Lessons
Class Overview
09:24 2Photo Basics
07:09 3Top Deck: Mode Dial
27:26 4Top Deck: ISO
09:59 5Top Deck: Autofocus
09:32 6Top Deck: Flash & Focal Plane
05:42 7Back Side: Viewfinder Display
11:13 8Back Side: Live View & Movie Mode
19:52Back Side: Auto Focus and Quick Menu
18:28 10Left & Right Sides
05:43 11Bottom & Front of Camera
23:38 12Shooting Menu: Page 1
14:38 13Shooting Menu: Page 2
08:02 14Shooting Menu: Page 3
12:28 15Shooting Menu: Page 4
08:14 16Shooting Menu: Page 5
02:18 17Shooting Menu: Page 6 & Secret Menu
09:42 18Playback Menu
06:01 19Setup Menu
22:28 20Custom Functions Menu
28:13 21My Menu
04:23 22Camera Operation
10:40Lesson Info
Top Deck: ISO
Next up, we're gonna be talkin' about the key controls on the top right of the camera. So, we have four buttons over here that are gonna be controlling four very important features of the camera. Now, the basic button pressing scenario of the Canon camera might be different than a previous camera that you came to. And so, the idea on these buttons is that you will press them to activate them. Their feature will then be activated for about six seconds, at which time you need to go in and turn the dial. If you press the button and wait for two minutes, it's gonna turn off, and nothing's gonna happen. And so, you wanna press the button, and then turn the dial, you do not need to keep the button pressed the entire time. So, first up is our Auto Focus Mode. One of the key important settings on the camera, as are, actually, all four of these. This one controls how the camera focuses. Normally, as you get the get the camera from the factory, it is set at one shot, which means it focuses, look...
s for a subject, and then locks in and stays with that subject. It, basically, turns the focusing system off, and locks it right there. And, this is where, probably, most people are gonna wanna keep their camera, most of the time. It's good for general photography, good for portrait, and landscape, a lot of different types of photography. The key different setting is AI Servo, Auto Intelligence Servo. And, this is where the camera is adjusting focus as the subject is moving. So, for any sorts of action photography, this is one of the key settings. It's usually the first setting change that I make in my camera before I go photograph a sporting event, for instance. Now there is a in between setting between the two of these. That is AI Focus, Artificial Intelligent Focus, where the camera is trying to determine whether to focus in a One-Shot mode or an AI Servo mode, and what I have found is that the camera is not real keen on picking up exactly what's going on. And it seems to be much easier for you, or, I to simply figure out, "Am I shooting sports or not?" And if you are shooting sports, you're gonna wanna go into the AI Servo. If it's not rapid moving subjects, or, even moving subjects, then you're gonna probably wanna go down to one shot. When the camera is in the A + mode, seeing intelligent mode, it is in the AI Servo, and there is no way to change it. But, in all of the other manual program modes, time values, shutter priority, aperture priority modes, you can select between One-Shot AI Servo, or, AI Focus, if you want. So, I highly recommend One-Shot, and then switching it into AI Servo when you get to those sections where you are shooting action photography. Alright, next up is the Drive Mode. This controls what happens when you press down on the shutter release. Single shooting is the normal mode, so, that you get one shot. We have High-Speed shooting, which will get us up to seven frames a second low speed, which I think is pre-programed at three frames per second. We also have a silent mode, which is not silent, but, a little bit less noisy. And, for those of you that don't have the camera, let me just make that change. And so, let me just get my microphone a little bit close. I'll fire, and we'll do this in continuous mode, just to get good feel for the sound. So, here's the normal continuous... (shutter clicks repeatedly) And, then I'm gonna go head and switch it over to the silent continuous... (shutter clicks repeatedly) And so, what it's doing is, it's slowing down the mirror flapping up and down, and it does slow the rate at which we shoot photos, and it does quiet the shutter sound a few decibels, not a lot, but if you are in a theater, or, wildlife situation where a quieter shutter would help you out, then by all means use it there. Some people leave it there for street photography, just so their cameras make a little bit less noise when they don't need to. And, there's nothing wrong with using it, it's perfectly fine, it's just not good if you need to shoot rapid action. And then, down towards the bottom, we have a Self-Timer option, where we have 10 seconds to run around and get in the photo ourselves. Two seconds, which works really well for anyone who's using a tripod, that doesn't have one of the cable releases. But, if you want, you can get a wireless remote. This is the RC 6, sells for about $20, and, is a great way for firing from not to far off. As long as you have line of sight connection with the camera, you can trigger the camera to fire with this little remote. Next up is the ISO button, this is controlling the sensitivity of the sensor, and the camera will go between 100 and 16,000, and also has an additional High setting that goes up to 25,800. And so, I of course wanted to see how good this is, so, let's throw it through a little ISO test. We'll be looking at a small cut out, here. We need to enlarge this, so we can clearly see the difference. The camera is exceptionally clean, One, two, 400, 800, those are all fantastic. You'll start to notice a little bit of noise at 1600, not that much though. 3200 looks pretty good, it's starting to get pretty heavy by the time we get 64 and 12,800, and you're probly gonna wanna avoid the 16,000 and up. Now, everyone's got their own opinions as to what looks good, what doesn't look good. So, you might wanna try a few of these high ISOs out to figure out where your personal limit is. On this camera, I really wouldn't hesitate to shoot it up to 800, for really anything. But, probly the upper limit might be around 3, to 6,400 if image quality is pretty important to you. Of course, you always wanna keep ISO as low as possible. Those higher ones are there for emergency needs. The reasons that you're changing your ISO in most cases, is because you need a faster shutter speed. And, in almost every case that I can think of, I would rather have a noisy picture, like some of these on the high ISO here, compared to a blurry picture. And so, it's the lesser of two evils, in that case. Do your own test, and come up to your own standards. Now, if you did wanna get into that High setting of 25,800, as well as some of the other controls for the ISO, you can dive into menu setting shooting number 2 into the ISO speed setting, so you can control a number of things in there. We'll be talking more about that menu setting of this class. But, the camera does have an automatic setting for ISO, as well. If you wanna let the camera control where the ISO is, it will simply go up and down, and it's gonna be based on looking at your shutter speed. It's gonna try to keep a reasonable, hand-holdable shutter speed, for you to use, and it will adjust the ISO around that. It has no idea whether you're shooting action, or not. It has no idea whether you are shooting from a tripod, or not. And so, it may not be the best mode to use in many circumstances. But, one of the things we'll look at when we get into the menu setting, is the ability to do a little bit of fine tuning of how that Auto ISO works. And, you'll notice that the ISO button has a little nubbin on it. So, it's a slightly different button that you-- That's probly the button you're most likely to you use, most frequently. And so, there's that little nubbin to get that feeling for the difference. And then, finally, we have the metering modes on the camera, and this is determining how the camera reads light coming in through the camera. In the days before digital, which was quite a while ago now, there was a lot of photographers who used the spot meter area of the camera, in order to get the correct exposure reading. So, if they were trying to do a portrait, they might be reading a spot metering off of the forehead or, the cheek of the person they were taking the photograph of. Or, a wildlife photographer, bird photographer, doing a reading of just the bird, and not the bright background behind the bird. Now, most photographers these days that I talk to, as well as myself, simply use Evaluative Metering. Which is 63 different zones, the camera compares the highlights and the lowlights. It's using 7,560 pixels to base this information on. It's a very intelligent algorithm that they have running this exposure program. And, it does a very good job at getting you either, the correct exposure, or close enough that you can make it correct in post production. And so, most of the time, as I say, you are gonna leave it in Evaluative, but, there are other Metering Systems depending on what your needs are. Alright, next little button over there is your light and that's a little top LCD, which lights up the LCD in the top of the camera, so that you can see clearly what's going on under low lighting conditions. And, the LCD on this camera is the best of any camera I've ever seen. Because, the button controls and the features that are listed there, are right next to each other, they're right in line with what they're doing. And, I don't know of any other camera that quite is as logical in the layout as this. I'm not gonna discuss everything that you might see up in this LCD, most of it's pretty obvious stuff. I will mention that the number in the brackets is indicating the shots remaining on the card. And, this does have a limit of 999 shots. And so, if you stick in a very large memory card, and you're shooting in small file size, it could very well say 9-9-9 for quite a bit of time. And so, it's only gonna count down the last thousand shots. And, there will be another area I can show you where you'll be able to get a clear understanding of the total number of shots that you have.
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Ratings and Reviews
Ashley McCarrick
I bought an 80D so I could have a good all-around DSLR and I was thrilled to see that John just did this class. This is my 3rd class of John's and it was just as great as the others. I now understand what each of the menu settings means and which ones are the best for me. John is an excellent instructor, no matter what your photography skill level is. Thanks, John!
Justin Brodt
Awesome class!!! First watched "How to choose your first DSLR camera" and decide on the Canon EOS 80D based on my needs and what I want to accomplish in the future. I have ordered the camera but have not recieved it yet but I still watched the class. Even though I didn't have the camera in hand I feel that I have a good understanding and feel for it already. The class is very informative and I would advise it to anyone who plans to or has purchased this camera. Great job John!!! Thanks for sharing your knowledge with all of us.
Scott Ace Nielsen
I just purchased my Canon 80D and also this course, and I am so glad I did. It is truly a perfect virtual owners manual that I can watch any time. John Greengo is am awesome presenter and this is the second course of his that I have purchased so far. ..Well worth the cost, thank you!
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