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Class Overview

Lesson 1 from: Canon T7i Fast Start

John Greengo

Class Overview

Lesson 1 from: Canon T7i Fast Start

John Greengo

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Lesson Info

1. Class Overview

Next Lesson: Photo Basics

Lesson Info

Class Overview

Hello, welcome, everybody. My name is John Greengo, and this is the Canon T7i Fast Start. So in this class, we're gonna be going over all the features and functions of the Canon Rebel T7i, so if you own the camera, if you're gonna be using the camera, or maybe you're just looking to buy this camera and you wanna see what it has, we're gonna be going through, in very great detail, pretty much everything this camera does, and all that's in the menu systems, and how to take control of it, and how to set it up for a variety of different types of photography. And so, you don't need to really have any experience at this point, you're fine to be starting out. This is a great camera for starting out. The Canon Rebel line of cameras has been around, I remember the first one came out about 1990. Of course, this was back in the film days, and they said, "This camera's gonna really revolutionize photography," and it was, I think, the first camera out there that had the mode dial on it, and we look...

ed at it, it was all quite different from everything we had seen before, but they had a number of Rebel series back in the film days, and then they finally brought it in when digital came around, and this one is the seventh in the line of the current setup, but there was previous Rebels before that, so there's been a lot of Rebels, and this has kinda been the most popular entry level camera for people getting into kinda serious photography. And so this is a very important one, it's a highly refined model, so it's got a lot of good features on it, and I think it's a great, great camera for anyone to get started in photography with. If this camera was out ten years ago, probably every pro on the planet would have had one of these, just because it's that much better than everything was ten years ago. And so, an amazing little product. So let's get started with the class, and let's talk about what we're gonna be doing in here. And so we've broken this class down into a few different sections. To start off with, I wanna give you a little introduction to Canon, and generally what we're gonna be doing in this class. And then I have a short section on photo basics, for those of you who are new to controlling your camera manually, with shutter speeds and apertures and so forth. The main part of this class is the camera control section, and that's where we go through the top, the back, the sides of the camera, and we look at all the different buttons and dials, and we'll talk about what they do and how to control them, and why you'd wanna set them in one place or the other. The other big section in the class is the menu functions, and this is where we go through the menu. And this is where you might wanna have the PDF that comes with the purchase of the class, which is called the recommended settings. This is an outline of the entire menu system. I'm a very visual person, and I like to be able to just scan through an entire sheet to see what's there, and so this is everything that's in the menu system, all laid out in a nice, simplified form. And we're gonna be going through the list, just top to bottom, and talk about what each item does, and where I'd recommend setting it, or how I use it for different types of photography. And on the first page here, I put my recommendations, where I think it would be a good standard place to set that information. And then on the second page of this, I've left it blank, so that you can put in your own recommendations, or you can just, you know, have one that doesn't have all of my dumb ideas on there for you, and you can have your own ideas in here. And this, as I say, which comes with purchase of the class, will also have additional pages of information about how I would recommend setting the camera for a variety of different types of photography, so it's a good, you know, just a little briefer, and help you out in some of the basics of setting this camera up. And then at the end of the class, we'll do camera operation, which is where we are gonna look at kind of the overall workings of the camera, how would I set it up for sports photography or portrait photography, and what are the most important controls that I really need to be thinking about, because the camera has hundreds of features, literally. But you're not gonna be using hundreds of features every time you use the camera, you're gonna be using a handful of them. And you really wanna get to know those handful really, really well. So that's the plan for the day, glad you're tuning in, and let's go ahead and get started on this. Alright, the instruction manual. Oh, these things. These things can be really hard to get through. I do have to go through them, because they do make these classes, and so I do go through them page by page. This class is gonna be quite a bit shorter than the amount of time that it would take to read the instruction manual. There is still a lot of valuable information in that manual that we are not gonna have time to get into in this class. I prefer to spend our time focusing on features that are important for getting the highest quality images, and on how to control the camera manually. Because once you know how to control the camera manually, you can selectively turn on and off those automatic features, and you'll be able to see what the camera's doing, and you'll understand what it's doing, because you understand how to work it in the manual mode. And so those are the types of things that we're gonna concentrate on in this class. Now, the instruction manual, I think, well, first off, it's a horrible read, but it is a very valuable resource after you've taken this class. So once you've taken this class, you'll have a good real world understanding of how the camera works, and then you can go back to the instruction manual and you can check on certain specifications or compatibility between flashes and lenses, and you can see how things match up there. So it is a valuable resource, please do not throw it away, it can be good for a few things. Now, as we get through this class, you're gonna be wondering, if you're new to photography, well, what about light and composition and all those other aspects that are important in photography? Well, they are important in photography, but this is a class on a particular camera. We're not reviewing the camera, I'm not testing the camera, we're talking about how to work this camera and not photography itself, so those are kind of two different subjects. There are many great classes here at CreativeLive. I have a couple of classes in the collection, here. I have a short one that's about three hours, which is good for somebody who just wants to get the highlights and get out the door shooting right away, and then for those who really wanna dig in and really get to all the great details, that's the fundamentals of photography, that's a much more in-depth series. I know people will download that, and they'll watch one video a day, and it will last them about two months, getting through the whole thing. So if you'd like the long story, the in-depth story, you might wanna take a look at that one. So those are two other classes that I have that are good complements, that go along with this class that do not have a lot of overlapping information. If you are new to Canon, or this is your first SLR with Canon, Canon has been around for a long time. It got started close to 100 years ago, they started with little rangefinder cameras, and then they got into SLRs, because that appeared to be the next phase of photography. And they started with very inexpensive, basic cameras. They did not start on the high end. It took a while before they got to the high end professional series like the F-1 in 1971, and they continued to develop their manual focus lenses and so forth. But then they saw that they were limited by what they could do on their old bayonet lens mount, and so they decided to make a radical change, and change to the EOS lens mount in 1987, where they introduced auto focus. And this camera uses the EOS auto focus lens mount, so you can use lenses back to 1987, but not before that, without some sort of adapter and lots of limitations on it. And so it's been around for, what is that now? 40 years? 30 years? So it's been around quite a while, and so there's a ton of lenses out there and a ton of different accessories that are a part of this kind of family if you will. So, a great history, there. And then in 2000, they brought out their first DSLR, and this one was the D30, I remember this came out, this was pretty revolutionary, because this was the first kind of affordable digital camera. 3000 dollars, and it was three megapixels. And just for reference, this camera is under 1000 dollars, and it has 24 megapixels. And so we've come quite a ways in that time. So one of the great things about having a Canon camera is that you are part of a Canon family of cameras, and there are a lot of cameras, and there's a lot of lenses and other accessories out there, and so, if you're looking to upgrade or you need a second camera body that's smaller and lighter, or a different lens, this is just really the most versatile field that you can get into. And so that's why so many professionals and so many people shoot with Canon cameras. Now, where this camera falls in the camera lineup, is it is what I would consider kind of the mainline entry level camera. The Canon Rebel series has been their entry level series, and it's been so popular they've broken it out and they have several different versions of the Rebel now. And so the T7i is kind of what I would, as I say, is I think it's the mainline entry level piece. They do have the new SL2, there was the SL1, which just got replaced, and that is a very similar camera, slightly stripped down, but made as small as they can possibly make it, so it's a little bit small in the hands, for anybody who wants to put something in a very small pack. And then there's the T6, which is based off of this camera, but it's the stripped down version, and so they've really taken off a lot of the extra features on that one. And so this is a, as I think, one of the most popular models out there. And I don't even bother to list all the Rebel models before this, because there are so many of them, but they started off with the standard Rebel, they're now up to the T6i, and they split the line a couple of years ago. They had a T6i and a T6s, which had a bit more features. The 77D is the successor to the T6s, and so that's a slightly higher end model than this. It's got an LCD screen on the top, it's got a dial on the back of the camera. So it's got a little bit better controls on it, but I foresee that the T7i will be one of Canon's best selling cameras ever, if history is any standpoint, there. When you get into the instruction manual, you're likely to run across a bunch of pages about warnings about what not to do with the camera, and most of the stuff is pretty obvious, and just don't be stupid with it. One good question is about the weather resistance, because the camera is not waterproof, it does not have o-ring seals around all of the buttons and dials on the outside of the camera. So you do need to be careful in rain and wet environments. If it is raining, and you really wanna get a shot, I really wouldn't have too much of a problem going out and getting a shot, but not being out there for very long. Just quickly get your shots and get it back in. And so if you are gonna be in a wet environment, you might wanna look at some sort of rain cover or weather protection in some way. The other issue on this is that Canon says that it's not liable for damage if you use this with non-Canon accessories. And there's a lot of attachments on cameras. We have lenses and flash, and batteries, and memory cards on the cameras that you can use. And so, obviously the camera's gonna work great whenever you use a Canon product, because they've tested it, they know it works. The camera will work just fine with Tokina and Tamron and Sigma lenses, and many other brands of lenses as well. Now there are a few features in the camera where the camera reads and knows what lens is on the camera, and can make adjustments and can fix problems with the lenses, and we'll talk about this when we get into the menu section, and if you put a different brand of lens on it, it's not gonna be able to understand what type of lens is on it, and what sort of fix it needs to do. So there's a few features that won't work, but in my opinion, if there's a lens that really fits your needs and your budget, that is not a Canon brand, I see no problem putting that on the camera. It's gonna work in all the important areas. Shutter speeds, apertures, focusing, all of that sort of thing is gonna work totally fine. There's a few little minor things that aren't gonna work so well, and they're very, very minor. I prefer Canon flashes, just because the communication and the ease of operation is so much better than everything else, and so I really prefer those Canon ones, unless you're doing manual flash, and all you need is something just to pop the light, and you don't need to really communicate and do anything fancy with it. I prefer the Canon batteries, but if you need some backup ones for traveling and you're not gonna use them on a regular basis, there are some generic backup ones. They tend not to last as long, and they can't handle as many charges. And so, if you're just gonna have, say, one battery and a standard backup battery that you cycle through, I'd probably have two Canons for that. Alright, let's make sure that your camera and my camera here is ready for today's class. You wanna make sure that you charged the battery, that takes about two hours. You're gonna get between 600 and 800 shots, it depends on exactly how you use the camera. You'll need a lens on there, of course, for things to work right. I've got a memory card in my camera. You want to turn the camera on, I got that right. And auto focus on Canon cameras is always on the lens, and so there'll be a switch on pretty much all the lenses, that is, AF for auto focus and MF for manual focus. We'll talk more about that as we get to the class, but auto focus is fine for now. The top has the mode dial, and there's a little green A+ setting, and that is the full auto mode, and that's where the camera can take care of shutter speeds, apertures and everything else, and then I'm gonna go ahead and just point it over here at our prop table and take a photo, and make sure my camera's working, it looks like it's okay. Hopefully your camera is ready as well, because that's what we need to have, to get going in the class.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

CanonT7i Recommended Settings
CanonT7i Slides

Ratings and Reviews

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Student Work

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