worn) from scratching.

• Diopter adjustment wheel. Use of this knob to adjust the viewfinder sharpness was explained in Chapter 1.

• MENU button. Summons/exits the menu displayed on the rear LCD of the T3i. When you’re working with submenus, this button also serves to exit a submenu and return to the main menu.

• INFO. button. When pressed repeatedly, changes the amount of picture information displayed. In playback mode, pressing the INFO. button cycles among basic display of the image; a detailed display with a thumbnail of the image, shooting parameters, and a brightness histogram; and a display with less detail but with separate histograms for brightness, red, green, and blue channels. (I’ll show you what these look like later in the chapter.) When setting Picture Styles, the INFO. button is used to select a highlighted Picture Style for modification. In Live View mode, the INFO. button adjusts the amount of information overlaid on the live image that appears on the LCD screen. When the camera is connected to a printer, you can trim an image; in direct printing mode, the INFO. button selects the orientation. If you press the INFO. button after you press the MENU button, you are shown a media Freespace, My Menu settings, and date and time display. All these options are explained in Chapter 8.

• LCD. This is the three-inch display that shows your Live View preview image review after the picture is taken, shooting settings display before the photo is snapped, and all the menus used by the Rebel T3i. A significant feature is the swiveling LCD, which can be folded with the display screen facing inwards to protect it or reversed into the normal position, flipped out, swiveled, or even turned around to allow you to view yourself while shooting self portraits.

INFO./DISP. On the T3i’s predecessor, the button now labeled as INFO. was marked DISP., and it had the same functions just outlined, plus one additional use: if you kept pressing the DISP. button the cycle would eventually go to a “display off” mode. Many folks accidentally turned their display off and then wondered why they didn’t have an information screen. For the T3i, Canon removed that function from this button, renamed it INFO., and placed an additional button on top of the camera (just north of the Main Dial, labeled DISP). This new button has one function only: turning the display on and off.

The most-used controls reside on the right side of the Rebel T3i (see Figure 3.8). There are 11 buttons in all, many of which do double-duty to perform several functions. I’ve divided them into two groups; here’s the first:

Figure 3.8.

• Live View/Movie button. Press this button, marked with a red dot above it, to activate/deactivate Live View. To shoot movies, turn the Mode Dial to the Movie position, and then press this button to start/stop video/audio recording.

• Cross keys. This array of four-directional keys provides left/right/up/down movement to navigate menus, and is used to cycle among various options (usually with the left/right buttons) and to choose amounts (with the up/down buttons). The four cross keys also have secondary functions to adjust white balance, autofocus mode, Picture Styles, and drive mode (I’ll describe these separately).

• SET button. Located in the center of the cross key cluster, this button is used to confirm a selection or activate a feature.

• Quick Control/Direct print button. This button activates the Quick Control screen (described later in this chapter), which allows you to set image recording quality and switch between single shot and self-timer/remote settings when using Basic Zone exposure modes, and to set a full range of controls when using Creative Zone exposure modes. The button can also be used when the T3i is connected to a printer or personal computer to initiate transfer.

• Aperture value (AV)/Exposure compensation button. When using manual exposure mode, hold down this button and rotate the Main Dial to specify a lens aperture; rotate the Main Dial alone to choose the shutter speed. In other Creative Zone exposure modes—Aperture-priority (Av), Shutter-priority (Tv), or Program (P)—hold down this button and rotate the Main Dial to the right to add exposure compensation (EV) to an image (making it brighter), or rotate to the left to subtract EV and make the image darker.

• Playback button. Displays the last picture taken. Thereafter, you can move back and forth among the available images by pressing the left/right cross keys to advance or reverse one image at a time, or the Main Dial, to jump forward or back using the jump method you’ve selected. (See the section below for more on jumping.) To quit playback, press this button again. The T3i also exits playback mode automatically when you press the shutter button (so you’ll never be prevented from taking a picture on the spur of the moment because you happened to be viewing an image).

• Erase button. Press to erase the image shown on the LCD during Playback mode. A menu will pop up displaying Cancel and Erase choices. Use the left/right cross keys to select one of these actions, then press the SET button to activate your choice.

The next group of buttons allows you to change settings:

• AE/FE (Autoexposure/Flash exposure) lock/Thumbnail Index/Zoom Out button. This button, which has a * label above it, has several functions, which differ depending on the AF point and metering mode. You can find more about these variations, available in Creative Zone modes only, in Chapter 4.

  In shooting mode, it locks the exposure or flash exposure that the camera sets when you partially depress the shutter button. In Evaluative exposure mode, exposure is locked at the AF point that achieved focus. In Partial, Spot, or Center-weighted modes, exposure is locked at the AF center point. The exposure lock indication (*) appears in the viewfinder and on the shooting settings display. If you want to recalculate exposure with the shutter button still partially depressed, press the * button again. The exposure will be unlocked when you release the shutter button or take the picture. To retain the exposure lock for subsequent photos, keep the * button pressed while shooting.

  When using flash, pressing the * button fires an extra pre-flash that allows the unit to calculate and lock exposure prior to taking the picture. The characters FEL will appear momentarily in the viewfinder, and the exposure lock indication and a flash indicator appear. (See the description of the viewfinder display later in this chapter.)

  In playback mode, press this button to switch from single-image display to nine-image thumbnail index. (See Figure 3.9.) Move highlighting among the thumbnails with the cross keys or Main Dial. To view a highlighted image, press the Zoom In button.

  Figure 3.9. The Thumbnail Index/ Zoom Out button changes the playback display from single image to four or nine thumbnails.

  

  In playback mode, when an image is zoomed in, press this button to zoom out.

• AF point selection/Zoom In button. In shooting mode, this button activates autofocus point selection. (See Chapter 4 for information on setting autofocus/exposure point selection when using Creative Zone exposure modes.) In playback mode, if you’re viewing a single image, this button zooms in on the image that’s displayed. If thumbnail indexes are shown, pressing this button switches from nine thumbnails to four thumbnails, or from four thumbnails to a full-screen view of a highlighted image.

• White balance. The up cross key also serves to access the white balance function. Press this WB button when using one of the Creative Zone modes (A-DEP, M, Av, Tv, or P) to produce the White Balance screen. Then, use the left/right cross keys to select a white balance, and press SET to confirm.

• AF mode. Press the right cross key when using a Creative Zone mode to produce a screen that allows choosing autofocus mode from among One-Shot, AI Focus, and AI Servo. Press repeatedly until the focus mode you want is selected. Then press SET to confirm your focus mode.

• Drive mode. Press the left cross key to produce a screen that allows choosing a drive mode, in both Creative Zone and Basic Zone modes. Then press the right cross key to select the 10-second self-timer (which also can be used with the optional IR remote controls), 2-second self-timer, or Self-timer: Continuous, which allows you to specify a number of shots to be taken (from 2 to 10) with the up/down keys. Press SET to confirm your choice.

• Picture Styles selection button. When in shooting mode using a Creative Zone exposure setting, press the down cross key to pop up the Picture Styles menu on the LCD, so you can select a given style, or gain access to user-defined styles. To modify a Picture Style, you’ll need to use Shooting 2 menu, as described in Chapter 8. When you’re reviewing an image, the down cross key also cycles through the various Jump options.

• SET button. Selects a highlighted setting or menu option.

• Memory card access lamp. When lit or blinking, this lamp indicates that the memory card is being accessed.

Jumping Around

When a photo you’ve taken is displayed on the color LCD, you can change the method used to jump with the Main Dial. To select a Jump method, when viewing a single full-screen image during playback, press the up cross key. An overlay appears that allows you to choose the method. (See Figure 3.10.) Keep pressing the up or down cross keys until the method you want to use is shown, then press SET to confirm your choice.

Figure 3.10. Choose a Jump method by pressing the up cross key while viewing an image.

You can also choose a Jump method using the Playback 2 menu (using the procedure described with all the other menus in Chapter 8). The advantage of using the menu is that you can set both the number of images to jump and the type of jump. The Jump feature allows you to leap forward and backward among the images on your memory card using the increment/method you have chosen by rotating the Main Dial. The Jump method is shown briefly on the screen as you leap ahead to the next image displayed. Your options are as follows:

• 1 image. Rotating the Main Dial one click jumps forward or back one image.

• 10 images. Rotating the Main Dial one click jumps forward or back ten images.

• 100 images. Rotating the Main Dial one click jumps forward or back one hundred images.

• Date. Rotating the Main Dial one click jumps forward or back to the first image taken on the next or previous calendar date.

• Folder. Rotating the Main Dial one click jumps to the next folder on your memory card.

• Display Movies only. Tells the T3i to jump only among movie images when using a card that contains both video clips and still images. This option is useful when you prefer to view only one kind of file.

• Display Stills only. Specifies jumping only between still images when using a card that has both video clips and still images.

• Display by image rating. As explained in Chapter 8, you can rate a particular movie or still photo by applying from one to five stars, using the Rating menu entry in the Playback 2 menu. This Jump choice allows you to select a rating rank, and then jump among photos with that rating applied.