Lessons
Class Introduction
07:30 2Camera Controls Overview
06:57 3Mode Dial Operations
11:57 4Creative Filters On Mode Dial
03:34 5Movie Option On Mode Dial
06:33 6Time & Aperture Value On Mode Dial
07:17 7Manual Mode Dial
02:59 8Custom Model Dial
02:36Top Of Camera Buttons
06:42 10Viewfinder Display
08:07 11Back Side Of Camera
03:40 12Playback Menu
04:47 13Playback Menu ISO & Flash Adjustments
04:51 14Quick Menu
13:09 15Left, Right & Bottom Of Camera
04:38 16Lenses & Front Of Camera
06:13 17Menu Overview & Shooting Menu
18:02 18MF Peaking Settings Menu
06:00 19ISO Speed Menu
06:54 20Picture Style & Sound Menus
11:04 21Set Up Menu
22:05 22Custom Function Menu
04:21 23My Menu & Playback Menu
10:56 24Camera Operation
07:35Lesson Info
Viewfinder Display
Working our way over onto the back side of the camera, we can see our on/off switch, at least for the M5. The M6 of course has it over on the right hand side. Large LCD monitor on both cameras is a 1.6 million dot screen. If you have the M5, it's got 2.4 million dots, so if you want a higher resolution viewfinder, then you have the M5 to look forward to for having those, that additional feature, and that's why I prefer the M5 over the M because it is a little bit better shooting experience 'cause you get to see your subject a little bit more easily. The M5 will switch back and forth between the LCD and the EVF by the sensor. It just senses if something is fairly close to the viewfinder and it will automatically switch off the LCD and turn on the electronic viewfinder for you to see that. And if you do want to have some controls on the displays, you can go into the set up menu number one under Display settings, Display Control, and you can control a number of different features. We will...
talk more about that in-depth in the second half of this class. On the bottom side, kinda hard to see in this particular angle of view, but there is a diopter, and this is very important for anyone who has the M to make sure that their viewfinder is adjusted for their eyesight. And so if you have less than perfect eyes, or you accidentally just rub this little switch, it may not look clear when you look through the viewfinder, and so look through the viewfinder and adjust this with your finger so that it's nice and clear for you looking at all the lines of information and technical information that you see on the screen in there. Now, looking in the viewfinder, and for those of you with the M6, this is basically what you would be seeing on the back of the camera in most all these cases. What you see is gonna be 100% coverage because we have LCD coverage which is nice. We see that full width of what we're getting. The format can be changed on the M5. We have a Display 1 option and a Display 2 option, and Display 2 is a little bit smaller, and the reason it's smaller is potentially for somebody who uses glasses and is not able to get their eye as close to the viewfinder to see the full area. And so, if you are wearing glasses and you can't see the full image area from side to side, you might want to try Display 2 option which is gonna be in under Shoot2 menu. Something called Viewfinder Display Format, but if you can get your eye close to it, I would of course prefer Display 1, always like a bigger image. You can control the brightness that you see, whether it's in the LCD or the viewfinder. Do you want it to enable and show the image with the exposure settings applied to it? Which is what I like. I like to be able to look at the LCD or the EVF and be able to just say, "Ey, this looks a little too bright "or a little too dark," to see if I have the right exposure. You could disable it, which is something that you might want to do if you were shooting in a studio with flashes because it's hard to see what it's gonna look like when the flash fires because it only fires for a brief amount of time, so for most people, you're gonna want to leave this on Enable. The frames per second can be changed. Of course, this is only applied to the M 'cause it's the only one that has the EVF, and there's a Power Saving mode and a Smooth mode, and the Smooth mode is shooting at, or is projecting onto the screen, faster frames per second so that it's smooth as you move the camera from side to side. If you shoot landscape, static type shots, you don't really even need it in the Smooth mode because there's nothing moving. The camera's not moving and your subjects aren't moving. If you do a lot of sports photography, you would definitely want the smooth movement. The Power Saving, because it's using little, it's using lower frames per second, it's using up less battery power, so it is a way of saving a little bit of battery power. Now, the estimates on frames per second are simply my guesses from working with lots of different cameras. I don't know exactly what frames per second they're using, but it seems pretty slow in the Power-Saving mode, and so I think most people will have a better viewfinder experience with the Smooth mode, and so if you can have a spare battery around, it's probably a worthwhile thing to have. Whether you're using the back of the camera or the viewfinder, you're gonna see a focusing frame. Usually there's gonna be a little white box which indicates where you're trying to focus. You might have a larger box depending on which focusing system you've chosen. We'll talk more about focusing in an upcoming section, and then you'll be able to move that around in different areas. The face tracking might move around on its own if you have a subject that's moving around, and so then you'll see these turn to green when the camera has appropriately figured out what to focus on and has locked in and achieved what it needs to do with the focusing, and so you'll see the white turn to green as you press down halfway on the shutter release. You're gonna see a variety of shooting information along the bottom. This is usually pretty critical exposure information, what mode are you in, what metering system, what are your shutter speeds, your aperture, your exposure value, and so anyone who's shooting in shutter priority, aperture priority, definitely manual, and even the program mode, this is gonna be important information to kinda keep your eye on as far as the most important controls that are there. Kind of a cool feature is the vertical display, very few cameras have this, I'm glad to see Canon institute this on a camera, is that when you turn the camera vertically, it'll change the format of where all the numbers are. Easy to do with an electronic viewfinder. Nice little feature, I like having this turned on. The reason that you wouldn't want it turned on is if you are lying on your back and you're shooting straight up or you're shooting straight down and you just don't want the camera switching around on you, but for most people, it's a nice feature to have. Sometimes people like to have grid patterns for composition, for aligning subjects, making sure buildings are vertical, variety of different reasons. There's a number of grids that you can turn on. Normally, I prefer to have a very clean and uncluttered view for compositional reasons, but these are nice tools to turn on where you need them. The histogram is a graph showing the brightness of your image, how many of your pixels are bright versus dark, and there's a number of different options that you have in here. We can have a color one in small and large, or we can just have a brightness histogram in a small or large style or size, and all of that can be changed by going into Shoot menu number one, Shooting information display, and the subcategory of Histogram. You can choose whatever one you prefer. Normally, as I say, I'd like to not have clutter over my image, but sometimes, that exposure information is very helpful. We have a level in the camera, and at least in the viewfinder part, this is something that you can turn on and off, and that's gonna help tell you whether you're pointing your camera up, down, or left or right. So lots of different viewfinder options. You can change what you see in the viewfinder by pressing the info button, so as you look through the viewfinder, press the info button and you'll be able to choose one of those three different options, depending on what you want to see while you're shooting the photograph. The LCD on the back of the camera can also be changed by pressing the info button. We do have an additional one which is just data, that one on the bottom down there, which is nice to have so that you can quickly go in and see how your camera is set in various different modes. And so, as I like to say, it never hurts to press the info button. Usually it's just gonna cycle through the different options of what you can look at. Generally, I leave it in the least cluttered option and then I'll flip on information as I need it from time to time.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Susan Clarke
John did an outstanding job explaining every part of this camera. As a newbie, this course is exactly what I needed to understand this camera. Thank you, John. Now, I'm going back to watch through 1 more time!
Michael Simpson
John Greengo is probably the best instructor I have come across in my short photography journey. I learned a lot about the camera, something that would have been difficult without the help of the M5 course. Thank you.
a Creativelive Student
Once again, a thorough explanation about all the functions of the Canon EM5/6 Camera operations. For anyone considering purchasing this class before getting your hands on the actual camera, it will give you a head start into the functions of the camera you chose. As a Canon FF User, I wanted to have a camera for urban shooting, yet, wanted something that could use all my Canon Lenses with an adapter. The Canon M5, I believe is a great choice and I'm looking forward to seeing how my lenses work with it.
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