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 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 by lifting your shutter-button finger.
Switching to Live View Mode
Like most dSLRs sold today, your camera offers 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: Press the Live View button, labeled in Figure 1-24, 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 in force.FIGURE 1-24: 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 Live View button, 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 Auto, SCN, and Creative Filters modes, go to Shooting Menu 2, as shown on the left in Figure 1-25. In the advanced shooting modes (P, Tv, Av, and M), the option lives on Shooting Menu 4, as shown on the right.FIGURE 1-25: To use Live View, make sure this menu option is set to Enable.Why would Canon give you the option to disable Live View functionality? Because it’s easy 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 On/Off switch to the Movie mode setting (represented by the movie-camera symbol) engages Live View. You can’t use the viewfinder in Movie mode, so the setting of the Live View Shoot menu option has no impact.In Movie mode, pressing the Live View button starts and stops recording. To exit Movie mode, move the On/Off switch to On if you want to begin shooting stills. Move the switch to Off if you’re done shooting.
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 8 covers movie recording. Other chapters mention Live View variations related to specific picture-taking options.
Customizing the Live View display
By default, the Live View display offers the data shown on the left in Figure 1-26 when you’re taking photographs in the Scene Intelligent Auto exposure mode. When you record movies in that exposure mode, the default display appears as shown on the right. In any exposure mode, the black bars at the top and bottom of the display indicate the boundaries of the 16:9 movie frame.
FIGURE 1-26: Here’s a look at the default Live View display for Scene Intelligent Auto mode photography (left) and movie recording (right).
As is the case with other information displays, the type of data that appears changes when you shift from Scene Intelligent Auto mode to another exposure mode. As an example, the first screen in Figure 1-27 shows the default display when the Mode dial is set to Av (aperture-priority autoexposure). Regardless of your exposure mode, you can vary the data display by pressing the Info button. The other screens in Figure 1-27 show alternative displays available for photography in Av mode (or any advanced exposure mode). The display labeled Histogram/Level in the figure isn’t available for movie recording.
Additionally, you can add one of three grids to your screen, which can be helpful when checking alignment of objects in the frame. To enable or hide the grid, open Shooting Menu 4 and look for the Grid When Shooting option, featured in Figure 1-28. This menu option appears only when Live View is being used.
FIGURE 1-27: Press the Info button to change the type of data that appears during Live View photography.
FIGURE 1-28: Through this option, you can add one of three alignment grids to the Live View screen.
Although the various symbols and numbers on the displays shown in Figures 1-26 and 1-27 won’t make much sense until you explore the rest of the book, here are details that may give you a basic understanding of some symbols:
Check the areas labeled in Figure 1-26 to view the battery status. The symbol shown in the figure represents a full battery.
The number of shots remaining or the available movie recording time appears next to the battery symbol. Again, Figure 1-26 shows you where to look.
The number just to the right of the shots-remaining value is the burst value. I explain this value in the earlier section, “Decoding viewfinder data,” but here’s a refresher: When you’re using the camera’s continuous-shooting mode, the burst value shows how many consecutive frames you can click off before the camera needs to take a breather. Just to make things confusing, the highest value that can appear in the viewfinder is 9 because only one digit was accommodated in that display. The Live View display, on the other hand, has room for additional digits, which is why the burst value in Figure 1-26 is 98. It’s not because you can capture a larger burst in Live View mode; it’s simply a matter of screen space available for the data to be displayed. See Chapter 2 for more information about shooting continuous bursts of photos and don’t give the burst value in either display no more never-mind.
You can’t display the electronic level when the camera is set to the default AF Method setting (Face+Tracking). To display the level, you must switch to another AF Method setting. (Chapter 5 has details.) Unfortunately, you can’t make the shift when the Mode dial is set to Scene Intelligent Auto. No AF Method choices or electronic level for you! If you like having a level available at all times and don’t want to fiddle with the electronic version, you can buy tiny bubble levels that slide into the camera’s flash hot shoe. A basic model costs about $15; make sure to buy one that is sized to fit a Canon flash mount. Vello is one popular brand (www.vellogear.com).
