Lessons
Class Introduction
09:14 2Photo Basics
04:00 3Basic Camera Controls
04:36 4Mode Dial
24:19 5Top Of Camera
21:42 6Viewfinder Display
09:18 7Live View Menu
08:16 8Movie Mode Menu
03:03Back of Camera Buttons
04:37 10Quick Menu
22:00 11Playback Menu
08:58 12Left & Right Sides Of Camera
04:39 13Bottom & Front Of Camera
06:28 14Lens Options
08:28 15Menu Functions Overview
22:13 16Picture Style Menu
05:23 17Multiple Exposure & HDR Menu
04:53 18Image Quality Menus
06:47 19Live View Shooting Menu
02:23 20Movie Shooting Menu
15:30 21Playback Menu
06:53 22Set Up Menu
15:07 23Viewfinder Display Menu
02:35 24GPS Settings Menu
04:36 25Touch Control Menu
03:38 26Custom Shooting Mode
05:33 27Custom Menu
26:28 28My Menu
04:41 29Camera Operation
09:31Lesson Info
Live View Menu
Over on the right hand side of the view finder is our movie and live view button, and this is gonna enable us to activate either the live view function or the movie function, and this really does change how the camera works in many regards, so let's take a closer look at the many different options and things going on in the live view mode. So we do have this collar around the edge of the camera, and that will determine whether we're in live view or in the movie mode. Live view mode means that we get to see what the camera sees off of the sensor for taking still photographs. Now we're gonna press the start/stop button to activate it, turn it on, you can do it on your camera right now if you want to go ahead and turn that on. Once it's turned on, you can press that info button, like we just talked about, but here in the live view mode we have a slightly different collection of options available from no information, a little bit of information, to lots of information, to one including the...
histogram and level information in there, which can be nice to have in some situations. And so, when I'm in live view, I tend to cycle through the info button depending on what I'm trying to do. Am I trying to compose a shot or am I looking for information? We've talked briefly about the quick menu button, and so this will be activated, or this will be active in the live view mode. When you press the button, it will allow you to dive in and change a number of features on the camera. Now all of these features are ones that we are gonna be talking about as we work our way through the class. Some we've already talked about, like white balance and the drive mode, and other ones we're gonna talk about later on in the menu system. But there's one that's kind of unique to being in the live view mode, and that is AF method, and that is because this camera operates in a different way in live view than it does in standard SLR photography. So let's talk about the different options and how this is different than the rest of the camera. So first option is face tracking mode, and so this is where the camera, because it has more information with the light hitting the sensor, it's able to recognize faces and it can prioritize faces over other areas. Now if you don't like the face that it has chosen, you can use the multi-controller on the back of the camera to choose the next face in the lineup you might say, or to switch from left to right. And so that's pretty good for people photography. Next up is smooth zone AF, and this is just kind of a medium size, very general area for focusing, which would be good for just general photography where you wanna focus on something that's relatively large and in the middle of the frame. If you wanna be more precise, there is live 1-point AF, and what will happen here is you'll have a smaller size box so that you can be a little bit more direct about exactly where you want your camera to focus on. And so those are the three different options for focusing. Now the camera is one of the best cameras on the market for focusing in the live view mode, but in the sense of comparing it to what you could do through the viewfinder, it's not nearly as good. And let me explain why that is. So with an SLR we have light coming in through the lens, and it's gonna hit the mirror, but one of the things about that mirror is it's kind of an unusual mirror, it's a see-through mirror, it's a partial mirror, which allows light through. And so a little bit of light is gonna come through that mirror, bounce onto a secondary sub mirror down to the auto focus system, and in normal photography, your camera is gonna use this phase detection auto focus sensor for determining the distance and quickly telling the lens to get to that position for focus. And that's why this camera is a very fast camera for focusing, but when it's time to put it into live view, the mirror goes up and that phase detection auto focus sensor is no longer being used, and it's just the light coming in on the sensor that the camera is using for determining if the subject is in focus. Now in the early days of live view auto focusing, this is kind of a slow process, because this isn't really how these sensors were designed for focusing. They were designed for recording an image. And so Canon came up with a new piece of technology to help combat this, and it's done an amazing job. Normally you've got all these pixels in on your camera that are used for recording the sensor, but they're also used for recording focusing. What Canon has done is they're using a new system called dual pixel CMOS auto focus. It splits the pixel in two, it can better judge distance at that point, and it can drive the focus of the lens more quickly to where it needs to go. The advantage of this, compared to the standard focusing system is that it does cover 80% of the frame, and so if you do need to focus way off on the edge of the frame, you can use live view, and you can get a much larger area than those standard 45 focusing points. There it is good down do -2.5 EV, and so it is quite good under low light. In comparing this camera with competitors that are on the market, it's one of the best for focusing in the live view mode because of this dual pixel technology. And this is what is working when we're using the face tracking mode, the smooth zone, or the live 1-point AF. So it is a very good system in live view, it is still not good enough in my opinion for focusing on high speed action. And so, if you are gonna be doing sports photography, you are better off with the 45 point focusing system used through the view finder, but for live view and for movie systems, this is quite good. If you want to zoom in on a subject to check focus, you can do that with the zoom in button here. This might be a good time for a little demo, and so if I want to focus, and I wanna be very, very critical about focus. Let's see, for simplicity, I'm just gonna put my camera in the program mode, and then I'm gonna go ahead and turn on the live view mode, make sure this is in live view up here, press the button, and let's go ahead and zoom in a little bit on our subject here. And let's have a little fun here by going into manual focus, so I switched the lens over to manual focus, and you know, this is just a little on the bright side. So I'm gonna exposure compensation go down to minus one and a third here, actually let's go minus one here. So now if I wanna make sure that those flowers are in focus, what I would do is I would press the magnify button up here, and I can press in five times, 10 times, you'll see the thumbnail down here in the bottom right, and I think I need to navigate a little bit over to the left, and I can go up a little bit. And so this is a good area, now I can go in here, and I can turn the focusing ring on the lens, and we're in at 10 times magnification, so I can really see if that's as sharp as I want it. And so that's nice and sharp, and just to show ya, let's come down to some of the fruits, down here in front, see if those are in focus. And say the flowers are behind the fruits here, so if I wanted these in focus, I would need to adjust the focus just a little bit so now the fruits are in nice, sharp focus. And so then I can press the magnify button again, and it comes back to normal. And so what I did is I pressed once, twice, this is for five times, and then 10 times right here. And so, I wanna see if I can dial up here, works in playback mode, but not here. And so just pressing that magnify button a couple of times to go in and out. And so for landscape photography, that is a great way of guaranteeing focus, and it also works with architecture, or anything where the camera is not moving, and your subject is not moving, and you really wanna make sure that it is sharp in focus, and so it's a very, very good system.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Warren Gedye
John, this is my second class of yours I'm taking on Creative Live. You are a very unique and articulate instructor. Your knowledge, understanding and experience in all matters photography is astounding! You have certainly fine tuned the knack in imparting your deep knowledge in such a palatable way! Your slides are magnificent, simple and concise and caters directly to your audience. I can only imagine the hours upon hours of time spent making these valuable slides. I look forward to many more of your courses!
a Creativelive Student
Always enjoy all of John's classes, but especially this one since I've decided to upgrade from my previous 6D. Awesome camera and this one is so much quieter than the older one. Thank you for explaining things in terms and ways that are easy to understand!
Tim Rogers
Thanks for a very useful course John. Not to get out and enjoy the new toy. Wish I had done the similar course for my previous camera (60D); will be recommending it to the person I am giving the camera to.
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