Although you can adjust some settings by using external controls, you access the majority of options via camera menus. The next section provides the basics you need to know to navigate menus and select menu options. Following that, you can find out how to deal with a special category of menu screens, the Custom Functions.
Again, figures from this point forward show menus as they appear in Standard mode. See the preceding section if you need help switching from Guided to Standard menu display.
Here’s how to display menus and adjust the options on those menus:
❯❯ Opening and closing menus: Press the Menu button to display the menus; press again to exit the menu system and return to shooting. You also can just press the shutter button halfway and release it to exit to shooting mode.
❯❯ Understanding menu screens: Which menus and menu screens appear depends on the exposure mode, which you set by rotating the Mode dial on top of the camera. Things also change when you switch from still photography to Movie mode, which you accomplish by rotating the On/Off switch to the movie-camera symbol. Figure 1-11 shows a menu screen as it appears for normal photography in the advanced exposure modes (P, Tv, Av, and M).
However, the following menu elements are common to all exposure modes:
● Menu icons: Along the top of the screen, you see icons representing individual menus. In the advanced exposure modes, you get the five menus labeled in Figure 1-11: Shooting, Playback, Setup, Display Level Settings, and My Menu. The My Menu feature, which enables you to build a custom menu, isn’t available in other exposure modes.
● Menu page numbers: Some menus are multi-page (sometimes called tabs) affairs. The numbers under the menu icons represent the various pages of the current menu.
The highlighted menu icon marks the active menu; options on that menu appear automatically on the main part of the screen. In Figure 1-11, Shooting Menu 1 is active, for example.
❯❯ Selecting a menu or menu page: You have these options:
● Touch screen: Tap the menu icon to select that menu; tap a page number to display that page.
● Quick Control keys or Main dial: Press the right or left cross keys or rotate the Main dial to scroll through the menu icons. If you use this technique, you have to scroll through all pages of a menu to get to the neighboring menu.
● Q button: Press the Q button to cycle through menu icons.
❯❯ Select and adjust a menu setting: Again, you have a choice of techniques:
● Touch screen: Tap the menu item to display options for that setting. The current setting is highlighted; tap another setting to select it. On some screens, you see a Set icon; if it appears, tap that icon to lock in your selection and exit the settings screen.
● Quick Control dial, Quick Control keys, and Set button: Rotate the Quick Control dial or press the up or down Quick Control keys to highlight the menu setting and then press the Set button to display the available options for that setting. In most cases, you then use the Quick Control dial to highlight the desired option and press Set again. If you prefer, use the cross keys to highlight your preferred setting before pressing the Set button.
FIGURE 1-11: You can access all menus only when the Mode dial is set to P, Tv, Av, or M.
Instructions from this point forward assume that you don’t need to be told the specifics of how to select menus and menu options at every turn. So instead of stepping you through each button press or touch-screen tap required to adjust a setting, instructions simply say something like “Choose Image Quality from Shooting Menu 1.” If choosing a menu option involves any special steps, however, instructions offer guidance.
Custom Functions are a group of advanced settings available only in the P, Tv, Av, and M exposure modes. (Remember: You set the exposure mode via the Mode dial on top of the camera.)
To explore Custom Functions, choose that item from Setup Menu 4, as shown on the left in Figure 1-12. You then see the options screen for a specific Custom Function, as shown on the right in the figure. Here’s a guide to using the Custom Function screens, which work a little differently from other menu screens:
❯❯ Interpreting the screens: The Custom Functions screens are a little intimidating until you know what’s what:
● 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. In Figure 1-12, for example, the label indicates that you’re looking at a screen from the Autofocus/Drive category. (C.Fn III refers to Custom Functions group three.)
● The number of the selected function appears in the upper-right corner. Custom Function 9 is shown in Figure 1-12.
● Settings for the current function appear in the middle of the screen. Blue text indicates the current setting. The default setting is represented by the number 0. So in Figure 1-12, Auto is selected and is the default setting.
● 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 (9, in the figure). The lower row shows the number of the current setting for each Custom Function; again, 0 represents the default.
For Custom Function 11, you instead see a dash, which is Canon’s way of letting you know that this menu option controls more than one camera setting (thus, there isn’t one single default setting).
❯❯ Scrolling from one Custom Function to the next: Use the Quick Control dial or press the left or right Quick Control keys or tap the left or right scroll arrows at the top of the screen. You can see the arrows in the right screen in Figure 1-12.
❯❯ Changing the setting: You first must activate the menu by pressing the Set button or tapping one of the available setting options. The screen then changes to look similar to the one shown on the left in Figure 1-13, with the currently selected option highlighted. To select a different option, highlight it by tapping it or pressing the up or down cross keys.
To lock in your setting and deactivate the settings screen, tap the Set icon or press the Set button. The screen returns to its inactive state, as shown on the right in Figure 1-13, with the setting you selected appearing